Vargem Bonita (Minas Gerais)
Vargem Bonita is a Brazilian municipality located in the west of the state of Minas Gerais. Its population as of 2020 was 2,148 people living in a total area of 409 km². The city belongs to the meso-region of Oeste de Minas and to the micro-region of Piumhi. It became a municipality in 1953. The town’s origin story is rather unique: it began with the discovery of diamonds and once had as many as 30,000 inhabitants. When the diamonds ran out, the town lost population, but it has become more prosperous in recent years due to tourism attracted by the Serra da Canastra National Park. The name “Vargem Bonita” has an interesting twist—originally, there was a ranch called Várzea, which means “floodplain” in Portuguese. However, a friend of the owner praised the ranch by saying, “Mas que vargem bonita!” (which should have been “várzea bonita”). The owner liked the word “vargem” so much that he changed the name of his ranch, and it later became the site of the town itself.
