🇺🇾 Uruguay · Interior and Sierras
Valle del Lunarejo is one of the most striking and best preserved natural corners of Uruguay, a protected area in the north of the country, in the department of Rivera, about 70 km from the departmental capital and very close to the Brazilian border. It's part of the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP) and protects a landscape of deep ravines framed by the Cuchilla de Haedo, with hills over 350 metres high —among them Cerro Bonito, Cerro Minuano, Cerro Boquerón and Cerro Lunarejo itself, where the stream of the same name rises—, plus waterfalls and a valuable native subtropical forest that slips through the cracks in the terrain.
What makes Lunarejo unique is the combination of its geography —ravines carved by water— with exceptional biodiversity: at least 153 bird species have been recorded, among them the sharp-tailed tyrant, the buff-necked ibis, the strange-tailed tyrant, the seriema, the blue-winged macaw and the rufous-thighed kite, plus uncommon mammals such as the southern tamandua, the margay, the coati and the grey brocket deer. It's a nature refuge that comes as a surprise in a country of grasslands, and a dream destination for ecotourism, hiking and birdwatching.
This guide covers Valle del Lunarejo with a practical eye: what the protected area and its ravines are like, which trails, waterfalls and lookouts to walk, where to stay in the area's inns and rural estates, how to get there from Tacuarembó or Rivera, and why this valley in the deep north is an essential visit for nature lovers.
Valle del Lunarejo was declared a Protected Landscape and brought into Uruguay's National System of Protected Areas in 2009, in recognition of its exceptional natural value: ravines with native subtropical forest and species that reach their southernmost distribution here. Historically it was an area of cattle estancias and rural life in the north, on the Brazilian border. The full history is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓A northern department pressed against Brazil, with its capital joined to Brazilian Santana do Livramento: land of the dry border, of agates and amethysts, of the century-old Rivera portuñol and of the flat-topped hills and gorges of the Valle del Lunarejo.
Read the history of Rivera Department →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
In a country famous for its endless plains, for that grassland horizon that seems never to end, there's a corner of the north where the land opens into deep gorges, fills with forest and hides waterfalls: Valle del Lunarejo. It's hard to believe that this landscape of humid ravines, with anteaters, wildcats and more than 150 bird species, is in Uruguay. And yet there it is, in Rivera, on the Brazilian border, holding a patch of subtropical forest that came down from the north and found its last refuge southward here.
Valle del Lunarejo sits on the Cuchilla de Haedo system, in northern Uruguay, in a region where the terrain becomes more rugged than in the rest of the country. Over millennia, the watercourses carved deep ravines into the area's sedimentary and basaltic rocks, creating boxed-in valleys, rock walls and falls that give the landscape an exceptional character within Uruguayan geography.
These ravines, humid and sheltered from sun and wind, created particular microclimates that allowed a native forest of subtropical type to develop, very different from the sparse, scattered woodland typical of the Uruguayan grassland. On the valley floors thrive plant and animal species that come down from southern Brazil and that reach their southern limit of distribution at Lunarejo, which makes the place a true refuge of biodiversity.
The value of this natural heritage —the combination of terrain, water, forest and singular species— is what in time prompted its protection. Lunarejo is today one of the landscapes most valued by naturalists, biologists and ecotourism lovers, a testimony to how water and time can sculpt, even in a country of plains, corners of surprising exuberance.
The Lunarejo region, like much of northern Uruguay, was historically a territory of estancias devoted to extensive cattle ranching. Rural life was organized around the land, the livestock and the large estates, in a landscape of ridges, woods and ravines that imposed its own rhythm and its own difficulties of access.
The closeness of Brazil deeply marked the culture of the area. The border here is porous and everyday: the speech mixes Spanish and Portuguese in the region's characteristic 'portuñol', and the customs, the music and the food reflect that constant crossing between the two countries. The city of Rivera and its Brazilian twin, Santana do Livramento, are the great symbol of that integrated border.
For a long time, Lunarejo was a place known above all to local residents and to those who travelled the deep north. Its beauty stayed relatively outside the country's major tourist circuits, concentrated on the coast and in the historic cities. That would begin to change with the growing appreciation of its nature and with its inclusion in the protected areas system.
Recognition of the extraordinary natural value of Valle del Lunarejo culminated in 2009, when —by decree 476/009 of 14 October that year— it was declared a Protected Landscape and brought into Uruguay's National System of Protected Areas (SNAP), with more than 20,000 hectares northwest of Rivera. The Cuchilla de Haedo, on which it sits, also serves as a biological corridor for the entry of subtropical plant and animal species from southern Brazil. This legal status seeks to conserve the ecosystem of ravines and subtropical forest, reconciling the protection of biodiversity with traditional rural uses and with responsible nature tourism.
Protection drove the development of ecotourism in the area. Rural establishments and inns began offering lodging, home cooking and guided excursions through the ravines, bringing local residents into tourism. Birdwatching, hiking and observing the flora and fauna became the great attractions, drawing a public interested in nature and sustainable tourism.
Today Valle del Lunarejo is considered one of Uruguay's great natural destinations and an example of conservation in the north of the country. Its management as a protected area seeks to preserve a unique heritage —that of a subtropical forest at the southern edge of its range— for future generations, while opening it, carefully, to those who want to discover one of the most surprising corners of Uruguayan geography.
As Valle del Lunarejo gained scientific attention, the flora and fauna surveys gradually revealed the true scale of its natural richness. The studies documented that the conservation unit is crossed by several watercourses —the main one is the Lunarejo stream, which rises on the hill of the same name— and framed by the Cuchilla de Haedo (to the west and north) and the Cuchilla de la Venta Quemada (to the south), with hills over 350 metres high, among them Cerro Bonito, Cerro Minuano, Cerro Boquerón and Cerro de los Peludos.
The bird surveys proved especially remarkable: at least 153 species were recorded in the area, among them the sharp-tailed tyrant, the buff-necked ibis, the strange-tailed tyrant, the seriema, the blue-winged macaw and the rufous-thighed kite, which made Lunarejo one of the country's reference sites for birdwatching. Among the mammals, the presence of species uncommon in the rest of Uruguay was documented, such as the southern tamandua, the greater naked-tailed armadillo, the margay, the coati, the porcupine and the grey brocket deer; and among the amphibians and reptiles, rare species such as the Uruguayan frog, Devincenzi's toad and the rattlesnake.
This biodiversity catalogue, documented by the Ministry of the Environment and the National Museum of Natural History, scientifically confirmed what local residents already sensed: that Lunarejo holds an exceptional ecosystem, with numerous species at their southern limit of distribution. That scientific backing was key to justifying and consolidating its status as a protected area, and remains today the basis of the area's conservation and monitoring programmes.