Caldas Novas

Caldas Novas is a Brazilian city and municipality in the state of Goiás. Its estimated population in 2004 was 62,744 inhabitants; the area is 1.588 km2; and the altitude is 625 meters. Caldas Novas is known throughout Brazil as the largest hydrothermal resort in the world, with water that reaches the surface at temperatures that vary from 20º to 58º.

It is located 165 km south of Goiânia, the capital of the state of Goiás with good roads linking that city.

The main source of income of the municipality is tourism. In the high season the city receives as many as 100,000 tourists and at carnaval as many as 300,000 people. The infrastructure of the city has more than 80 hotels and pensions (12,000 beds) (many with heated swimming pools and all with hot water produced by the natural thermal system), chalets, clubs, nightclubs, bars and restaurants.

In Caldas Novas there are 86 active wells, pumping an average of 1,200 m3 an hour, in a period of 14 daily hours. The temperature of the water varies between 34 and 57ºC.

The first references to the hot water of this region were published in Spain in 1545. In 1722, Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva, son of the famous bandeirante, Anhangüera, turning off the trail blazed by his father years before, discovered the thermal springs that form the Rio Quente. These were called Caldas Velhas and were located in the place where the Rio Quente Resorts is now located.

The most important study about the thermalism of Caldas Novas and the Rio Quente was carried ot by the state enterprise Furnas Centrais Elétricas, due to the possible influence of the Usina Hidrelétrica Corumbá I dam on the thermal watertable of the region, which would be under the risk of cooling. According to Furnas, the phenomenon of the hot water is produced by peculiar geological and topographic characteristics. For years it was thought that a volcano had existed in the area in whose crater rainwater infiltrated, heating at great depths and then returning to the surface by way of cracks in the rock. More modern studies show that there is no indication of volcanic activity in the region, this theory reinforced by the elliptical form of the Serra de Caldas shown in a satellite photo Studies show that the water is formed by rainfall that is stored in a layer of quartzite and due to pressure is sent to the surface in a column 600 meters.

The suspicion that the cold water of the reservoir of Usina Corumbá I could infiltrate the thermal watertable of Caldas Novas and Rio Quente has no basis, since the waters of the lake are at an elevation of 595 meters, well below the source of the water, at 644 meters.

Another great attraction of Caldas Novas is Ecotourism, since the city is located near the Corumbá River and the Serra de Caldas where there is a natural park--Parque Estadual de Caldas Novas. In the surrounding area there is a lake--Lago de Piratininga--with boiling water; a reservoir called Lago de Corumbá with 64 square kilometers damming the Corumbá; and another river--the Rio Quente--which has natural warm water.

One of the largest hotwater resort complexes in the world--Rio Quente Resorts--is located 20 kilometers to the west of Caldas in the municipality of Rio Quente. With seven hotels, a convention center, and 50,000 hectares of space it receives more than 1 million tourists a year.

One of the most popular attractions is the Hot Park, the only aquatic park in the world with natural hot water.

In addition you can visit the Parque das Fontes, a complex of 8 swimming pools with running water, which is located near the source of the hot water.