I found it really hard to find information about transportation in the nordeste, other than all-inclusive transfers by travel agencies. Travelling the cheaper way for a kite trip is actually possible, but time consuming.
Our kite trip in the nordeste was the following: Sao Luis airport > 5 days in Atins & Lençois Marahenses > 4 days in Barra Grande, Piaui > 5 days in Icarai > Fortaleza airport. This was the perfect balance between having time to settle down and enjoy each spot, and still exploring several kite spots.
Here, I’m focusing only on transportation, not on describing each spot.
- Sao Luis > Barreirhinas — ONIBUS
Departure: Rodoviaria de Sao Luis (outside town, close to the airport)
Arrival: Barreirhinas center (it’s a small town)
Price: 51R per person
Time: 6am, 8.45am, 2pm, 7.30pm
Company: Cisne Branco
Travel time: 5 hours
- Barreirhinas > Atins — TOYOTA
Departure: main street (ask anyone)
Arrival: they drop you at your hotel/pousada
Price: 25R per person
Time: between 9 and 10am
Travel time: 2 hours
Another option is to take the boat from Barreirhinas to Atins, but it’s 50R per person. It leaves around 10 or noon I think, and takes 1 hour.
- Atins > Barreirhinas — TOYOTA
Departure: ask your pousada. They can pick you up at the pousada.
Arrival: main street
Price: 25R per person
Time: 5am for us. It can change.
Travel time: 2 hours
Another option is to take the same boat as for the other way.
- Barreirhinas > Paulino Neves — TOYOTA
Departure: main street, in front of the restaurant Done Dulce, at the crossroads with Rua Professor Viana
Arrival: Paulino Neves, super small village
Price: 20R per person
Time: around 8am for us, it can change
Travel time: 1 hour
Then, there will probably be another car waiting for you to take you to Tutoia. Arrival: Tutoia rodoviaria
Price: 10R per person
Travel time: 40 minutes We arrived in Tutoia around 11.30am and the next bus to Parnaiba was at 3pm, arriving 6pm to Parnaiba.
- Tutoia > Parnaiba — ONIBUS
Departure: rodoviaria
Arrival: Parnaiba rodoviaria
Time: 3pm
Bus company: ?
Travel time: 3 hours
Price: 25R per person
Finally, we found a Toyota going to Parnaiba who took us for 40R per person. Travel time was 1h30, he drove VERY fast 😃
- Parnaiba > Barra Grande — ONIBUS
Departure: Parnaiba Rodoviaria (2.30pm) or Agencia Fontanele (centro de Parnaiba) 2pm
Arrival: main square of Barra Grande
Time: 10.30am, 2pm, 4pm
Travel time: 1h15-30
Price: 15R per person
Bus company: Damasceno
We were offered several taxi rides, that we declined:
- from Paulino Neves to Barra Grande: 260R for two people
- from Tutoia to Parnaiba for 200R for two people
- from Tutoia to Barra Grande for 350R for two people.
- Barra Grande > Parnaiba — ONIBUS
Departure: main square of Barra Grande
Arrival: Parnaiba Rodoviaria or Agencia Fontanele
Time: 6am (a little before that), 6.30am, 12.30pm
Travel time: 1h for Rodoviaria
Price: 15R per person
Bus company: Damasceno
- Parnaiba > Camocim — ONIBUS
Departure: Parnaiba Rodoviaria
Arrival: Camocim rodoviaria
Time: 7.15am
Travel time: 2h10
Price: 23R per person
Bus company: Guanabara
- Camocim > Amontada —
We thought there was an onibus at 9.40am with Fretcar but it actually did not exist. The only direct bus was Saturday (the day after) at 6pm.
Fretcar is a pretty bad company compared to others. It’s really hard to find schedules only.
So we had to go to Itarema. Wait for an hour. Take another bus from Itarema to Amontada. We checked the map and our route really did not make sense but we had no other option.
That was a LONG LONG trip.
- Camocim > Itarema — ONIBUS
Departure: Camocim rodoviaria
Arrival: main street of Itarema Going through Jijoca & Acarau.
Time: 11.30pm
Travel time: 2.10 hours
Price: 26R per person
Bus company: Fretcar
- Itarema > Amontada — ONIBUS
Departure: main street of Itarema
Arrival: main street Amontada Going through Acarau
Time: 3.30pm
Travel time: 2h30
Price: 14R per person
Bus company: Fretcar
- Amontada > Icarai — ONIBUS
Departure: main street Amontada
Arrival: main square Icarai
Time: 5pm ?
Travel time: 1 hour
Price: 7R per person
Bus company: Fretcar
But we missed it… So we had to go with locals who took us for 100R for two people.
- Icarai > Amontada — ONIBUS
Departure: main square Icarai
Arrival: main street Amontada or Fortaleza
Time: 5.50am (only one during the day)
Then it goes to Fortaleza directly.
Price: 7R per person