In 2019 I went to spend a vacation in Brazil, I was going to Recife, but my flight had an 8-hour layover in São Paulo and I took the opportunity.
I had never dared to leave the airport when I had a stopover, but since it would be so long I decided to take the risk. While there, I started to investigate what was near the airport and found that, 30 minutes away from the airport, was the Parque ecológico do Tietê. A park and environmental protection area, located in the flood plain of the Tietê River, in the state of São Paulo.
Tietê Ecological Park/ Photo taken from internet
It has an extension of green areas, about 15.6 million m² in total, of which 14.5 million m² in the Engenheiro Goulart Nucleus, 171 thousand m² in the Vila Jacuí Nucleus and about 1.5 million m² in the Ilha do Tamboré Nucleus.
The place is beautiful, with spaces for outdoor activities, bike path, athletics track, 9 km of trails, 14 km of bike path (bicycles can be rented), 3 indoor soccer fields, 2 multi-sports fields and 5 soccer fields, 16 soccer fields and 1 baseball field. It also has an arena theater, amphitheater and the Tietê Museum. Inaugurated on September 22, 1999, date on which the "Day of the Tietê River" is celebrated with the main objective of increasing the ecological and environmental awareness of the visitors.
Museum of Tietê
As for the fauna, most of the species come from the Tietê River forest.
There is a great variety of quatis, which roam the trails and invade them. There are also black anu, cormorants, caracara hawks, chupins, thrushes, irerês, bees, white butterflies, tegus and chiguires. The park also has a wild animal recovery center (CRAS), founded in 1986 to repopulate the Tietê ecological park.
Its flora is very rich, it produces and plants trees to recover degraded areas, contributing to the quality of the air and the well-being of the population. There are aquatic plants, water hyacinth, salvinia, jerivás, suinãs, guava trees, parchita, among others.
Me and the Quatis
The experience was magical, I had never been in direct contact with quatis for example, I was amazed with everything there is to do in this place. If you are in Sao Paulo, do not miss it.
Thanks for reading!