Pico do Jaraguá

This guide to Pico do Jaraguá follows the only footpath to its summit, the roughly three-kilometer Pai Zé trail, and the Portuguese prospector Afonso Sardinha who worked these slopes searching for gold starting in 1580, setting off two centuries of mining. It also traces the broadcast towers erected on top from 1962 onward and the Guarani villages that still hold onto land and language on the mountain's lower slopes. Save your breath for the last scramble before the trail opens onto bare rock and sky.