Piscina Natural do Cachadaço

The name Cachadaço, or Caixa d’Aço, comes from a legend that pirates hid treasure in steel boxes in this area.

You can see corals and fish of many colors up close, and they seem used to human presence. Many small fish, some striped and others colorful, swim around bathers, and small starfish also appear in the pool.

The Cachadaço natural pools lie in the coastal part of Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina, which maintains the area and the trail signage. Created in 1971, the park covers 104,000 hectares and is the second-largest federal conservation unit of the Atlantic Forest, and Trindade is its only stretch with marine attractions. The pool has no strip of sand, and visitors use the large rocks as natural sun loungers. It tends to get crowded in summer, in high season, on holidays and on weekends, so visiting on weekdays outside high season is usually recommended.