Quad in the dunes of Parnaiba

The alarm rings at 4 am, our bus to Parnaiba is at 5am. We only have 5min to walk to the bus station and we get there 30min before our departure.

It’s an uneventful 2 hours drive to destination. We have 30min to get a simple breakfast at the station cafés before the quad company comes to pick us up.

The buses and various shared (and affordable) transport in the Nordeste are difficult to combine. They are not every day, sometimes just twice a week to link small sections of the coast, separated by only 2 hours’ drive. If you do the road of emotions, it's made so that you will have to pay for a private transport at some point. Ours was Parnaiba to Barreirinhas. And only available at 2pm this Friday.

We had a whole morning in Parnaiba to occupy and this quad tour was just perfect!

We arrive at their base, and it will be us, the guide Alessandro and another French couple. We familiarize ourselves with the quad doing some training before hitting the path to the dunes.
It starts through some bush until we arrive at a very big laguna, this one is full all year. We continue through beautiful dunes, some area with grass and cattle, horses or donkey grazing. And then dunes again.

It's extraordinary, we are all alone out there and the views are beautiful. We stop at a few high points and Alessandro gives us some explanations about the formation of the dunes, how they move and some wildlife. It's really helpful that he speaks English, we learn something new on this tour.

Our first Laguna has crystal clear water and is quite shallow. The temperature is deliciously refreshing. We take a dip and chit chat with the other French couple. Then we continue our drive soaking the views. We circle back to the first big laguna that we saw but from another side. We swim some more and chit chat with Alessandro who joins us this time.

We have driven around for 3hours and it was a great experience. The fact that we were alone made it really unique and Alessandro provided a lot of nice tidbits of explanations about the place. We totally missed this in Jericoacoara because of the language barrier.

They drop us back at the bus station, we have 2 hours to wait. We eat some pastel and snacks. The minibus of Rotacombo is right on time.

The driver is really fast, and this part of the journey that should have lasted 3h30 only took 2h30!
But once we arrive in Barreirinhas, the driver is reluctant to bring us to the accommodation. He tried once but used the narrow roads which were full of sand. He called his customer care and they dispatched a local taxi to bring us to our Airbnb. The car took the main road, and actually the place can be reached with good roads... Never mind, we arrived one hour later - this whole ordeal was tiring, especially when no one understands each other. Rotacombo did an excellent service though, and I must say I am happy with their service and reactivity when the issue was brought forward.

Our Airbnb is very isolated, but it's a small house with a pool and the bed are super comfortable. We are dead tired, we had a can of sardines left and some pastas. We fixed ourselves a simple dish with all the other tidbits left in our mini cooler box and call it a day.