13 do Julho - Lencois Marenhenses, Brazil
There is a National Park about 4 hours by bus from Sao Luis which is all sand dunes and fresh water lakes that form between the dunes, so we decided to take the bus and see them before heading off further South. The town outside the dunes is called Barreirinhas, and is really just a small jumping off point for the dunes and the National Park. We arrived late at night because our bus stopped every 3 minutes to either pick someone up, or drop them off...a short trip turned into a long journey...as we are becoming accustomed to with Brazilian bus rides. We have been on a lot of slow buses, but this one takes the cake. We would pull into a bus station in a small town, let some people on and off, then pull out of the station to continue on, then two blocks later we would stop and pick up other passengers. Then we would go one more block, and drop of some passengers, then go three more blocks and pick up more. This was repeated time and time again, and was very annoying on a hot, crowded bus. Some things we much prefer in North America.We got to town and then made our plans to go to the dunes the next morning and found a small Pousada to spend the night there. We took a kind of dune buggy that could hold about 16 people out to the dunes. We drove for about an hour over the smaller dunes and through some large puddles of water that overflowed into the buggy and got our feet wet. We took the ride very gingerly, and it was nice scenery and pretty fun just getting there.
Once we got to the National Park, we left the buggy and went by foot into the dunes. At first sight, they are spectacular. It looks kind of like a lunar landscape, with large rolling sand dunes as far as the eye can see. It was partly cloudy, so in the distance you sould see some dunes illuminated by the sun, and in other places they were under the shadow of the clouds, making an even more dramatic and spectacular view. We walked along the dunes until we got to a large freshwater lake. We were able to run down the dune about 150 feet and jump right into the lake. It was warm water, and very clear and clean. From a distance the different lakes either shine blue from reflecting the sky, or green from the algae that grows in the bottom. The different colors were in stark contrast to the perfectly white, fine sand that made up the dunes.
We both then walked about another 15 minutes away from the tour group and ran up and down the different dunes, taking pictures of us jumping off the edges and landing in the sand and rolling down the dunes sometimes face first. It was a lot of fun, and a very different experience for us. We have never been to a National Park anything like this one. Some of the dunes reached 450 feet high. It was a great place to explore and run around like children.
When it was time for us to head back to the town to catch our bus on to the next destination, we were in for quite a surprise. There were about 10 different buggies like ours that were full of tourists all going back at the same time. On our way to the dunes, we had to cross a river where the buggy drives onto a small barge, and another boat pushes the barge across the river and we get off there and keep going. Since only one buggy can go at a time, and there are about 10 buggies all leaving at exactly the same time, it is a race to be the first one to the river, or else you can end up waiting for almost an hour to get across. We started in about 5th place. We did not know any of this at the time, but were surprised at how once the last person got on the buggy, the dirver hit the gas and sped off completely unlike how he drove us to the dunes in the morning. We had to hold on as he jumped over dunes, splashed through huge lakes, and generally drove like a complete madman. We all let out a cheer everytime he passed another buggy though, some of it elation, some of it nervous energy. We got to the river crossing first, with white knuckles and a little out of breath, and managed to catch the first ferry across. It was like the Paris to Dakar Rally and we had just claimed a huge victory, the driver was quite happy with his efforts, shaking everyones hands.
We got back to town and were trying to arrange to get a bus to Sao Luis where we were to take a night bus to Jericoacoara. It was going to be close, so we were in a rush. When we got back to the tour agency where we left our bags, the owner, who spoke no English or Spanish, had arragned for us to get a ride from someone who was going that way, for the same fee as the bus. We were happy not have to get back on the bus of a million stops, and squeezed with all of our stuff into the back seat of a compact car. We got there in half the time it took us to go in the opposite direction, and listened to 80´s Classics and sang along with the dirver and other passenger. It is really too bad that we don´t speak Portugese, becuse in these situations in Spanish speaking countries we can learn about people and talk to them, here we basically can not talk beyond just getting basics taken care of, and even that can be hard sometimes. We made it in plenty of time to take a shower at the bus station, change clothes, eat dinner, and get ready for the night bus.
posted by The Blaus @ 10:29 AM
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