Lagoa do Paraíso is a freshwater lagoon about 15 kilometres from Jericoacoara, accessible by dune buggy or 4x4 through the national park interior. The water is gin-clear, warm, and shallow — averaging about two metres deep — and the far shore has floating restaurants that serve fish and cold beer from platforms in the water. The standard visit involves driving out, anchoring a buggy near the shore, wading in to the floating bars, and spending two to three hours eating lunch while sitting in the water up to your waist. It is, by any measure, excellent.
The drive through the dunes to the lagoon is itself part of the experience: enormous sand mountains, occasional lagoons catching the sky, and the peculiar visual logic of the sertão where desert and freshwater coexist. Buggy trips from Jeri to Lagoa do Paraíso are a standard half-day excursion arranged from any guesthouse.