Lençois Maranhenses, Caburé.

Hello everyone.

This area is really special; I’ve had a great time here. Arrived on Friday to the town of Barreirinas and went right out on a 4×4 tour out to the dunes themselves for which the park is named. (Lençois in portuguese means sheets, and the dunes look like sheets strewn about from the air.) A very surreal area, walking on the pure white sands and encountering these mirage-like lagoons with beautiful fresh water for swimming in. I’m told the park is far more gorgeous during the rainy season, when rainwater forms many more of these crystalline lagoons…still, it is pretty impressive now.

Have to give a specific shout-out to my pousada in Barreirinhas, Pousada d’Areia, for the above-and-beyond helpfulness and friendliness of the owners. They helped me tons with lining up transport and activities, and were just genuinely nice folks.

On Saturday I left my backpack at the pousada and headed down the River Preguiças with another tour to a small town called Caburé. Before arriving we stopped at another small community with a lighthouse that provided fine views, and at the docks we ate some of the best shrimp I’ve ever had, washed down with an unbelievable caipirinha de caju (I’ll explain later about caipirinha…)

I decided to spend the night in Caburé, and actually ended up staying two nights. The town is a little spit of sand at a bend in the river- from my pousada it was ten steps to the river and maybe two hundred steps to the Atlantic. Swim in the river, swim in the ocean, repeat as needed. Watch sun set over river, watch moon rise over sea, watch sun rise over sea, repeat. Generally not another soul in sight on the beach. Plenty of hammock time on the veranda.

In Caburé they shovel sand like we shovel snow at home…it’s always creeping in on them.

 

That photo isn’t Cabure, but it is sandy.

Walked towards the river mouth down the beach from Caburé today, and stumbled onto a huge estuary, or tidewater marsh or something, where I watched tons of cool birds. Wish I had bought a field guide at some point, though I did see several more guará.

blurry but brilliant

A very relaxing time, highly recommended.

Now I’m back in Barreirinhas, leaving tomorrow morning in the direction of Fortaleza to catch a flight Saturday morning. Tomorrow I hope to be in the town of Parnaiba in the state of Piaui, where I’ll either move on for a look at the famous beach town of Jericoacoara, or stick around for a tour of the Parnaiba river delta…taking it as it comes.