How to Visit the Lagoons in the Desert: The Lencois Maranhenses in Brazil

Whether you were drawn here by my photos or someone else's, I can guarantee that after seeing photos of the Lencois Maranhenses in Brazil, you immediately wanted to go! 

That's my story--or part of it. Jet is Brazilian, if you didn't know, and when he announced that his parents were having their 50th anniversary in Brazil this year, and that we would be going, I knew that I could jump at the opportunity to plan our own little tour of his home country, including this incredible-looking desert filled with freshwater lagoons! It had been 10 years since we last visited here, afterall, and with a country this big, there are no shortage of places to visit!

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If you're planning a trip to Brazil and considering adding the Lencois Maranhenses to your itinerary, or even if you're considering Brazil as a destination specifically for them, then let me encourage your decision! It is such an incredible place and unbelievable destination! Obviously the pictures don't do it justice!

The anticipation and excitement the first time you see the glaring edge of a sand dune on the horizon, or the first time you hike your way up a dune and peek over at your first turquoise-blue lagoon, is truly an unforgettable experience! We spent hours just roaming and swimming and exploring the lagoons, and those few days we spent here were the highlight of my trip to Brazil (except seeing family, of course)!

So once you have convinced yourself it is worth going, you're ready to start planning how to get here. It's not an easy place to get to, as you probably guessed, otherwise I'm sure we'd be seeing more of these pictures everywhere. It REALLY helped that Jet speaks Portuguese, and without a translator, things can get tricky. Freshen up your Portuguese or download a translating app on your phone before you go. Or try to make all of your arrangements for transport ahead of time, through your hotels or B&B. 

To help you, here are my best tips for getting to the Lencois Maranhenses, and where to stay once you're out there! 

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​ Topics:
          I. When to Go
          II. Where to Stay
          III. Getting There
​          IV. ​Tours of the Lencois Maranhenses: Three Days
                  i. Day 1 - The Capivara
                  ii. Day 2 - Lagoa Tropical
                  iii. Day 3 - Lagoa Azul
​          V. Tips & Advice
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I. When To Go

Planning your trip for the right time of year is essential. The lagoons are only temporary! That's because they fill up in the rainy season, and then dry up after that! The best time to go is June, July, and August. However, you could chance it and visit anytime from May to September. But any sooner than June and you risk going too early and not seeing enough of the lagoons. Any later than August and you risk the lagoons drying up.
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II. Where To Stay

There are several towns in which to base your trip from, and i'll see if I can help you decide where to stay. I'll talk about how to get there in the section below, but just know that getting there is not easy and requires at least one and half to two days of travel--there and back--no matter which place you stay. 

The first option is Barreirinhas. Situated on the Rio Preguicas, but otherwise land-locked, it's not big enough to be called a city, and only slightly bigger than a town. It's the easiest and most accessible place to kick off your trip into the Lencois Maranhenses, but that is its only function. It's just a base for visiting the desert. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not charming but it's convenient.

From Barreirinhas, you'll approach the southeastern side of the park. Most people opt to stay here because of its convenience. If you're short on time, it takes the least amount of travel time from Sao Luis. Another reason to stay here is because one of the more famous lagoons, the Lagoa Azul, is just north of Barreirinhas. This lagoon is gorgeous and I've heard is sometimes filled year-round! Great if you're planning an off-season trip. 

The second option is Atins. This is where we stayed and where I recommend you stay for the full desert experience! This town is very small and very rustic, but super authentic! There are no streets--or rather, there are streets but they are filled with sand and the only modes of transport are quads and 4x4 trucks. There are a scattering of restaurants, shops, and tour agencies, but most of the real estate is filled with hotels,  pousadas, and ranch-style accommodations. 

I chose Atins because it's the most charming option and right on the edge of the ocean. Something about being in the desert near the ocean was so appealing to me. And lounging in a rede (hammock) looking out onto the sand dunes and the endless ocean after a day of exploring the desert was a memory I'll never forget!

I stayed in Casa Oceana Atins, and while the common area you see in the pictures is beautiful, I didn't love the room we stayed in. Also, the pictures you see online are a little deceiving--it looks like it's on the ocean, and while it is, the beach was not accessible as the property seems to be taken over by erosion and sits on the edge of a cliff, and I'm not sure sure how much longer the property can sustain itself there!

I will say that staying near the ocean was much cooler than anywhere inland. It was quite hot there in July, and that's the "winter" in Brazil! So get a place with A/C or at least a breeze!

My two recommendations to stay in Atins would be the budget-friendly Rancho do Buna, or the super-expensive but dreamy La Ferme de Georges. 

III. Getting There

The easiest way to get to the Lencois Maranhenses is to start by flying into Sao Luis. There are flights from Recife, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janiero, Brasilia, and Belo Horizonte. Try to pick a non-stop flight to cut down your travel time. Unless you're arriving early in the morning, you might need to sleep in Sao Luis for a night. I do recommend it, since Sao Luis has a charming historic center that I'll cover in another blog post! Fly to Sao Luis before noon and spend a day here and get a good night's rest for a full day of travel the next day.

