Hiking in Rio Preto in the Chapada Diamantina National Park is a great day tour option, and you can visit Rodas waterfall on the way. Both are very accessible waterfalls near Vale do Capão. They are very popular between the locals and tourists that are looking for a place to explore. You can combine a visit to both places on the same day.
The trails are easy with beautiful vegetation on the way, giving us a good feeling to hike slowly and appreciate nature. The only challenging part is in the last 10 mins of the trail before reaching Rio Preto. It is a downhill that requires attention on its narrow path.
From Vale do Capão is a 40 mins hike to Rodas and 25 mins from Rodas to Rio Preto.
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Quick facts about this adventure
- Length: 9.24km
- Difficulty: Easy
- Elevation gain: 242m
Following is the route of this adventure, in case you want to have a better view of the trail. Click here to download the GPX file.
Do I need a tour guide for this hike?
Even though many agencies and guides are offering this tour, we decided to do it by ourselves. The reason was the fact we found the instructions simple to follow. Our host drew a map for us so we decided to do this hike with more adventure.
If you don’t have experience hiking or you found the explanation of how to get there too complicated, don’t do it. It’s easy to get lost, the trail is not marked and there are a couple of bifurcations.
If you do hire a guide, be aware there is a standard price for guides in Capão: it costs 200R$ per day/tour. Having more people in your group will make it cheaper when splitting his fee between the group.
Can I buy food on the way?
Depends of when you visit Vale do Capão. We went there in June and we saw several stands of people selling snacks, water or juices. However all of them were empty!! In our experience hiking throughout the world, bringing our own food is a lesson we learned the hard way.
It’s better to play safe and bring your own food. There are a lot of people that go on picnics in Rio Preto. The water from both places is safe to drink but beware the fact that the water in the Chapada Diamantina is rich in iron and full of minerals. It can give stomach pain to some people. Emina had stomach issues after drinking the water from Chapada, which I didn’t have.
How to get to Rodas
After walking from the main street in Capão, go from the entrance of the Vale towards the end of the street. Go to the right and walk straight for 20 mins. After that, you will see a dirt road street on your left. Walk until you see the end of the street on a football court. Go back and turn to the first street on your right.
Continue until the end of the street, and you will see a parking lot. That’s the beginning of the trail per se. From there, you will always hike on the right side. Multiple times you will see some intersections with tracks on your left. Always stay on the right side and continue straight.
After 20 mins from the parking lot, you will hear the noise of water on your right side. This noise is from the Rodas River. A few minutes after that, you will see a trail on your right that leads to the Rio Preto river.
How to get to Rio Preto
When you leave Rodas towards the main trail again, you will see another path on your right side and another one going a bit left. This trail goes a bit inside the forest, and it’s more open due to the amount of people hiking there. Take this trail on the left and follow it for 30-40 mins straight.
Ultimately, you will see the first official sign of the hiking tour in Rio Preto, Chapada Diamantina National Park :). From there, turn to your right, and you will be on Rio Preto in 5-10 mins hiking downhill.
If you are a visual type person or only prefers to follow a GPS, here are the coordinates. Be aware that mobile networks don’t work in Vale do Capão. You need to have a good offline map or a GPS tracker.
Recommendations
During my explorations in Vale do Capao, I stayed in the Chale Savi. It was a complete accommodation with everything I needed to prepare for my hikes. They were very kind and helpful when I was looking for instructions or to get something fixed in the accommodation. Click here to book a room in Chale Savi.
Conclusion
Rio Preto and Rodas are great options for those who are looking for an easy hike, another place to explore in Capão or just want to be in nature close to the valley. We didn’t use a car to reach the parking lot where the trail begins. It was a pleasant 20 mins hike from our pousada until there.
If you want to know about more things to do in the Vale do Capao village. Check our post.
I hope that you will enjoy both places as we did during our visit. Thanks for reading this article about hiking in Rio Preto, Chapada Diamantina. Hope to see you on the next adventure.
