Algodoal Island

Algodoal, properly Maiandeua, lies off the Atlantic coast of Para about a hundred and sixty kilometres from Belem, and it has no cars at all - sand streets, horse-drawn carts for luggage, and walking for everything else. It is a protected area of dunes, restinga scrub, mangrove and freshwater lagoons, with four small settlements and a long beach on the ocean side where the tide goes out a very long way. Crossing to Praia da Princesa, the best-known beach, means wading a channel at low tide or taking a boat. The water is the brown of the Amazon plume rather than blue. Local legend attaches a serpent-woman to the lagoon at Lago da Princesa, which the villages will tell you about at length.

What you actually see

• No cars at all - sand streets, horse carts and walking.
• A wading crossing - the channel to Praia da Princesa, passable at low tide.
• Dunes and freshwater lagoons - the protected restinga landscape behind the beach.
• Amazon-brown ocean - the river plume colouring the Atlantic here.

When to go

July to December, the drier half. Two days.

Honest expectations

Getting there is a bus plus a boat and the last boats leave early. There are no ATMs - bring cash. Power and water can be intermittent. The sea is brown, which surprises people expecting the north-east coast.

Nearby

Marudá is the mainland port; Belem is inland to the west.