The next step is to book a minibus to Barreirinhas. Most accommodations can book the minibus for you and pick you up right at your hotel door. They all leave early in the morning though, so that's why it's best to just sleep in Sao Luis and head out the next day. Our ride cost about 40 reais per person in a minibus with about 15 other people. Be prepared: the bus ride is long, about 4.5 hours, and boring and uncomfortable. (You could also take an Uber for about 500 reais!) We arrived in Barreirinhas at around 1pm. If you're staying in Barreirinhas, your travel ends here. But if you're heading to Atins, here's where it gets a little tricky.

The most pleasant way to get to Atins is actually by boat along the Rio Preguicas. Most people head to Atins on a small passenger boat with about 10-15 other people on it. I think the boat is scheduled to leave at certain times, or maybe just once it fills up. I'm actually not sure. Things might also have changed since I wrote this, but from what I remember, there were NO MORE BOATS when we arrived at 1pm. Which is confusing because how do most people get to Atins if they have arrived by van to Barreirinhas?

We avoided all this because we had reached out to our hotel and they gave us the whatsapp phone number of a private boat company and the actual guy who drives the boat. Through him, Jet was able to book a private transfer to Atins for 400 reais. What was really great about this was that he was able to stop along the way at some sand dunes and lagoons along the river! This is why I reached out to book a private boat instead of dealing with schedules, and crowding onto a public transport boat. Our guy was waiting for us at the port and it made the trip to Atins not just about a transfer, but taking an enjoyable boat tour through the jungle and past fishing villages. AND we got to stop for lunch and see our first sand dune even before arriving in Atins! It made the traveling ALL DAY totally worth it.

What's even better was that we met a Scottish family on our van ride to Barreirinhas and after chatting, we invited them to come on the private boat with us and we were able to split the cost. So we only paid 200 reais each for the 4 hour boat tour even though we were ready to pay the full 400! So we made some friends and had an awesome journey along the way! If you speak Portuguese, or have someone who can, call Marcilio at +55 98 8865 0905 on Whatsapp and arrange your private transfer with him! 

Our first sand dune! Stopping on our boat ride to Atins.

Vassouras, and the dunes along the Rio Preguiças where we our private boat stopped.

In Brazil, a nap in a rede (hammock) after a meal is a necessity!

Our amazing meal in Cabure--fresh filet of fish from the Amazon. One of the best meals in Brazil!

​IV. Tours of the Lencois Maranhenses - Itinerary

Once you're in Atins, or Barrierinhas, start making your plans with your hotel accommodations for a tour into the park. You can't just walk in--it's way too far from town. And riding in the back of the 4x4 trucks is half the fun! I'll outline a couple of options for you.

Most tours are about 4 hours. You're not going to want to spend 8 hours in the park anyway. Book either the morning tour or the sunset tour. All of the different agencies pretty much offer the same thing. I wouldn't worry too much about "shopping around" for the best deal. Everyone knows everyone in these small towns, especially in the tourist circuit, and they all do the same thing!

The morning tour leaves between 8-9am and the sunset tour leaves around 3-4pm. We opted for the morning tour on day 1, and the sunset tour on day 2, to get the full experience.

​i. Day 1 - The Capivara

We did our first tour on day 1 with Cassia, a friendly woman who we met as she was dropping off some other tourists for the day at our hotel. For 70 reais each, she arranged our transport into the desert, about a 30 minute drive, along with our Scottish family, and another couple. The truck took us to the entrance of the park (apparently trucks and other vehicles are not allowed in the park--some follow the rules, some don't, since we often saw trucks in the park) and from there we walked about half a mile to the Capivara, a region just inside the entrance to the park where several lagoons intersect.

And what did we do four the next two hours? Enjoy the lagoons! Take a million pictures! Slide down the sand dunes! Swim in the lagoons and stare out at the view!

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought we would be "touring" the park by truck, but honestly, it's not much of a tour, it's really just you walking around enjoying the scenery after disembarking the truck ride. Cassia shared a little info here and there with us, but mostly it was just Jet and myself venturing off on our own, climbing the dunes and swimming in the lagoons. There's really no need for a tour, I guess, even though we were expecting one. The good news is though that the park is HUGE and no matter how many people in your group, you can always walk a few hundred meters in one direction, and be completely alone and find your very own lagoon! 

All of the pictures below are from day 1 of our tour into the desert!
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​ii. Day 2 - Lagoa Tropical

On day 2 we did a quad ride into the desert at sunset. We arranged it through our hotel. Two quads pulled up to our hotel at 3pm. Jet rode the first quad, and the guide rode the second quad into the park. It took about 40 minutes of driving through dirt roads with sections of knee deep water and mud and across narrow wooden bridges until we reached sand. I didn't drive because it was stick shift, but later I decided it wouldn't have been too hard to drive it. It was such a fun ride!

