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What it is
O Monumento Natural Vale dos Dinossauros is a 1,730 km² protected area in the Paraíba backlands, holding fossilised footprints from around 80 espécies de dinossauros do Cretáceo Inferior — entre 145 e 130 milhões de anos atrás.
The footprints survived because they were buried under sediments that hardened over that time, escaping the erosion that erased similar records almost everywhere else. The clearest are an iguanodon's and run for mais de 50 metros.
O registro científico começou cedo: as primeiras descrições e desenhos das pegadas saíram em um livro de 1924, do engenheiro de minas Luciano Jacques de Moraes.
The monument reaches neighbouring towns such as São João do Rio do Peixe, Aparecida and Cajazeiras, but what you visit is in Sousa, about seven kilometres from the town centre.
A town that embraced the nickname
Sousa has nearly 70,000 inhabitants and dinosaur statues scattered through town. Even the football club carries one on its crest — the same club that became nationally known for knocking Cruzeiro out of the 2024 Copa do Brasil.
That is the modern side of the story. The real attraction is outside town, in the riverbed.
How to visit
- Horário — Tuesday to Sunday, 8 am to noon and 2 pm to 5 pm.
- Visitas guiadas saem a cada hora exata.
- Entrada gratuita, with no booking needed for small groups.
- Excursões precisam marcar com antecedência junto à administração.
- Where it is — a cerca de 7 km do centro de Sousa.
Check opening with the Sousa tourism department before travelling. It is nearly 900 kilometres there and back: not a trip to make on assumptions.
The distance, plainly
Sousa fica a cerca de 430 quilômetros de João Pessoa, crossing the state from east to west, close to the Ceará border. That is roughly six hours by car each way.
Ou seja: this is not an outing for someone staying at the beach. Não existe bate-volta possível, e mesmo dois dias ficam apertados.
Those who really want to see the valley usually do it in one of two ways. Either as a trip of its own, three or four days, sleeping in Sousa or Cajazeiras. Or by flying to Juazeiro do Norte, in Ceará, which is far closer to the Paraíba backlands than the state's own capital.
If your trip is a beach holiday in João Pessoa, this text exists so you know the valley is there — and do not find out too late that it was six hours away.
