From the months of January to June, the area is inundated with torrential rainstorms. Rainwater pools in the valleys between the dunes creating thousands of crystal clear lagoons. In July, when the park's lagoons are at their peak, some reach over feet long and ten feet deep.
And although these lagoons exist for only a few months a year, they are not devoid of life. Interconnected lagoons link up with neighboring rivers creating channels for fish to enter the temporary pools. In places these dunes may advance by as much as 65 feet a year.
Lagoons are born anew each year after the January-to-June rains fill the valleys between the dunes. Some of these temporary bodies of water are more than feet long and up to ten feet deep. In early July, at their fullest, the lagoons can become interconnected when rivers, such as the Rio Negro, cut through the dunes. So fish have a route to migrate into the lagoons, where they feed on other fish or the larvae of insects buried in the sand. A few fish species, such as the wolffish Hoplias malabaricus , even spend the dry season dormant in the mud, emerging when the showers return.
Once the rainy season ends, the lagoons begin to evaporate in the equatorial heat; their water level may drop by as much as three feet a month. Fish and bugs aren't the only residents. Besides people living in villages around the dunes, 90 men, women, and children inhabit two oases in the dunes, Queimada dos Britos and Baixa Grande, where they dwell in palm-roofed mud huts.
Like the dunes, they change their routines with the seasons. In the dry season they raise chickens, goats, and cattle, grow cassava, beans, and cashews, and collect buriti and carnauba palm fibers from the restinga, or coastal vegetation, that grows near the dunes. When the rains come and planting becomes more difficult, people in the oases head for the sea, where they live in fishing camps on the beach.
There they sell salted and dried Atlantic tarpon and other fish to traders, who sell them in the cities. Since then, tourism has also increased, with more than 60, park visitors a year now, and joyriding on the dunes on all-terrain vehicles has become a big concern for park officials. In an effort to promote a more sustainable kind of tourism, she led a group in on a mile hike from one side of the park to the other to look for signs of dune creatures, including the Brazilian slider turtle Trachemys adiutrix , the yellow armadillo Euphractus sexcinctus , and the white-eared opossum Didelphis albiventris.
It's no wonder that outsiders want to visit this otherworldly place, the largest coastal dune field in Brazil. Even those who know it best are surprised by its constantly shifting beauty.
Manoel Brito, the late patriarch of Queimada dos Britos, used to keep a herd of or so goats that roamed freely through the sands. Wandering over the dunes with his herd, he would marvel at the way the sands kept on the move. God created these white mountains and made the wind play with them forever. All rights reserved. Ribbons of dunes trap the rains. The water has been recorded up to 87 degrees Fahrenheit , providing a relaxing experience for anyone who made the voyage.
Getting to the pools takes some effort. To get to the park, visitors must take a jeep, one of the only vehicles capable of handling the bumpy terrain. When the lagoons are formed for the season, all sorts of animals crawl out of the bedsheets.
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