It was the same deal once we were in the park as the first tour--meaning there really wasn't much of a "tour". We just parked the quads and spent a few hours exploring the area. This time we were taken to Lagoa Tropical. The dunes were a little higher here, and we were able to walk around and enjoy the sunset. You can see in the pictures just how different the sunset is from the daytime. The colors are spectacular, and the dunes take on a whole new personality. Honestly, it was all a dream to me!

​iii. Day 3 - Lagoa Azul

On day 3, after staying 3 nights in Atins, we actually got up early and headed back to Barreirinhas. I wanted to see what all the fuss was over  Lagoa Azul! 

We left Atins on the public transfer boat that we avoided on the way there and made our way back to Barreirinhas by 10 am. There we were, with all of our luggage, walking around town. We called Marcilio again, and he referred us to his tour agency, Alternativa Trip Turismo. After speaking with them, they arranged for us to store our luggage at their hotel, eat breakfast on the third floor terrace, and join the 12pm tour to Lagoa Azul. They even let us use their SHOWER in one of the hotel rooms after the trip into the desert before our four hour bus ride back to Sao Luis. Do you know how amazing that felt, that I didn't have to sit with a sandy bottom for our four-hour bus ride? Their rooms were basic but clean and had nice views of the port. I didn't stay here but I would definitely recommend  them for their hospitality!

And the Lagoa Azul was absolutely GORGEOUS! You'd think one would get sick of seeing the same desert three days in a row, but NO WAY! I felt like each corner of the park had its own beauty, and I could probably spend weeks or months exploring every corner of this desert!
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V. Tips & Advice

Here are a few tips that came to mind when writing this article about Maranhao, the Lencois Maranhenses, and Atins:

1. Bring enough cash for your entire trip! I don't remember seeing an atm anywhere, and although some restaurants and hotels take credit card, cash is still king. 
2. In the rainy season in Atins, the "roads" can fill with water and be impossible to walk through. You need a ride in a quad to get from, say, your hotel to the restaurant for dinner, or back to the hotel. It was a bit of a surprise to us to leave dinner and find several guys in quads waiting outside the restaurant. Turns out they're like the UberQuad--for 10-20 reais, they can shuttle you around town in their quad (since there are not cars here) so you don't have to walk! Very convenient--but bring a few extra reais with you to dinner and be prepared to haggle!
3. Bring water on your trips to the desert because the day "tours" don't provide it to you. We did our entire quad tour without water...
4. Be patient with your waiters, tour guides, cashiers, and hotel staff. The residents of Atins and Barreirinhas are already used to the expectations and needs of all the tourists who visit. They are also used to doing the same thing for every tourist that comes their way--over and over again. Because of this, there is some personal attention lacking in the service industry with most of the waiters, tour operators, and hotel staff that we encountered. That might just built into the Brazilian culture, however. Service is slow and they aren't worried about appeasing you, just because you're paying for something. Waiters, tour guides, cashiers, etc. don't fawn over you the way they do in the US. They don't work for a tip. This can be refreshing to some (they don't have to worry about shelling out the extra cash) and frustrating to others (complaining to the manager for shitty service won't get you anywhere, here!) They also seem to be lacking in any kind of originality in services. I guess I would tell you to lower your expectations a little when dealing with this region that is newer to the tourism game. Don't be rude, and be patient. Not everyone is trying to take advantage of you! I think out of all the places we visited in Brazil, the people in Maranhao were the most trust-worthy and easy going!
5. Lastly, keep in mind that most of the area is very far removed from the main cities of Brazil, so don't expect grandeur when you go. Electricity can be spotty, transportation may be substandard, cell service is unreliable, there's sand EVERYWHERE, including your room, and don't expect all of the amenities you may be used to when near a big city. Unless you're staying at La Ferme de Georges, your accommodations might be quite rustic!

As you travel around Maranhao and to the Lencois Maranhenses, keep in mind that the entire region is still very undiscovered. This is the one appeal for visiting the Lencois Maranhenses. Mass tourism has not reached this region of Brazil, even though most Brazilians know about the desert and have seen pictures of it, it's still unknown elsewhere in the world. There were plenty of tourists, though. Most of the other tourists we encountered were from Brazil and Europe. We didn't meet any other Americans. And most of them were carrying around the same dog-eared copy of Lonely Planet Brazil that we were reading. That's why I wrote this article--there aren't too many other blog posts in English that give you the lowdown on visiting this region! And I was happy to write it and share my experiences with you!

The pictures speak for themselves about this region of Brazil. It was truly magical and was an amazing place! I would do the same trip over again if I could! I hope you enjoyed my pictures! Let me know if you have any questions about the Lencois Maranhenses, Maranhao, or even visiting Brazil in general!

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