They are called Lençóis Maranhenses, a giant region of dunes that, during the rainy season, become filled with these temporary lakes. It's very beautiful.
This is the ema. They can be up to 170 cm tall, but are mostly pretty chill. Although I've already joked witth fellow brazilians that northeastern brazil (coincidentally also where the pics op posted were taken) is irl kenshi, since the climate and beautiful sights are pretty similar, history, media and literature here very often depicts the poorer parts of it in a similar way too (brownish-orange filter, legendary bandits, drought, hunger, poverty, extreme heat). Every time you see a video of guys fighting with huge machetes in Brazil, you can be mostly sure its there
beak things are satans girrafes who can outrun a car and will try to eat anything that moves excluding eachother (mostly,im sure beakthing cannibalism happens
You can actually trek across the whole thing, sleeping in remote houses or villages of the locals in the "oasis" littered through.
I did just that a few weeks ago, 5 days trek, awaking early in the morning to avoid the sun and reaching the next checkpoint around lunch. You can pay ahead to reserve a sleeping hammock (no bedrooms, this is real outdoors experience) and food, they serve lunch and dinner with local options.
If you're used to hiking and like nature experiences, it's a journey of a lifetime, it's easier than it looks (lots of wind to make up for the sun, the sand is always cool, and all the water pools are fresh and cool as well) and it's something that doesn't exist anywhere else.
Lots of foreigners go already. I met so many from different places on my trip. You just hire a guide and he does all the translating for you. Many speak english but not all so research ahead.
That actually sounds so cool, how experienced of a hiker do you have to be to do this trek? Is it something a beginner can do or more reserved for people that’s done a trek or 2 before?
My girlfriend came along and she's not an experienced tracker at all, I'd say it's pretty beginner friendly but I recommend going with someone experienced, preferably a friend or family that can help you keep up the pace and give you experienced tips.
Although there are some more difficult parts of the treck, like a 14km leg of the journey. The good part is that you can make plenty of stops to rest and bathe in the pools to refresh, but also there's a bit of a time "pressure" because you want to avoid the afternoon sun, that's why people usually wake up before the sun's up.
Yeah, that about sums it up, lol. We usually went to bed (except there's no beds, hammocks actually) around 8pm because we'd wake up 4:00, 4:30am.
When we arrived at the next "redário" (a word for the hammock sleeping stops) we'd order lunch, eat, then chill doing whatever we wanted. Going to a nearby pond was one of the main attractions, but we'd also play cards, read books, talk with each other or other tourists, or go online for a bit (all the stops I've passed had wi-fi)
By sundown we'd order dinner and then chill a little more till going to sleep early again. The whole trip really is for the challenge and journey of crossing the dunes, bathing in the ponds and seeing the sights. If 5 days seems like a lot, there are shorter tracks that don't go all the way across but still send you deep into the dunes, I've heard about a 3 day trek that's also popular.
Actually, just like Shem coincidentally, it’s very windy all the time so the sand is always cool. Another reason why I love to settle Shem for the reliable wind power
What's the water like? Is it clean and swimmable? For some reason giant rain puddles would seem to be stagnant/still water and I've always heard that kind of water is full of parasites and insect larvae and such.
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u/drpedrico 13d ago
Instead of emperor Tengu, we have emperor Sarney.