Serra do Caparaó is a Brazilian mountain range located between the states of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais.

Toponym

"Caparaó" is a

tupi Tupi may refer to: * Tupi people of Brazil * Tupi or Tupian languages, spoken in South America ** Tupi language, an extinct Tupian language spoken by the Tupi people * Tupi oil field off the coast of Brazil * Tupi Paulista, a Brazilian municipalit ...

word, the etymology of which is unclear: it may come from ''capara-oca'' (house made with capara, a twisted shrub) or from ''caá-apara-ó'' (trench made of twisted shrubs).Benedito, Mouzar: ''Paca, Tatu, Cutia!: Glossário ilustrado de Tupi''

Geography

Pico da Bandeira (2892 m) is the highest point in the region. Other peaks also worth mentioning are: Pico do Calçado ("Shoe Peak", 2849 m), Pico do Cristal ("Crystal Peak", 2770 m) and Morro da Cruz do Negro ("Blackman's Cross Mountain", 2658 m). The region is place for Brazil's second largest altitude, after Serra do Imeri, and the largest gap or prominence (997 m). The Caparaó Mountains are mostly covered with

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

, the preservation of which was guaranteed with the creation in May 1961 of the Caparaó National Park.

Climate

The lowest temperatures of both neighbouring states occur in this region; in Winter,

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

occurs almost daily and the average low is −5 °C at Pico da Bandeira, dropping as low as −10 °C.

History

In the years 1966–67, the region was the hiding place for the left-wing guerrilla group , who fought the

Brazilian military government The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dicta ...

References

Caparao {{MinasGerais-geo-stub