Pedra da Boca State Park, State park in Araruna, Paraíba, Brazil
Pedra da Boca State Park covers 157.25 hectares of caatinga in northeastern Araruna, Paraíba, in the foothills of the Serra da Araruna and Serra da Confusão. Its porphyritic granite outcrops, with traces of gneiss and quartzite, have rounded faces and vertical flutes running from summit to ground. The namesake Pedra da Boca rises about 336 metres, its erosion-carved cavity resembling a giant mouth; other formations include Pedra da Caveira, Pedra do RN, Pedra do Carneiro and Pedra do Letreiro.
The park was officially created by the state government of Paraíba in February 2000, after a process that included relocating families who lived in the area and compensating them for their land. Before that, the region had been home to rural communities for generations, largely overlooked at a wider level.
On the 13th of each month, especially in May, thousands of pilgrims come for open-air masses. Politician Celso Lisboa (1909–90) built an altar to Our Lady of Fatima in the cave of Pedra da Santa, also called Pedra do Letreiro; bees later made the cave unusable, so the state government built the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima nearby, a Greek-arena layout holding about 5,000 people with bathrooms, a cafeteria, offices and pilgrim lodging.
The park is in Araruna and can be explored on foot along marked trails that lead to the main rock formations. Going early in the morning is a good idea, as the rocky terrain offers little shade and gets hot quickly later in the day.
Two of the rock formations in the park, Pedra da Caveira and Pedra do Letreiro, carry ancient paintings left by indigenous peoples who lived in this region long before the park existed. These images are still visible today, making the rocks a kind of open-air record of human presence in the area.
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