Balsa Nova: The Historic Tamanduá Fields

We visit Curitiba fairly often, since I have a godson there named Heitor, and this time we went to celebrate his birthday while also exploring the Balsa Nova area.

So this wasn’t your typical downtown Curitiba trip — we spent our time in the surrounding countryside instead.

Campos Históricos do Tamanduá

We drove out of Curitiba along the Rodovia do Café and BR-277/BR-376, about 66 km from the city, roughly 1h30m by car.

Located in Balsa Nova, a town named after a barge (“balsa”) built in 1891 by Galdino Chaves to cross the Iguaçu River.

This is a farming region, growing soy, corn, and potatoes, home to about 12,700 residents.

The area is also home to Capela Nossa Senhora da Conceição, built by Jesuits in the 18th century — the second-oldest chapel in Paraná and the fifth-oldest of Jesuit origin in all of Brazil.

We didn’t end up visiting it, though, since we headed straight to Recanto dos Arcos, home to Cachoeira do Alemão.

That’s also where you’ll find Ponte dos Arcos, an arched bridge built during Brazil’s early Republican era by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca in the 1920s.

The bridge connects Balsa Nova to Porto Amazonas in Paraná and is genuinely beautiful — we discovered it while out for a training run on the dirt road nearby. Trains cross it every 20 to 30 minutes.

We ran it, but it also works well by bike — we saw plenty of people training this way, starting from the parking area at Fazenda Clube Thalia and riding to Ponte dos Arcos.

Recanto dos Arcos

A private property with camping, cabins, a barbecue area, a pool, a snack bar, and the well-known Cachoeira do Alemão waterfall.

You can spend the day here for R$30 per person, which is exactly what we did.

They also serve meals, though at R$54 per person, we thought it was overpriced for the food — so bring your own barbecue supplies and cook for yourselves instead.

Thanks to the solid infrastructure and recreational space, it’s a great spot for a group outing with kids, whether for a day trip or a full weekend.

Due to the pandemic, the pool was closed at the time of our visit, with no reopening date announced.

Cachoeira do Alemão

• Located inside Recanto dos Arcos
• Named after the property’s former owner’s nickname; he passed away 2 years before our visit

Simply beautiful to see, with three separate drops, and we loved it — though the water is quite cold and not fully clear, with a slightly muddy tint.

Read more about our trips in São Luís and Atins.