THE BEAUTIFUL MADNESS OF A RAINY DESERT NOW
LENÇÓIS MARANHENSES
Like a desert gone mad, the watery sandy landscape of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, in Maranhão, Brazil, is a schizophrenic trip. It’s beautiful madness that’s worth a visit. Check it out below.
Stark white sand flats and dunes are dimpled with turquoise pools, like a desert and an oasis at the same time. The dunes look like crumpled white linen. In fact, Lençóis Maranhenses means "bedsheets of Maranhão," in Portuguese.
Two rivers carry sand from Brazil’s interior towards the coastline, making deposits along the way.
Then, during the dry season, in October and November, powerful winds whip up the sand, carrying it from the coastal beaches as far as 30 miles back inland, creating these beautiful vast, sculpted dunes.
The area encompasses roughly 1,500 km2 (580 sq mi), just outside the Amazon Basin. Despite abundant seasonal rain, Lençóis Maranhenses supports almost no vegetation.
But Lençóis Maranhenses is not really a desert. It rains too much to be considered as such. And when it rains, fresh water collects in the valleys between sand dunes, where it is trapped by a subterranean layer of impermeable rock, thereby creating beautiful aqua lagoons.
The waters are at their fullest between July and September, when they interconnect with the Rio Negro and fill with fish.
The wolf fish, also known as tiger fish (Hoplias malabaricus), stays dormant in the moist mud after the majority of the water has evaporated, then reemerges when the rainy season rolls around again.
The pools also attract human swimmers and waders who love to indulge in their warm crystalline waters.
The National Park has no direct access roads. Because of the nature of the park's protected status, most vehicles are not permitted access. So it’s not easy to get here. But that’s part of what makes it so wonderfully worth the trip.
Read more about Beautiful Madness in Beautiful March Madness: Ideas and Images, The Beautiful Madness of Fantasy Now, Beautiful Foodscape Madness and Surreal Self Portraits Take Us To The Edge Now.
And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.
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IMAGE CREDITS:
- Image: by Edwin Poon. “Dunes near Lagoa Bonita at Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.”
- Image: by Fred Schinke. “Lençóis Maranhenses - Lagoa Bonita.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by Sylvain Bourdos. “Lagoa Bonita.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by Sylvain Bourdos. “Last Hour of Undulations.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by Rosanetur. “Lagoa de Atins.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by rinaldouge. “Lençóis-Maranhenses.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by Martin Leonhardt. “Lençóis Maranhenses.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: “Hoplias malabaricus.” From “Illustrations de Ichtyologie ou Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Poissons,” by J. F. Hennig.
- Image: by rinaldouge. “Lençóis-Maranhenses.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by Artur Warchavchik. “Lençóis-Maranhenses.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by Antonio Azevedo Filho. “Dunas de areia.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by Idobi. “Lençóis-Maranhenses.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
- Image: by BN App - Download now!
- Image: Gabriel Castaldini “Ilha dos Lençóis, Maranhão.” Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
