Experience the best of Barreirinhas

Barreirinhas sits on the Preguiças River in the north-east of Brazil, in the state of Maranhão. It is a small, low-lying town of riverside landings and guesthouses, and its main purpose is to serve as the base for the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, created in 1981. The name of the park means bedsheets, after the way the white dunes lie in folds over the land.

In the park, rolling dunes of pure white sand enclose freshwater lagoons, which fill with rain from about January to May and stay blue and green into the dry months. Boat trips down the Preguiças River go to Vassouras, where dunes meet the river, to the Mandacaru lighthouse, which looks out over the dunes, to the sandspit of Caburé and to the fishing village of Atins.

Arroz de cuxá, a Maranhão rice dish made with sesame, dried shrimp and sour hibiscus leaves, is served beside fresh river shrimp, crab and fish, and tapioca pancakes with coconut appear at breakfast. The town lies close to the equator, so the days stay hot all year, and the lagoons are fullest in the months just after the rains.