Cave system
Gruta do Mimoso
A partly flooded limestone cave on the Bonito to Bodoquena road, run as a private attraction that offers everything from snorkelling to guided cavern, intro-to-cave and full-cave dives for certified cave divers, with published depth limits of 18, 30 and 40 m.
Gruta do Mimoso is a partly submerged limestone cave about 29.5 km from Bonito, at kilometre 28 of the Bonito to Bodoquena road in the Serra da Bodoquena. Visitors walk a short trail and descend about 78 steps, a number that changes with the water level, to an initial hall with a clear lake that can be viewed without getting wet.
The operator offers a graded set of activities: sightseeing, snorkelling on a lit circuit of the lake, and lake dives in the open-water part of the initial hall, where the surface is always directly above. Beyond these, it sells guided dives for trained cave divers. Cavern diving means staying within sight of daylight from the entrance; cave diving goes beyond it and needs dedicated training.
Published entry levels are a cavern discovery dive near the daylight zone for experienced open-water divers, a cavern dive to 18 m for cavern-certified divers, an intro-to-cave dive to 30 m and a cave dive to 40 m into the deeper parts of the cave for full-cave divers. The guided cave products include two dives and two cylinders. The Portuguese pages describe the route passing stalactite curtains to a chamber called the Salão dos Cones, with formations up to about 10 m high.
The operator describes the site as the only licensed cave in Brazil offering this full range of activities. No published survey length or maximum depth for the cave itself was found.
Why it matters
Among the Brazilian sites reviewed for this section, Gruta do Mimoso is the only one whose operator publishes guided dives beyond the cavern zone for certified cave divers.
Conditions
Some products are seasonal and depend on the water level: the certified lake dive and the cavern discovery dive run only when the lake is at least 8 m deep. The operator does not publish water temperature or visibility figures.
Typical ranges from published sources, not current conditions.
Entrances and dive sites
One public entrance, the operator's stairway to the initial hall (about 78 steps, varying with water level).
Every fact on this page, with its source (10)
| Fact | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The cave is about 29.5 km from Bonito, at km 28 of the Bonito to Bodoquena highway. | Verified | [3] [4] |
| The entrance stairway has about 78 steps, the number varying with the water level. | Verified | [1] [2] |
| The cavern discovery dive requires Open Water certification or similar plus at least 25 logged dives beyond training dives, or Advanced Open Water, and runs near the daylight zone. | Verified | [1] [2] |
| The cavern dive requires Cavern Diver certification or equivalent and age 18 or over, with a maximum depth of 18 m. | Verified | [1] |
| The intro-to-cave dive requires Intro to Cave or equivalent certification and age over 18, with a maximum depth of 30 m. | Verified | [1] |
| The cave dive requires Cave/Full Cave or equivalent certification and age 18 or over, with a maximum depth of 40 m, and goes into the deeper parts of the cave.The Portuguese page lists Intro to Cave and Cave/Full Cave together as requirements for its cave product; the English page separates them into two products. | Verified | [1] [2] |
| The guided cave products include two guided dives and two cylinders; other equipment can be rented on site or with advance notice. | Verified | [1] [2] |
| The certified lake dive and the cavern discovery dive are seasonal and run only when the water is at least 8 m deep. | Verified | [1] |
| The route of the guided dives passes stalactite curtains to the Salão dos Cones, where formations reach up to about 10 m in height.Operator description. | Reported | [2] |
| The operator describes Gruta do Mimoso as the only licensed cave in Brazil offering the full range of activities from sightseeing to cave diving.Operator claim; licence documents not found. | Reported | [1] [2] |
Verified: stated by an official or primary source we opened. Reported: from a secondary source only. Sources conflict: the note gives both versions. May be out of date: the newest source we found is old.
Written in our own words from the sources above. Report a correction