Serra da Barriga
After lunch, the road climbs to the Parque Memorial Quilombo dos Palmares, reaching the plateau around 2:00 PM. Open daily 8 AM–5 PM, free entry.
Protected by IPHAN in 1985 and recognised as Mercosul heritage in 2017, the Serra da Barriga is where the Quilombo dos Palmares stood for nearly a century — the largest free community of escaped enslaved people in the Americas. Emerging around 1597, it sheltered up to thirty thousand people across roughly 200 square kilometres on the Pernambuco-Alagoas border. Its seat withstood repeated Portuguese and Dutch attacks before its destruction by bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho in 1694. Zumbi, its last leader, was killed on 20 November 1695 — now Brazil's Dia da Consciência Negra.
The park reconstructs the quilombo on-site: pau-a-pique structures with thatch roofs, inscribed in Kimbundu and Yoruba, including the Onjó de Farinha, indigenous ocas, and the Muxima de Palmares, where its leaders gathered. Three mirantes — Acaiene, Acaiuba, and Toculo, named for the sons of Ganga Zumba — look over the ridge and cane valleys below. The view, knowing what happened here, is worth the climb alone.