Climbing at Andradas – South of Minas Gerais

No more than three hours and a half away from Sao Paulo and one hour and forty five minutes from Campinas, there’s a wonderful place to do traditional climbing and even some sport climbing.
I’m talking about “Andradas”, or to be precise, “bairro do Pantano”. A real small village where no more than 200 people living there.
With almost 100 routes, surrounded with Brazilian wildlife, you can found some monkeys, tucanos (a kind of bird), a lot of birds, some cows and if you’re lucky even a Brazilian wolf (lobo guará).

You are going to make a lot of new friends at the local mountain hut (visit www.abrigopantano.com for pictures, how to get there and more info).
There are three climb areas: “Pedra do Elefante” (Elephant’s Stone), “Pedra do Boi” (Bull’s Stone) and “Pedra do Pantano” (Mud Stone).

I have been climbing this place for 10 years and I can tell you: I always want to come back.
Andradas isn’t a place only to climb: you can walk, enjoy small waterfalls, ride with your bike and of course, drink some “cachaça” at a local bar. But if you do it, don’t drive or ride…LOL

Text: Davi Marski