I'll start this one post Just a heads up: Book at least 4 days for Lençóis Maranhenses and if you want to visit São Luís, a few more days as well. The trip is tiring (many hours by car) and the landscapes are incredible. Unfortunately, our trip was very rushed and now we want to return calmly!

Summary Itinerary

Some costs

 PS: The prices above are for two people!

Preparations for the Lençóis Maranhenses

I took advantage of Celo's upcoming birthday to book a "good" trip for us. After a lot of research, I found miles tickets with Gol to several places, but I ended up really getting excited about São Luís.

We always wanted to go to Lençois Maranhenses, but we never found cheap flights during good times, so as soon as I found one, I thought it was a sign. We had to miss a day of work, because a weekend is not enough to go there because of the distance and the tours we had to do. Man, it was 14 hours of flights and connections + 8 hours of transfer from São Luis to Barreirinhas and vice-versa. That's a lot of work for 3 days. Of course, we came back exhausted!

I closed all the tours and transfers with the company Sao Paulo Ecotourism, as it was the company that offered me the best value for money, given our limited time. A couple of friends went there and recommended the company Tropical Adventure, but unfortunately, the tours offered did not fit our short time. When I started exchanging emails with both companies, I saw an absurd difference in prices transfers private and collective for a couple, in this case: R$350 for transfer private at any time and R$100 for transfer collective with scheduled time. Obviously, we opted for the second option.

Day 1 (Saturday) – 08/23/2014

We took the flight on Friday at 9pm from Santos Dumont to Guarulhos and then on to São Luís. We arrived there at 3:20am, but we had to wait almost 2 hours at the airport, since the transfer to Barreirinhas I left there at 5am. What did we do in this micro airport during all that time? Snack, delicious chair massage, reading and nap, in that order.

The route to Barreirinhas

We got into the van and unfortunately, we decided to sit in the back, because there were four seats and it was darker. If regret could kill… We spent the entire trip shaking with little legroom, because someone ended up sitting with us in the back and we couldn’t lie down, as we had imagined. To make matters worse, the seats in the front reclined too much and squeezed us really tight. Luckily, we were too tired to sleep, so that’s what we did, sitting down. We stopped halfway, that is, after 2 hours on the road, at a restaurant so people could go to the bathroom and eat something. Then, another 2 hours of travel until finally our destination, Barreirinhas, the base city for the Lençóis Maranhenses.

We arrived around 9am and I have to admit that we didn't really like what we saw. The city is big (we imagined it would be smaller) and very ugly, with many houses with exposed bricks. I don't think we've ever visited a tourist city as poor as this one. The driver stopped at some inns to drop off the tourists and I didn't like anything I saw.

Our accommodation in Lençóis Maranhenses

We finally headed to our hotel, the Great Solare and I was so happy to see him!

[Detail: the same couple who recommended Tropical Adventure recommended another hotel for us to stay at, the Porto Preguiças Resort, which is the best and most expensive in town. When we went to check availability, there were no more rooms available, to my relief and Celo's frustration. (Wow, R$$500 a night is not worth it!!)]. Our hotel was very tidy, all modern, with great infrastructure and a fair price. There is also a condominium system there, where some rooms have owners and to differentiate the owners from the guests, we were given different bracelets. I thought it was pretty cool!

Since we only paid for two nights and the daily rate only started at 12pm, we ended up paying for breakfast and they let us check into the room early. We got ready and went to the pool to kill time until the tour. Beautiful Lagoon, which would only start at 2 pm. We stayed drinking at the pool bar until the people from the tour company arrived to pick us up, right on time.

The trip to Lagoa Bonita

They picked us up in a Toyota with some adapted seats in the trunk, which was really cool, by the way. We stopped to buy water (at least 1 liter per person, really) and went to the dunes. We went along a trail roots, with several moments where the car almost got stuck and almost had accidents with branches hitting people, but we survived. We reached the base of the dunes and came across a slope of almost 70 meters, made of nothing but sand. No one commented on this nasty slope. No one. We almost died on the way up, but it was totally worth it. Look at the view:

We spent about 4 hours there, alternating between walking on the dunes and swimming in the lagoons. I thought I would suffocate in the sun, but it was much calmer than I thought. Put on some sunglasses, plenty of sunscreen and preferably tie your hair up, because the wind is fierce, and go for it. The place is absolutely peaceful, with stunning views. You can't help but enjoy it.

I discovered, talking to the guide, that the best time to go to Lençóis is July/Beginning of August, because that's when the lagoons are really full, since that's when the rainy season has just ended. We went at the end of August and he said that there were quite empty lagoons, which were more beautiful when they were completely full. Maybe one day we'll go back, right?

The best part of the trip was by far watching the sunset. A vast expanse of white, with a sky with very few clouds, an orange sky, a clear, round sun and a lovely wind. I thought it was magical, it was a shame there were more people around us, because otherwise it would have been perfectly romantic.

We left after the sun went down, went down the steep hill and came back along the same roots trail. We arrived at the hotel around 7pm, got ready and went to dinner at the hotel's pizzeria, which is right on the riverbank, with a really nice atmosphere. We loved the pizza, the wine (for a short time, we had to drink it out of beer glasses... lol) and especially the group of friends playing country music on the guitar...

Day 2 (Sunday) – 08/24/2014

We woke up, had a super complete breakfast at the hotel and waited for them to pick us up to go on the quad bike tour.

