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A pair of natural freshwater lagoons cradled within the immense white dunefields of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, in northeastern Brazil. Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Bonita form during the rainy season, when rainwater collects between towering sand dunes to create pools of astonishing clarity and colour, ranging from deep sapphire to pale turquoise depending on the light and the hour.

Reached only by 4×4 vehicle across shifting sand tracks from the nearby town of Barreirinhas, the lagoons reward the journey with a landscape that feels otherworldly: bone-white dunes rolling to the horizon, framed by isolated palm groves and cloudless skies. Swimming here is a rare pleasure, cool water against sun-baked sand, with no permanent structures or crowds to interrupt the silence.

Best visited between June and September, when the lagoons are at their fullest, this remote corner of Maranhão offers one of Brazil’s most singular natural spectacles, a fleeting, seasonal masterpiece sculpted entirely by wind and rain.