Excursion to the planet Vormir!

by Laio Matias (Brazil)

I didn't expect to find Brazil

During your travels, you are expected to have a multitude of emotions. An emotion that is expected is not a true emotion. With only 2 days in advance of an attempt to escape the obvious, in the country of carnival, if you decide to go on a trip alone, without pretensions, without expectations, and try to enjoy just what chance has to offer, within your own country , may surprise you beyond expectations. The rain has its beauty and its strength as well, and it made it look like it would be another rainy day after 5 days in a row, making it a day or so after driving almost 5 hours to reach the destination. A completely different reality to what I was used to in São Paulo, the largest city in Latin America, being more than 3000 kilometers from home in a city of 60,000 inhabitants, made me feel that this would be just another city with a beautiful beach . I think I changed my mind the moment I was received by the native people, I felt something different, something as if all the agitation, lies and falsehood were left behind, and only purity remained. Each inn in the city had a different look and style, but they all conveyed a sense of simplicity. I soon chose a guesthouse and stayed to relax and dedicate myself. Gradually the guests that were there, and that I later understood that they came with the same expectation, helped me to understand how things worked there, and that they already saw what I set out to look for in that place, that they could describe only as something from another planet. Lençois Maranhenses is not a popular destination for tourists in my country, but it was looking for a famous film industry, looking for something different to record scenes from a film. I had to know what was so different to not be found anywhere else on the planet. For me dunes were always dunes and nothing else. After socializing a little, I met the owner of the place. A person with outstanding happiness and with the energy to smile and live, who without blinking, invited everyone to enjoy the ride that everyone came to look for, even under an almost infinite rain. At that moment everything starts to change, as if it were because of that energy. The forecast of sunshine in the morning changes everyone's expectations, creating a chance to visit something that nobody has been able to describe very well. With everyone on board we left with a 4x4 truck through the forest. After 1 hour without stopping even in water tanks, we arrived at a giant dune, nothing more than what I had already known in other locations in the country. Expectation is powerful, never underestimate it. As I climbed 20 meters of sand, something made me shut up. I'm usually an expressive guy, but at that moment I saw something I didn't expect to find. I stood for more than 3 minutes looking in the same direction, trying to find where the horizon ended, why the sun seemed so far away, why the sand looked pink and mixed like crystalline blue from more than 100 lakes just in my view. It was like I was really on another planet, it was like all evil and problems were left behind and there was only happiness. Imagine infinite dunes, which connect and intersect with blue lakes, and that in a few moments, you would find the sunset, because the rain has stopped. At that moment I forgave myself for distrusting my expectation. I also forgave the rain, which played a key role in this scenario, and smiled unintentionally. This is a unique scenario in the world. There is no greater set of dunes than this anywhere else. At almost 4 times the size of Switzerland, it is easy to lose yourself physically and mentally. I still can't express how that moment changes your perspective, but maybe I really felt on a different planet. Maybe not in Volmir like in the movie The Avengers, but in a place of my own.