The Serra da Canastra is a high plateau in southwestern Minas Gerais whose shape gave it its name — a canastra is a chest. It is a national park, and the source of the Rio São Francisco, the great river of the Brazilian northeast, which rises here as a small spring on the grassland before tumbling off the plateau.
It falls first at the Casca d'Anta, a waterfall of about a hundred and eighty metres, seen from below on a trail from the village of São José do Barreiro, or from the top after a drive across the plateau. The open grassland up top is one of the best places in Brazil to see the maned wolf, a long-legged, fox-like animal, and the giant anteater.
The region is equally famous for its cheese. Queijo Canastra, a raw-milk cheese made on small farms around São Roque de Minas and Medeiros, has protected status, and visiting the producers is as much a reason to come as the park. São Roque de Minas is the main base.