Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day in São Paulo.  This hasn’t been the case recently, so my friend and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and do something outdoorsy.  We decided on the Pico do Jaraguá, São Paulo’s city’s highest peak, since we’d never been and figured the view would be gorgeous.

Lying at a far western point in one of the largest cities in the world, the 1,135 meter (3,724 feet) peak certainly has nothing less than breathtaking views:

What’s even more fun is the peak’s history!  Apparently it was first “discovered,” in the late 16th century because there were gold mines in the mountain.  This gold was explored and extracted until there wasn’t anymore towards the end of the 19th century.

At the peak, there are tons of satellite dishes which belong to media giants such as Globo and Bandeirantes. The mountain today also still has a Guarani indigenous community living there right at the entrance to the park (on the way up to the peak), where the members of the community live off their art and craft work, and begging.

Jaraguá is a Guarani name meaning, por onde a gente passou, or “through where we have been.”

Sources: visit to Jaraguá and Pico do Jaraguá website.