Lagoons among dunes
Blue and green.
Julius Dadalti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · andresumida — CC BY 2.0 · andresumida — CC BY 2.0
Lençóis Maranhenses, the bedsheets of Maranhão, is a national park on the coast of northeastern Brazil covering 155,000 hectares of white sand dunes along 70 kilometres of shore. It has been protected since 2 June 1981, and UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in July 2024. It looks like a desert, yet it receives about 1,200 millimetres of rain a year. Between January and June the rains fill the hollows between the dunes, which rise up to 40 metres, with thousands of blue and green freshwater lagoons, some 100 metres long and three metres deep, held in by a layer of hard rock under the sand. The best time is June to September, when the lagoons are full and the skies clear. The park can only be entered by four-wheel drive with accredited guides, from the town of Barreirinhas. The best-known tour is the Lagoa Azul circuit: 12 kilometres of sand track in about 45 minutes, then a walk of some two kilometres over the dunes between lagoons, with swimming. There is no shade, so carry water, sunscreen and a hat, and go barefoot on the sand.
Blue and green.
Up to 40 metres.
In warm fresh water.
Maranhão coast; entry from Barreirinhas
June to September, when the lagoons are full after the rains and the skies are clear; from October to December they gradually dry out.