Quixada

The plain around Quixada is studded with inselbergs - rounded granite domes left standing as the softer rock around them eroded away over tens of millions of years - and there are hundreds of them, scattered across the caatinga. The best known is Pedra da Galinha Choca, the brooding hen, a boulder balanced on a dome in a shape that reads unmistakably as a sitting bird and appears on everything the town prints. Others carry their own names and are climbed on bolted routes. The formations also made Quixada a serious free-flight site: the thermals off the domes are reliable enough that paragliding and hang gliding distance records have been set from here, and the launch points are part of the local economy. Cedro dam, built at the end of the nineteenth century, sits below the rocks.

What you actually see

• Granite inselbergs - hundreds of domes left standing above the eroded plain.
• Pedra da Galinha Choca - the balanced boulder shaped like a brooding hen.
• A record free-flight site - thermals off the domes used for distance flying.
• Cedro dam - the nineteenth-century reservoir under the rocks.

When to go

June to November. A day. Flying season peaks in the second half of the year.

Honest expectations

Sertao heat is severe and there is no shade on the rocks - go early or late. Climbing routes need your own gear and local knowledge. The town itself is a working interior town, not a resort.

Nearby

Fortaleza is north-east on the coast; the Sertao Central towns spread around.