VARIOUS ADVENTURE ECOTOURISM ATTRACTIONS AT THE SAME PLACE WITH AN ADVENTURE HOTEL


The Park of Dreams Adventure Complex gathers 14 open air activities in a 400,000 sq m area with an infrastructure including a restaurant, cafeteria, mini shopping mall, a fine Hotel with 14 apartments, plus 4 cottages and a swimming pool.

An adventure circuit complete with various water and land sports in a place linked to Nature. This is the Park of Dreams, an adventure / ecotourism complex located at the Cachoeirinha River valley, near the boundary between Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais states (Mantiqueira Range). The Park is located 15 km away from Socorro city, SP, 22 km away from Bueno Brandao city, MG, about a 2 hour drive away from Sao Paulo city.

In just one day visitors get in touch with an adventure circuit complete with many types of water and land activities practiced in close contact to Nature. Every modality was devised and set up fully utilizing the luxurious landscape offered by the mountain region.

To begin with, the main attraction in the Park is a 1-km long Tyrolese. It is an almost one-minute astonishing descent providing a beautiful panoramic view of the region and the Park.

There are activities for all ages and every taste. “A 2-year old child descended the shorter Tyrolese in total safety, while an 84-year old lady broke the age record in the 1-km long Tyrolese”, says Jose Fernandes, who devised the layout of the Park opened on June 1, 2002.

Safety is fundamental to devise and create the activities.  Most of the many Park monitors work there since it was opened, over six years ago. “They attend improvement courses regularly and our equipment is constantly maintained”, explains Fernandes. Today the place strictly complies with ABNT Standards that were recently published concerning Tourism and Adventure activities and the place expects to become pretty soon one of the first parks to be granted a Tourism and Adventure certificate.

Park of Dreams receives various visitor profiles – people who never practiced adventure tourism and experience almost all of them in a row in the Park; apprentices who wish to try several modalities on the same day (the Park is ideal for adventure venues), school excursion students (for whom we have special educational programs) or, yet, corporate audiences attending company training courses given there. Also, the Park can be leased for ad film making.

KNOW THE SPORTS MODALITIES AVAILABLE IN THE PARK

LAND ACTIVITIES

1. Zip Line: among all attractions, the most appealing to visitors are the Zip Line. Since the Park is embedded in a valley, the level differences were used to build five Zip Line.

Each one has a characteristic of its own, the most famous being the Panic Zip Line.

In it, visitors can enjoy a panoramic ride through the Park. The descent lasts almost one minute. At its highest point the cables are 150 m away from the ground. This Zip Line is so high that base jumper Sabia jumped from it, released himself from the steel cable in mid descent and landed in the park using a parachute. Jose Fernandes says jokingly, “I only allowed such radicalism because Sabia is a professional”. The achievement was broadcast on ESPN TV.

2. Arborism or tree walking: using assembled structures, visitors walk among tree crowns, crossing bridges and corridors and using cables, everything a few meters above ground. Two difficulty levels:

3. Rappelling: Two descent options – one 50-meter high and the other 30-meter high (in positive). Now the novelty is the 30-m rappelling entirely in negative.

4. Climbing: There are two climbing options: the Fountain (5 meter) and the Large Stone (50 meter).

5. Rope swing: A five-meter, 35-meter high free fall fixed using three ropes. Visitors jump from a platform built on a tree and swing for several minutes before full stop and then descend to the ground using negative rappelling.

6. Trekking: approximately 5 km of trails inside and outside the park area, crossing woods, waterfalls and cascades in a region insterspersed with valleys and mountains, where visitors can watch animals and birds that are typical of the Atlantic Forest.

7. Caving tourism: the rock formation found in the entire region consists of granite rocks, where the existing grottos are the result of erosion caused by the action of the river that runs inside the grottos. It is a 150 meter long path whose crossing lasts about 1 hour. Visitors must compulsorily wear helmets.

8. Bike tourism: trained monitors take groups of visitors and their bikes through an approximately 10-km long path located near the Park, through very irregular trails and roads in scenery with plenty native forest, grazing land and a number of waterfalls.

9. Spring Board: An elastic bed is used and the person sits on a small chair coupled to elastic ropes that allow jumps of up to 5 m high and somersaults

10. Crazy Ball: Inflatable ball where up to 2 people can enter. The ball is released from a grass-covered ramp and rolls along an extension of over 100 m.

11. Off Road: An adapted van takes tourists through the Park to the Large Stone, where the 1-km long Tyrolese begins. There is also a program for tourists to meet the waterfalls in the place.

WATER ACTIVITIES

12. Ducking (inflatable boat for two): practiced down the Cachoeirinha River in a 1-km path with rapids and little waterfalls. This activity is monitored by trained people and the required equipment is supplied to visitors.

