Brazil — The countryside of eastern Brazil is grounded in earth tones: The roads are rust and dust; the towns are pastel; and the people are coffee and cacao (a visible sign of this region’s slaving history) On top grows a wild proliferation of greens: Dark slate swirling together in an infinite expression of living color We saw several super-endemic bird species today that were discovered/described relatively recently: The Bahia Tapaculo (described in 1989) Best was a pair of Pink-legged Gravateiros the last brand-new bird genus added anywhere in the world My year list is creeping toward the 1,000-species mark It looks like I’ll probably hit four digits on Valentine’s Day before I leave Brazil and this entire half of South America behind Leo and I will try to pull out a few more good birds in the state of Bahia I am staying tonight at his house in Itacare where I’ve gotten to know Leo’s three-year-old daughter (currently obsessed with pink dresses and princesses) Year list: 969 Next Day Previous Day Pledge to stand with Audubon to call on elected officials to listen to science and work towards climate solutions '#' : location.hash;window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery = location.search === '' && location.href.slice(0 location.href.length - window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash.length).indexOf('?') !== -1 '?' : location.search;if (window.history && window.history.replaceState) {var ogU = location.pathname + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash;history.replaceState(null ogU);}}document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(cpo);}()); Patrick Marnham discovers deserted beaches and a barefoot resort where he would happily take up residence there were crudely made signs: 'Here indigenous people are fighting to reclaim 48,000 hectares of forest and farmland.' Rundown motels showed 'No Vacancies' but seemed empty A woman standing in a river was stooping over stones the driver swung left off the highway and plunged down an unmarked dirt track This was supposed to be the entrance to a hotel There was a guard tower about 50 metres into the trees where a relaxed- looking security man waved us on In the past few days a large part of the South Atlantic Ocean seemed to have been sucked into the air and dumped onto the state of Bahia We passed a lagoon, then a second. At the end of a track there was a riverbank, a small wooden jetty and a waiting launch. There were no buildings. This was the only way into Fazenda da Lagoa, which is probably the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in and certainly the only one where I could imagine taking up permanent residence. Continued a beach outside Ilhéus on the road to Itacaré The land on either side was once a palm-oil and cassava farm but it is now being returned to rainforest In the shades above us hundreds of parakeets crowded past 'It must be five o'clock,' said the boatman it is better described as a 'beachfront hideaway' and is probably too remote for the average holidaymaker In contrast to the long list of activities offered by rival destinations 'There are no entertainment options nearby.' You can enjoy the beach or take the launch through mangrove swamps and upriver You can even work if your work is transportable It would make the ideal retreat for an antisocial writer a long bar and quite a well-stocked library 'We always know which guests will be happy here,' the barman told me 'The ones who don't ask if we have mobile reception.' Everything at Fazenda da Lagoa then down the dirt track and the road across the marsh and finally on the boat Apparently there is another track by the edge of the forest but few care to use it because of the speed of the tide Pictured: Poolside loungers at Fazenda da Lagoa This is a beachside settlement where a handful of idealists have purchased land from a disused coconut farm and established a community They describe it as an 'Eco Village and Retreat Centre for Human Development' An original assortment of structures between the forest and the beach offer every facility from a steam sauna to a recording studio to yoga classes with a qualified Iyengar professor abundant spring water and the occasional banana spider It is the kind of place where surfers go when they grow up spiritual weddings and Tibetan healings a speciality There are chalets for short stays and larger houses for longer-term rental Pictured: a surfer on the beach at Itacaré Pictured: the entrance to the Shamash spa at Txai resort There my own attempts to achieve Zen were interrupted by a cloudburst so violent that it drowned the booming of the storm surf 30 metres away and two teak sun-loungers arranged side by side outside my door rocked on the deck in mutual defiance of the elements Pictured: a bedroom at Txai Itacaré Resort the first part of the country to be settled by the Portuguese and one of the earliest providers of the crops that established the country's economy: sugar cane This is a region where great fortunes have been won and lost Its