Toca da Cataia Restaurante e Pousada

What It's Like to Visit Brazil's Lençóis Maranhenses National Park — Home to Bone-white Sand Dunes and Sky-blue Lagoons

"A modest family restaurant under a high thatched pavilion where local seafood and traditional preparations shine: the meal included wild mangrove oysters lashed with fresh-pressed coconut milk and medallions of basil; morsels of sarnambi (tiny clams smaller than pennies) stuffed into a grilled sea bass and stewed with coconut; and a dessert of thick pudding made from shaved coconut cooked with cream and condensed milk, crowned with fragrant amulets of lemon verbena. The host, Alcione Galvão, described life in the village with intimate reassurance—“Even though you didn’t see anyone in the street — it’s mid-afternoon, everyone is at home, out of the sun — everyone knows you’re here”—and with sober optimism about tourism’s potential: “Life in Travosa is very precarious… We don’t have basic infrastructure for health or education. If we could open things to tourism, all of that might change. We’ve been here longer than the park. We’d like to create new opportunities.”" - Michael Snyder Michael Snyder Michael Snyder is a Mexico City-based journalist specializing in food, architecture, and travel. He is a regular contributor to T: The New York Times Style Magazine and has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Nation, among other publications. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines