EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

At Santa Inês a fork heads southwest to IMPERATRIZ , a mushrooming city on the Belém-Brasília highway: 280,000 people where as recently as twenty years ago there was only a small town of about 10,000. There's little reason to go to Imperatriz for its own sake. The town is teeming with people on the move, and even basic facilities have been swamped. The atmosphere here is made worse by the violent land conflicts in the region, and Imperatriz is where the gunmen hang out between contracts. However, it does lie en route to Brasília and, more immediately, CAROLINA , the only town in southern Maranhão of any conceivable interest to tourists. Situated on the banks of the Rio Tocantins, Carolina's attraction is that it lies in a region of spectacular waterfalls, the most famous being those at Pedra Caída , more than 30km out of town. If you're coming from São Luís, you should get the train as far as Imperatriz before changing to the bus for a four-hour ride to Carolina. There are a few places to stay , including the Recanto Pedra Caída (tel 098/731-1318; $35-50), right by the falls.