Cabure and Atins, Maranhao - Brazil

Cabure and Atins, Maranhao - Brazil slideshow

Most people on our boat had lunch at one of the four pousadas in Cabure and returned to Barreirinhas. But Peter and I couldn't leave the place. It was hypnotic to watch and experience life in this little peninsula between Rio Prequica and the Atlantic Ocean during the five days we stayed there. For starters, there is no electricity, making us more aware of nature all around us. And Cabure is all about nature. During the day we walked back and forth across beaches and dunes, awed by fine sand moving in all different directions with the relentless wind. Peter was fascinated with waterways and crevices formed on the sand, like subsystems of dunes and lagoons, created simply with the change of high tide to low tide. Sometimes the water created such deep holes in the sand, big enough for large pools perfect for bathing. To the west, the river met the ocean, across from the town of Atins, home of the large dunes. This part was greener, with mangroves. To the east, the long stretch of beach pointed to Jericoacoara. We loved hearing the wind moving fine sand across the beach, the ocean roaring and producing white foam as the waves broke, forming thousands of designs on the wet sand.

There was virtually no one on the beach this time of year, except for the few tourists who arrived at Cabure around lunch time and left by 3pm everyday. The guest houses were very empty also. During the week we were the only residents where we stayed, and the other three pousadas were almost completely empty. We saw a few abandoned fisherman huts buried in sand. We were told that they leave during the dry season (May – December) to work on farms and return during the rainy season when they fish. The beach was practically ours.

River and ocean were so close to each other, the distance separating them in the dunes ranged from zero to 1500 yards. During high tide, water crept up into the pousadas, basically all the way into the entrance. At Pousanda Pacuri where we stayed, the water covered the stilts where the generator was kept. We were told that our pousada was 1,200 yards away from the ocean 18 years ago, but since then, the ocean has encroached within 300 yards. At the rate the sea level is rising every year, it is estimated that in 6 years, Cabure will be abandoned, as high tide takes it away. A new island will probably remain where the western end of the peninsula is now.

Watching this movement of water and sand had the same hypnotic effect as watching fire – for some strange reason, it was a constant source of entertainment. In order to delay the sand from accumulating over the side of the pousada walls, the owners constantly had to arrange for barriers made of large buriti (a local palm-like) tree leaves. But the fences started being eaten up by sand almost the moment they were built. This made Cabure even a more magical place, under the spell of strong natural forces of the sun, water, sand, wind and global warming. A place that in 5 or 6 years will probably be swept away by ocean high tides.

One day we hired a boatman to take us across to Atins, the home of large dunes, 20 minutes across from Cabure, on Rio Prequica. Once on the other side of the shore, Peter and I went out exploring on our own without a guide. We did very well until we were returning to town to meet up with our boatman again to take us back to Cabure. We ran into a fisherman who told us that the local pousada/restaurant, Dona Luzia, famous for barbecued shrimp, was only 20 minutes away. We had already walked 7 hours under fierce sun up and down gigantic dunes, so we thought that 40 minutes return was not a big deal. But it ended up being a 3 hours return trip, and no time to eat shrimp or anything else. When we met our boatman, he took us to a lagoon where scarlet flamingos return to their nests at sunset.

By the time we got back to the pousada just after sunset, we were totally exhausted, not even hungry, and collapsed after sunset, completely beaten by sun, wind and sea. We slept like rocks, under the soothing gentle wind coming through the front window to the back one all night. After all, there was only natural light, provided by moon and stars. At dawn, the first rays of sunlight was our cue for another day of discoveries.