The diamond highlands of Bahia — sandstone tabletop mountains, the Fumaca waterfall that falls 340m into nowhere, the Gruta Azul crystal cave, and the Vale do Capao hippie valley that never left 1970
Chapada Diamantina is a highland plateau in the center of the state of Bahia, northeastern Brazil — the Chapada Diamantina National Park (152,000 sq km) protects the most spectacular section of the Espinhaco mountain range, a 1,100-1,700m altitude plateau of Precambrian quartzite and sandstone (the same geological structure as the Venezuelan tepuis, formed in the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent) covered by cerrado savanna, campos rupestres (the high-altitude rocky grassland unique to the Espinhaco), and the gallery forests of the river valleys that descend from the plateau in spectacul…
Chapada Diamantina's European settlement was driven entirely by the diamond rush of the 1840s — diamond-bearing gravels in the river beds of the Mucugezinho and Paraguaçu rivers attracted garimpeiros (prospectors) from all over Brazil, and the mining towns of Lencois, Mucuge, Andarai, and Igatu grew rapidly into prosperous colonial settlements (the name Lencois — 'bedsheets' — reportedly comes from the white canvas tents of the first prospectors that covered the hillsides). The diamonds of the Chapada were the primary source of Brazil's diamond wealth in the 19th century (before the discovery…