2°31'41.56"S 43°01'33.68" W
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| (from Pexels) Stretching 80 kilometers along Brazil's northeastern coast, the national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lençóis Maranhenses is unquestionably one of a kind: the 1,550 square kilometer big area is composed solely by vast white sand dunes and turquoise lagoons, which is sufficient to create a jaw-dropping beauty. But there's more aside from its looks: all types of secrets are hidden on and under the sandbanks. Yet, the biggest riddle of all is probably the park itself... |
Many will mistakenly assure you it is a desert just because it has dunes. Wrong. We have to consider that Lençóis Maranhenses is in the proximity of the Equator, a latitude where deserts can't exist due to the high humidity and relentless rainfall. So what is this place then? The answer is: a special type of alluvial estuary. This concept might sound like Greek if you aren't into geology or hydrology, but it is something very easy to understand. Basically, when the Parnaíba River merges with the ocean, the loads of sand and sediments it has picked up along its flow are deposited on the shore. In ordinary examples, the sand eventually gets mixed up with the saltwater and leaves its position to the incoming sediments, causing a constant cycle. But that's not the case of Lençóis Maranhenses. During the Equatorial dry season, northern Brazil encounters non-stop heavy Atlantic winds. These move the sand westward into the continent, cutting the normal alluvial process.
Moreover, the wind effect changes the landscape every day. Overnight, a mound can lose sand that another receives, lengthening or shortening the dune (they can reach up to 40 meters/130 feet with this system! ). That said , the sandbanks aren't the only affected ones. The Parnaíba riverbed stands a big distance apart from where it once stood many centuries ago, and the Malvinian ponds aren't permanent either. These, however, are mainly impacted by the rain instead of the wind; in fact, they are rainwater. In case you were doubting, the turquoise color is produced by the interaction of the mineral-rich water with the superficial quartz. Erosion is simply the wand that gives Lençóis Maranhenses a magical appearance. There are disadvantages too, though.
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| Río Negro (Black River)'s waters contrast highly with the rest of the national park (from Wikimedia Commons ) |
The mobile and repetitive landscape makes navigation almost impossible. To not avoid struggling with it, the best recommendation is to hire local guides who know the dunes like the back of their hand, because they were born here. That is possible due to two tiny permanently inhabited oasis settlements in the middle of Lençóis Maranhenses: Queimada dos Britos and Baixa Grande. Around 100 people live in mud huts, sustaining themselves by guiding tourists, by planting small-scale corn crops or by fishing. These fish come to the lagoons via little streams that cut through the sands. Nonetheless, how humans came here is even more interesting:
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| Mud huts at a minor settlement (from Wikimedia Commons ) |
At first, the surroundings were inhabited by the extinct Caeté people; a primitive tribe most famously known for eating the first bishop of Brazil. They already knew the place and might possibly have been the ones who named Lençóis Maranhenses - - - by the way, it means "Maranhão's Bedsheets" owing to its similarity to bedsheets if seen from above. Anyway, the first settlers of the sea of dunes would be Manoel and García Brito, two men who fled the drought in Ceará and installed themselves here for a prosperous future. Actually, Queimada dos Britos' literal meaning is "burnt land of the Britos" because of their slash-and-burn agricultural technique. The livestock the Britos had brought expanded itself and they had offspring too (this means they had at least one unknown woman with them).
Lastly, the future of the national park is endangered. When authorities connected Lençóis Maranhenses to a major city by paving a highway, the mass tourism has grown, damaging the ecosystem. The worst type of activity is when adventurers ride off-road trucks through the ecosystem, scaring away the native birds and foxes. On the other hand, the access points and tourist spots that enclose the national park are being invaded by sand everywhere. In the case of Barreirinhas, it is "only" a sand dune in the city centre; yet, in other places sand has swallowed houses and even the airfield of Tutóia. Mother nature strikes back.
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| It's not a beach. It is a dune in the middle of Barreirinhas (from Wikimedia Commons ) |
Sources and Picture Credits:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 (Learn more)
Picture 2 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3AJulio_Cesar_Goncalves_Corr%C3%AAa&redlink=1#/editor/all and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Aristeas
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Learn more)
Picture 4 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Esquilo
Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication (Learn more)
Picture 3 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ridiculopathy
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