The ATV ride

The guy from our company ended up showing up right when we weren't at reception and, believe it or not, he left the hotel. without us. We called the company after we found out they had left and they told us to go to a store inside the hotel, which was where a large group was waiting. I don't think they even went there...lol. We took the practical classes right in front of the hotel and after waiting almost 1 hour for everyone to take the practical class and listen to the instructions, we finally went for a walk.

We started by passing through some streets with very poor houses and we got a vibe It was bad there. I don't know, we spent R$$350 on a quad bike ride and families lived in houses that weren't even made of brick. Really poor. After the houses started to disappear, I ended up enjoying the ride more. We went through some cool trails, with a risk of getting stuck and after almost an hour of driving, we stopped at a pseudo bar to drink coconut water and stay in the shade. We continued along the trail and after half an hour, we arrived at some really cool dunes and some lagoons, where we stopped to swim. Then we continued and had to cross huge rivers with the quad bike almost covered in water. We loved the experience!

After the dunes, we arrived at the beach of Cabure. Rough sea, very windy, white sand, dead trees due to the tide and not a soul to be seen there. We spent a long time riding the quad bike, listening to the sound of the wind and the waves…it was wonderful! It could have gone on all day and we wouldn’t have gotten tired, especially if we could have run like delinquents (Celo managed to do that a few times, that’s all…)

After some time, we arrived at a very simple but cozy restaurant, Fish Hut. We ordered crab cones, fish with shrimp sauce, coconut candy and beer to go with it. Everything was delicious, especially the coconut candy.

After paying the bill, we went to lie down in the hammocks outside the restaurant. What a treat! In the shade, with a lot of wind, a hammock swinging and the perfect company by our side…we didn't want to leave.

After a few minutes of lying down, we heard the sounds of ATVs and ran out to see the group. Were they going to leave without us? How ridiculous!! I gave the guide a little scolding, made a fuss to get our ATV back, since it was being used by a couple who were going back by boat (Oh yeah! There is also this option for the tour!) and that was it, we went back the same way we came. =P

We arrived at the hotel around 5pm and took the opportunity to enjoy the pool again. After almost an hour at the bar, we had a very unpleasant surprise: while we were leaning on the edge of the pool, a CRAB spider came towards us! That's right! I only noticed it when it was very close to Celo's neck, after all I'm nearsighted and wasn't wearing glasses/contact lenses. I screamed really loud, pulled Celo to the center of the pool, where I was, and, believe it or not, the spider went into the water! I kept screaming until the bartender managed to get the spider out of the water and killed it outside the pool. Surreal! It was like a scene from a movie. The desire to stay in the pool disappeared and we went straight up to our room.

On the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the hotel, since it is far from the city center, offers a shuttle service at night for guests to go to dinner at the more traditional restaurants in the city center. We scheduled to leave at 8:30 pm and planned to return at 10:30 pm. We arrived in the city center and I must admit that we weren't very excited about the restaurants that were coming up, because the city is kind of poor and all, but when we got to the street where the cool restaurants are, right on the banks of the Preguiças River, we loved what we saw! Look how cool…

I looked on the TripAdvisor app and the number one restaurant was at the Porto Preguiças Resort, but the food was international. We had already talked about eating something typical, so we decided to go to the number two restaurant on the list, A Canoa. We sat up there, as we thought it was more welcoming, and from there we could hear the music being played on the street and we also had the whole view to ourselves.

It took a while for us to be served, but the food arrived quickly. Everything was delicious and the presentation was really cool. Check it out:

Day 3 (Monday) – 08/25/2014

I woke up several times during the night feeling very sick. I don't know if it was because of something I ate/drank at lunch or dinner. I wanted to find out so I could tell you guys to avoid it... I have a slight impression that it was the shrimp sauce from the restaurant at lunch, but I can't be sure.

We had the tour of Blue Lagoon scheduled for 9am, but when it was 8:30am, I called to cancel. We stayed in the room wondering if we would get better and such, and decided to call them and tell them we were going. We ended up taking a taxi to their office in the city center (R$20) and there we went, still nauseous.

The trip to the Blue Lagoon

We did practically the same route we did on the first day to Lagoa Bonita, that is, the car almost got stuck on a trail with lots of holes, plants hitting us, etc. Total misery.

We finally reached the dunes and went for a walk around them and bathed in some lagoons: Lagoa dos Toyoteiros, Lagoa da Paz, Lagoa Azul and Lagoa da Preguiça. They were all beautiful and, thank God, empty of people. We alternated between feeling sick and feeling well, but we didn't regret going.

The good thing is that we got back to the hotel around 1pm, so we didn't suffer that much. We took the opportunity to pack our bags, take a shower and get some sleep that we didn't get during the night. We were supposed to do the checkout at 3pm, but we managed to stay until 4pm, the time our transfer to São Luís would pick us up. More points for the hotel! =)

We sat in the middle of the transfer This time we slept like logs. Same thing as on the way there…stopped in the middle of the road, after 2 hours on the ground. We arrived at São Luís airport around 9pm, but our flight wasn’t until 3am. Our initial idea was to go out to dinner in São Luís and kill time, but since we were still nauseous, we decided to stay put at the airport. We took turns sleeping on the benches and even tried to get our flight back earlier, but it cost R$$800 each. No chance. After 7 hours of flights and connections, we finally arrived in Rio. Now we’re recovering and having fun with the bad GoPro photos! =P

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