Highlights

• Valley Pub in Cuiabá is a fun nightclub with local live music
• Chapada dos Guimarães National Park with its beautiful valleys and waterfalls
• Town of Chapada dos Guimarães
• Lookout Morro dos Ventos
• Canions Do Jamacá/Rota do Índio
• Waterfall Marimbondo
• High Heaven Lookout Mirante Alto do Céu
• Starting point to travel to Pantanal

Before you go

• Cuiabá isn’t a big tourist destination but it is a good starting point for Pantanal
• Beautiful nature can be seen just outside of the city including mountains and waterfalls
• The locals are very friendly
• Although some people speak English, it would be useful to have an app like GoogleTranslate for Portuguese
• It may be better now, but my vegetarian omelette at a cafe had ham in it!

Transport

• The main airport for Cuiabá is Cuiabá International Airport – Marechal Rondon. It’s quite small so easy to find your way around
• To arrive there from Paris, I travelled first to Rio, then Brasilia and finally Cuiabá
• It is easy to walk around the city of Cuiabá, however you need a car to see the surrounding nature. I used a local guide to drive me to the scenic Chapada dos Guimarães National Park

Accommodation

• In Cuiabá, I stayed in the Hotel Ramos. It is a small hotel with no website as far as I can find. My guide booked it for me
• The rooms were simple but clean and comfortable. The decor looked from the 1970s and was kind of a cool jungle theme
• The owners of the hotel were very friendly but did not speak any English. Also I felt bad because I came back late one night and had to ring the bell and wake one of them up to let me in

Food

My favourite place in Cuiabá was the Valley Pub, which I am happy to see still exists as of 2023. It is a night club with nice cocktails and live music. At the club, I had my first experience listening to Brazilian country music!

I had a tasty, giant açai bowl with bananas, sweetened condensed milk and granola at a local cafe, since my hotel did not serve breakfast. Açai is refreshing and also surprisingly filling.

The other restaurant I ate at, Getúlio, is unfortunately closed. That’s too bad because the steak and sides I had there were excellent.

Near the river, I can recommend the Jacá Pier Bar for a casual lunch or dinner. There are many options including fresh pacu fish.

In the town of Chapada dos Guimarães, we had tasty snacks from Padaria Pão da Praça. The bread rolls and pastries had filling such as cheese, ham and sausages. They also had a big selection of cakes. And for another snack, I had a big frozen açai bowl from Ki Gostoso Açai E Sorveteria.