Aka'ratin'ga

Caratinga lies in the Doce River valley of Minas Gerais, where the Caratinga River and smaller streams cut through forested hills. Fertile alluvium and gentle slopes supported gardens and cattle. Aimoré and Botocudo communities used the river long before Portuguese settlement, and forest paths followed its banks.

Expeditions entered the watershed in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries searching for metals and forest products, and travellers sought ipecac, a medicinal plant, in the valley forests. The river took its name from caratinga, a Tupi word for an edible white yam, and Indigenous guides and river knowledge helped the first settlers find their way along it.