April 30 – Flight to São Luis and over Lençóis Maranhenses

We had a leisurely morning in the room, packing and working on photos.  

Mary's new favorite soft drink...Guarana.  It is Brazil's national soft drink.  It is made from an Amazonian fruit.  Tastes a bit like apples only different.  We have seen people drinking it everywhere. 

After lunch we took a few photos of our resort, Porto Perguicas Resort.  It was a very pretty place even though we didn’t spend much time here enjoying its amenities.

They had a couple of interesting murals, one of the dunes and lagoons from the front window of an airplane and the other a map of the national park. 

We were picked up at 2:30 for our transfer to the airport.  The airport is small and handles only private planes.  There is no commercial service here.  We have a private plane for our ride back to São Luis. While taxing the navigator kept the door open.  For cooling ventilation is seems. 

This flight was absolutely magical.  We spent quite a bit of time flying over dunes and lagoons.  On the right we had great views of the dunes and the Blue Ocean (the Atlantic).

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Video of dunes an lagoons from plane
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And on the left was the Green Ocean around Barreiranhas...

many rivers

and eventually the rivers that surround Sao Luis. 

The clouds up here were pretty awesome.

The navigator had what appeared to be a handheld navigation device, a little larger than an iPhone.  Every so often he would point and the pilot would change course.  High tech. 

More views from the plane...coastline and clouds and large bodies of water. 

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More Lençóis Maranhenses from the air
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We had just spent two days touring some of the dunes in a 4X4 and swimming in some lagoons...and it felt huge.  But that feeling was nothing like the reality we saw from the air.  The dunes seemed to be never ending.  And instead of a rumpled, white sheet (that gives the area its name) I think it looked like a gigantic white, lace tablecloth.  

 We are so, so glad we took the flight back.  It was magical and jaw-dropping.  We have decided that this place is one of the top five most beautiful places in the world that we have ever seen.  The photos don't even begin to reflect the beauty of this place. 

The flight was very good and the landing smooth.  When we got to the airport a very large bus pulled up to take the two of us and our luggage to the terminal. 

São Luis is a city of about 60,000 and is built on an island.  Apparently, there is an old town but we aren’t spending much time here and don’t have a city tour.  We will overnight here leave in the morning for São Paulo for our flight home.