Prata River
Rio da Prata
Interesting facts
- A management survey of the private reserve recorded 56 fish species, 228 bird species, 37 non-flying mammals and 449 plant species.
- Researchers working in the reserve found a mammal new to science, a climbing rat of the genus Rhipidomys, as well as two new fish species.
- Visibility in the spring-fed Olho d'Água reaches about 40 metres in the lake at its source and 20 to 25 metres downstream.
- Some springs bubble straight up through the sandy bed of the Olho d'Água; the most powerful one is known locally as the 'volcano'.
- The limestone of the Serra da Bodoquena region is so pure, with little or no clay, that it dissolves without clouding the water.
- The Olho d'Água stays at 23 to 24 °C all year, while the Prata itself swings between roughly 16 and 26 °C.
- The reserve, created in April 1999, protects about 307 hectares, roughly a fifth of the farm, including all the springs of the Olho d'Água.
- Within 5 km lie two large sinkholes: the flooded Lagoa Misteriosa and the Buraco das Araras, about 100 metres deep and 160 metres across.
Why it is worth it
The Rio da Prata is one of the clearest rivers on Earth to swim in: its water runs so transparent over pale limestone that fish, weed beds and sunken branches look suspended in air. Floating face-down along it with a mask, the river bed scrolls past like an aquarium without glass, with shoals of piraputanga and golden dourado moving among bright green aquatic plants. The water keeps a steady temperature of around 24 to 25 °C, and more than 60 fish species have been recorded in it.
The clarity comes from geology. The Prata flows through limestone country in the south-west of Mato Grosso do Sul, and the high concentration of calcium carbonate makes suspended particles settle out, leaving the water glassy. The river is a tributary of the Miranda. Its best-known stretch begins at the springs of the Olho d'Água, a small tributary that runs through gallery forest before joining the Prata; the usual snorkelling route drifts about 1.7 km down the Olho d'Água to the confluence and continues another 600 metres on the main river.
This stretch lies on private land protected as a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN), the Fazenda Cabeceira do Prata, where an ecotourism project has operated since 1995. The surrounding countryside belongs to the wider Bonito region, known across Brazil for its crystal rivers, caves and springs fed by the same limestone. State legislation has given the Prata and the nearby Formoso river specific protection, reflecting how sensitive this transparency is to erosion and runoff from the farmland upstream.
Getting there
The river lies in the municipality of Jardim, about 15 km from the town and roughly 46 km by road from Bonito, the main base for the region. The nearest airport listed by straight-line distance is Ponta Porã (PMG), about 140 km away.
On these lists
-21.35000, -56.16667per Wikidata