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Where we are: access and natural environment
Where and how to get there: We are in the ancient archelogical sites of Serranopolis, close to Jatai in southwest Goias. From Brasilia , Goiania and Rio Verde or Cuiaba the acess is thru BR-060 to Jatai and then thru GO-184 to Serranopolis*( 50 km south) and another 18 km up to the beginning of the dirt road to Itaruma. From here one follows the Pousada do Guardiao road signs for another 8km. Brasilia is 600 km distant and the trip last 7 to 8h. The natural environment: The Guardiao retreat (alt. 645m) lies between the Rivers Verde and Corrente in a plateau scarpment formed by 135 m.y. old basaltic flows deposited on sandstones of a Triassic desert at a time when dinossaurs were abundant. In Serranopolis, the oldest fossil of a human skeleton, now in the Jatai museum , was found. Fossils of mammouth and giant sloth and armadillos that inhabited the region along with humans 12,000 years ago were also recorded in the region by Binonimo da Costa Lima and archeologist Altair Barbosa and Pedro Schimtz. Ceramic and lithic archeological sites with Rupestrian paintings and engravings from that period onwards were also recorded by them. These can be visited on local sandstone scarpments.
In the nineteenth century, forests were still abundant in the region on the fertile basaltic plateaus before the advent of coffe plantations. Recently soyabeans and sugar cane monoculture have devastated the land save in a few sandy valleys were the local flora survives giving refuge to an extremely rich fauna. In the Pedraria valley lies a natural aquarium of great beauty, the archeological sites of the Guardiao (Pedra da Mesa) and Pousada das Araras, both wildlife sanctuaries and monuments to ancestral culture. They are the most preserved place in the region and where the large felines give birth, after a long journey from the Pantanal through the ecological corridor of the River Corrente and the Emas National Park.
Among thousands plant species of the local flora it is worth mentioning the copaiba, pequi, aroeira, jatoba, angico, sucupira, ipe, caraiba trees and several dozen edible fruit shrubs and trees with their exotic and delicious aromas and tastes such as araticum, coroada, cajui, gariroba, marmelada, mangaba, inga, bacupari and unforgettable tea herbs like congonha-do-bugre. Among the animals and footprints that can be easily observed during daylight and at dusk along the trails, creeks or feeding places are puma, tapir, maned wolf, grey fox, tamandua bandeira (big ant-eater), meleta (jacket ant-eater), jaguatirica, irara, macaco-prego and guariba monkey, deers, quati and wild pigs and during the night, paca, cotia, porcupine, opossuns and several species of armadillo including the giant tatu-canastraare the most active. Jaguars are rarely seen but not their footprints. Among the large birds we can mention macaws blue-yellow and red-blue, parrots, pereekeets, tucans, falcons, owls, roadrunner (siriema), ema, and the king vulture related to the Andes condor. The place is also a paradise for bird watchers as it is loaded with over two hundred species of singing birds of varying colors.
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