In June 2021, the married couple Dennis Edward Hyde and Leticia Pereira Alves (@entreparquesbr) leave their home in São Paulo to embark on a trip and, over the course of three years, undertake a massive travel project: visiting 74 existing national parks in Brazil.
The journey takes place in an SUV attached to a trailer, which offers sleeping space, a bathroom, a kitchen and a home environment for the passengers.
They began the route in the southeast and soon after entered the midwest, heading south. Today, they pass through the southeast again, and must enter from the northeast and end in the north.
For example, Serra do Gandarela (MG), Serra do Cipó (MG), Semper-Vivas (MG), Chapada dos Veadeiros (GO), Emas National Park (GO), Serra da Bodoquena (MS), Campos National Park National Park Gerais (PR), Ilha Grande National Park (between MS and PR), and Itatiaia National Park (RJ).
We go through a lot of dirt roads, which could cause an earthquake in our motorhome,” Dennis explains.
“To avoid this, we parked the trailer in a safe place when we got to a national park area, and just drove our truck from there.”
Even with a comfortable sleeping space inside the trailer, the couple doesn’t give up on camping whenever possible.
In Evergreen National Park, for example, they camp with mountains and beautiful sunsets on the horizon.
Beautiful Sites and Campfires
Less popular than popular destinations like Chapada dos Veadeiros and Serra do Cipó, Parque Nacional das Emas has, until now, been one of the places where Dennis and Letizia have fun.
“The park is in Goiás, on the border with Mato Grosso do Sul,” says Denis, explaining that it is a place where you don’t have to move much to get in touch with natural beauty.
You stand still and watch a very rich animal move around you. When we were there, termite mounds began to glow [in a phenomenon generated by firefly larvae], insects burst out of the ground after the rain, and birds made a ruckus.
It is located in an area with less interference than city lights, allowing for stargazing at night. It is an easy park to visit, since it has very good internal roads.”
Leticia, for her part, was fascinated with the Evergreen National Park.
“It’s a very diverse garden,” she says. “Up there there are cerrado plants, high altitude areas with incredible rock formations and very beautiful waterfalls. In the park we had the opportunity to camp on the banks of a river of white sand, without anyone. They were in heaven.”
But it wasn’t all just pretty pictures.
In the national parks located in the Cerrado, the two encounter areas devastated by fires caused by humans, something that has been a constant in the area. “We have seen the work of the brigade members putting out the fires in the parks. They are true heroes,” says Dennis.
However, the future of the trip brings only good prospects for the couple: Denis and Leticia will continue to visit true jewels of Brazilian ecotourism such as the Lençóis Maranhenses, Abrolhos and Chapada Diamantina National Parks.
On this journey, we bring our home and always have a new backyard to enjoy,” says Dennis.
