Trip to Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

Bucket list

I’ve been interested in visiting Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil for a while, and when my wife and I finally made the trip in July this year, it became clear why it’s a major bucket list trip for so many. The park is unlike anywhere else on Earth, with 380,000 acres of sweeping sand dunes dotted with turquoise freshwater lagoons that stretch as far as the eye can see.

It was impossible to resist the urge to take photos of every dune or lagoon at every turn. Though looking back, none of the pictures I took even come close to fully capturing the sheer scale and beauty of the landscape.

It certainly didn’t help that I was painfully unequipped to take great photos. If I had one regret, it was not bringing better camera gear. A proper camera would have done more justice to the scenery than my phone. Similarly, a drone would have been incredible for getting an aerial view of the dunes, since the most striking photos came from higher vantage points. Still, even with just my phone, I’m pretty happy with how many of the photos came out. As the old adage goes, the best camera is the one you have with you.

Journey to the park

The journey to reach the park isn’t the easiest, as it’s in a very remote area of Brazil. We started with a 4-hour plane ride from São Paulo to São Luís, where we took a 4-hour shuttle via a tour company to the town of Barreirinhas. Barreirinhas is where most tourists visiting the park stay, and it seemed nice enough, albeit quite crowded and chaotic. It’s also about 1.5 hours drive from the park, so we opted to travel even further to a closer, smaller coastal town called Atins via a 2-hour boat ride down the Preguiças River. Atins is only about 30 minutes away from the park by car, so staying there would save us a lot of travel time during the three days we would stay there.

It might go without saying, but because of the necessity to travel by various modes of transportation and coordinate with several local guides, I’m guessing it would be pretty difficult to get all the way to Atins without being at least somewhat confortable with speaking and understanding Portuguese. If you don’t speak Portuguese, I would strongly recommend traveling with someone who does, if possible. That being said, we did meet a few tourists from other countries along the way who didn’t speak Portuguese, so apparently it’s possible to get by. But I would imagine it could lead to some confusing situations and not-very-fun times.

The first day of travel was long and tiring, but the boat ride was awesome, and I’m glad we decided to continue on to Atins rather than stay in Barreirinhas.

A bit of a side note here—since I’m training for an upcoming triathlon, I was looking forward to potentially getting in some open-water swim training on this trip (mostly because this would make for a cool activity map on Strava). One of the places I was considering attempting a swim was the Preguiças River, though I couldn’t find much information online on whether this was safe or possible. Upon my asking, our boat driver mentioned that the Preguiças River was known for its large quantity of snakes, including potentially dangerous snakes like anacondas. This revelation quickly put my open-water swimming aspirations to rest. But there was still the possibility of swimming in the lagoons or the ocean.

Arriving in Atins

When our boat arrived in Atins, we were immediately picked up by the tour company with which we had booked all of our travel and tours. They picked us up in a Toyota Hilux rigged with a few rows of bench seating in the truck bed. This turned out to be the exact vehicle setup that all of the Atins tour companies used. The rides in the beds of these trucks were bumpy and often a bit uncomfortable, but very fun and adventurous.

The tour company took us to our pousada, which was the small inn we would stay for the duration of our trip. Our pousada, called Solar Maia Costa, was incredibly accomodating and honestly greatly elevated our overall experience. The owner was always present and was especially friendly and helpful. On the night of our arrival, he drove us around the town on an ATV to show us around the town center and give us recommendations for restaurants and tourist activities nearby. The pousada also included an amazing breakfast every day, with fresh fruit, juices, cuscuz, and tapioca (a kind of Brazilian breakfast crepe).

Speaking of ATVs, all of the roads in Atins are made of sand, so ATVs and Toyota Hilux trucks are the primary modes of transportation. Though Atins is small, and you can simply walk anywhere in the town.

Touring the park

Once we ate dinner at one of the local restaurants, got established at the pousada, and got a good night’s sleep, we woke up early for our first tour of the Lençóis. Since the only way in and out of the park is through tour companies, we booked a different tour for each day of our stay. The tours generally consisted of riding in the bed of a Toyota Hilux to 3–4 lagoons or notable landmarks in the park over the course of a day, with a break for lunch at a local restaurant. We would generally get to stay at each lagoon for about an hour, which gave us plenty of time to swim, take pictures, and relax. There are also several other options for tours that we didn’t do, like ATV, horseback riding, hiking, and camping tours.

Even though the setup of the tours seems repetitive, the tours themselves were anything but. Each lagoon was unique and brought a different experience. Some of the lagoons were obviously more popular destinations and had large crowds of tourists, while others were more secluded. Some of the lagoons were large, some were small, some were shallow, and some were quite deep in places.

The truck rides to each lagoon were exhilirating experiences in and of themselves. Steeper ascents and descents felt like a rollercoaster ride at times, and I was impressed with how well the tour guides knew the ways to drive and parts to avoid based on very subtle—and often, seemingly nonexistent—landmarks. If I tried driving through the park myself, I would’ve definitely fallen off a cliff.

Swimming in the lagoons

Because we stopped at each lagoon for about an hour, that gave me plenty of time to log some open-water swim sessions. I felt a little dorky bringing my full swimming gear, including a swim cap, goggles, and a high-vis swim buoy, but that’s because I am a dork, and I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to record some cool Strava activities. Swimming in the lagoons was mostly fine, but many of them are quite shallow in places (less than ~3 feet deep), which made it a little difficult to swim continuously without having to stop, stand up, and change directions. However, once I got familiar with what areas of each lagoon were deeper, it was a blast.

It was pretty fun to swim around the lagoons, and I ended up with the cool Strava maps I wanted using the GPS data from my watch. Some of the maps make it look like I swam on dry land, and I’m guessing this is because the lagoons move throughout the year depending on factors like the quantity of rain the area receives.

Bird watching at a guará (scarlet ibis) nest

We did one tour near Atins that was not in the park—a boat tour to a protected island were a large group of guará (scarlet ibises) nest. The tour was at sundown and only lasted about an hour, but its brevity, this was one of the best parts of our trip. We watched as hundreds of guará returned to the island for the night. This is another part of the trip that I wish I had a better camera that could zoom enough to capture the birds in detail, but luckily I did bring my binoculars, which really came in handy here.

Once again, my cell phone pictures are not the best, but the view through my binoculars was incredible.

Pininga

The surprise cherry on top of our trip was a visit to Pininga, a restaurant that had been recommended to us by the owner of our pousada. Like many of the restaurants in Atins, it was pretty pricy (and possibly the most expensive of all), but it left us blown away, and the experience was truly worth every penny. Pininga features two tasting menus that are different every day: the Mar (sea) menu and the Terra (land) menu, with the Mar being pescatarian and the Terra being vegetarian. All of the ingredients are locally sourced and feature creative twists on regional cuisine.

Each tasting menu included an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. We each ordered a different tasting menu so we could try a little of everything offered that day, and every dish was incredible. We were beyond pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, especially given that we hadn’t put any thought into where or what we would eat on this trip. It sounds crazy, but I’m not kidding when I say this: the trip to Atins would have been worth it for this restaurant alone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I had an amazing time visiting the Lançóis Maranhenses National Park, and I can see why this is a bucket list item for so many. The park is absolutely worth the travel time and hassle to get there, and I would love to return someday (with a drone and a better camera if possible).