The Mãe Bonifácia State Park is a 77-hectare cerrado forest reserve within the city limits — one of the larger urban nature parks in Brazil. The cerrado (the vast tropical savanna that covers much of Brazil's interior) is a globally significant biome that has been largely destroyed by agriculture; this park is one of the few remaining cerrado fragments in the Cuiabá metropolitan area, and the diversity of plants within it is impressive.
Walking trails wind through the dense vegetation, and you are likely to see various bird species, armadillos, small deer, and, if you are lucky, a giant anteater. The park is open daily and is a popular destination for families at weekends. It provides a genuine taste of the cerrado ecosystem that surrounds Cuiabá on all sides before giving way to the Pantanal floodplain to the south and the Amazon to the north.