13. Acqua ride: visitors go down the Cachoeirinha River in individual boats in the chest position, their hands working as paddles. This activity is monitored by trained people and the required equipment is supplied to visitors.

14. Buoy Cross: visitors go down the Cachoeirinha River sitting on a buoy, which makes the operation more stable. Children over 6 can practice this activity, which is monitored by trained people; the required equipment is supplied to visitors.

MORE ATTRACTIONS WITH COMPLETE INFRASTRUCTURE

Besides adventure activities, visitors have other attractions available, such as one stone swimming pool that is filled with natural water and provides bathers with a panoramic view of the Park, the belvedere, kiosks, natural pools with cascades and a shower-like waterfall, plus a beach near the Dream Waterfall and the 80-km high Large Stone waterfall.

Infrastructure complete with cafeteria, restaurant, meeting room, game room, mini shopping mall with typical handcraft and products from the farm, bathrooms with hot shower, fishing lake, dressing room, sun-heated shower, diaper changing room, lockers, parking lot and first aid room.

Visitors can also be lodged in the Park of Dreams. There are four cozy cottages for up to 10 people each, plus 14 apartments (equipped with hot/cold air conditioning. TV set, fan, hair drier) and warm swimming pool.

PRESERVED NATURE. REGULATED ACTIVITIES AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Every attraction in the Park of Dreams was built respecting the limits of Nature.

Actions followed criteria focused on concern and preservation of the place, such as the action that reforested the Cachoeirinha River ciliary forest.

To replace the grazing land that existed locally previous to the Park’s opening, more than six thousand plantlets of native trees of the local flora were planted over four years.

Also, the boundaries of all trails are established and self-guided so that continuous traffic will not widen the path. There is a number of trash cans all over the Park, as well as special education environmental programs for school visitors. An information bulletin delivered at the entrance guides visitors about the good practices concerning Nature and the care to be taken during visits.

Currently the Park of Dreams is going through a standardization process, being one of the first Brazilian adventure parks to implement a Safety Management System addressed to Adventure Tourism activities to follow the standards recently developed by the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT).

Moreover, the Park of Dreams is an accessbility pioneer through the Special Adventurers Project of the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism, which is currently developing standards and procedures to adapt Adventure Tourism to handicapped tourists such as people who need wheel chairs, as well as deaf, dumb, obese people and so on.

THE DREAM THAT CAME TRUE: THE PARK OD DREAMS IS SIX YEARS OLD AND WAS OPENED ON JULY 1ST, 2002

It is a dream of agricultural engineer Jose Fernandes Franco that came true. Born in Socorro city, he lived for 17 years in large urban centers but always dreamed of going back to his native land, preferably in the field. His dream started coming true over fourteen years ago, when he opened his Field of Dreams Farm Hotel. The idea for the Park was born when he went for a walk in the area and was charmed by the 120-m high waterfall facing a river beach. “As soon as I met the place I found it wonderful and then I realized that all kinds of activities could be practiced in one place”, tells Fernandes. Today the Park of Dreams receives an average of 20 thousand visitors every year.

PROJECT: AN ADVENTURE INTO NATURE

Through the adventure activities practiced in the Park a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary pedagogic work is developed.

These activities offer the student the opportunity to get in touch with the emotion of adventure and, in an involving, dynamic manner, to add values such as trust, team spirit, challenges overcome, goals achieved.

The Park of Dreams has also an entire ecosystem with rivers, waterfalls, native forest, rock formations and wild animals, composing a perfect scenario for an ecology practical class.

It is also possible to know a little more about life in the field at Park of Dreams by walking down the trails , fishing, visiting the animals’ area with its many species of birds, and meeting part of was left of the Atlantic Forest.

With its infrastructure totally addressed to well-being and safety, the Park counts on dressing rooms equipped with showers, plus the cafeteria, restaurant, mini auditorium, center of events, reading room, mini shopping mall, room for theoretical classes, and a team of expert monitors ready to provide high quality professional assistance.

With programs specific for the needs and objectives of each school, it is possible to set up special packages that fit learning to adventure activities, ecology and knowledge acquired in the classroom.

All this makes of Park of Dreams the ideal place for those who wish to have fun while learning with Nature.

- Entrance ticket (all-day visit): R$ 6.00 (adults and children over 3); insurance included

Information for visitors and guests: Please call (19)3955-2870 or (19)3895-4696 (24-hour information desk)

Information for the media (high-resolution images of the place upon request):

PARK OF DREAMS
Estrada de Varginha, km 7 - P.O. Box 2 – Socorro, SP - Zip Code 13.960-970 - Brazil
Phone: 55 19 3955-2870 / 55 19 3895-4696 / 55 19 3895-2833
Site: www.parquedossonhos.com.br
e-mail: contato@parquedossonhos.com.br
marketing@campodossonhos.com.br