history was immortalised by Jorge Amado in his 1958 novel Gabriela Amado was born and raised in this part of the world His father was a sharecropper on a small cocoa plantation who won the national lottery The family moved to Ilhéus and built a splendid house opposite the cathedral This cannot have pleased the bishop since Amado grew up to join the Brazilian Communist Party and to satirise the local oligarchy of corrupt and violent 'cocoa colonels' who ran the state I visited an organic cocoa farm owned by a Basque expatriate called Patrick when the 'witch's broom' fungus wiped out 90 per cent of Brazilian cocoa trees and his production dropped to near zero for several years Patrick's solution was to switch to organic farming He now grazes cattle over much of the farm The straw is then spread through the plantation as fertiliser for the cocoa trees (mostly hybrids developed to avoid another attack of disease) He said that he misses nothing except the snow and the rugby by making wine - in his case organic cocoa wine Patrick's mood as he showed me round the cocoa plantation had been relaxed which resembles a laboratory and has clinically high standards of hygiene slightly sweet taste like white port or Muscatel He is still experimenting with the strength For one wild moment I thought he was about to present me with a bottle but it turned out he just wanted to show off his new label My journey through bahia included many stimulating and memorable experiences including being half-drowned in a canoe during a storm in the Baía de Todos os Santos But the place I still tend to recall is Fazenda da Lagoa On the morning after my arrival I walked on the beach there was a gentle surf and a misty haze between blue sky and green water and at the centre of a district that contains more than a hint of insurrection 'Latin America,' it was once said 'is the insane asylum of Europe.' If so provided I can be locked up in Fazenda da Lagoa WEATHER TO GO Average daytime temperatures in Bahia range from 26°C to 31°C. The period with the highest rainfall is from May to August. Conditions are drier and less humid from September to December. By Patrick Marnham. Published in Condé Nast Traveller October 2010. [/i] Pictured: the daughter of a work on Patrick's cocoa farm in Bahia, Brazil Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker elegance and convenience of European design with the natural materials and tones of a tropical environment.’ Thus the architecture emerges from the lush slope opening out toward the local flora and capturing views of the ocean beyond images © Victor B. Ortiz Architecture  Architect Victor Ortiz organizes the proposed residence around a Cacao tree with the living areas and swimming pool on the lower level and a gym and office are planned around the home’s main entrance which is flooded with sunlight from a wooded pergola skylight the architect strategically plans a guest suite to maximize privacy and views while the living and dining space is seamlessly integrated with the outdoor terrace by way of a large plane of sliding doors This connection serves to extend the living area to meet the swimming pool Victor Ortiz thoughtfully places an array of openings and windows which frame unique and curated vignettes of the natural surroundings This transparency and openness to nature is complemented by a material palette characterized by warm tones The walls and ceiling are finished with an off-white lime wash paint while the interior and exterior flooring are covered in a light gray micro-cement Details in natural wood are to be found in the windows the house emerges from the lush slope to view the ocean below The dwelling’s front facade and outdoor kitchen are wrapped with a rammed-earth wall celebrating the locally-sourced material and traditional craft techniques Victor Ortiz writes: ‘By using both European and Brazilian designed furniture we achieved a perfect balance between simplicity and warmth utilizing rustic and monolithic objects throughout the project which contrast with the clean curved lines and elegance of the architecture and metal fixtures ‘The main goal was to create a home that could comfortably host a number of guests and offer all the amenities of urban living in a tropical hideaway setting prioritizing the relationship and experience with the outdoors.’ the front facade and outdoor kitchen are wrapped in a rammed-earth wall through large sliding doors the living area opens broadly onto the outdoor terrace and pool large openings and windows create thoughtful vignettes of the coastal landscape a pergola skylight floods the main entrance with natural light the transparency to nature is complemented by a warm material palette architecture: Victor B. Ortiz Architecture | @victorbortiz_architecture location: Itacare, Bahia, Brazil year: 2022 happening now! partnering with antonio citterio, AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function, but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style, context, and personal expression. BrazilChevron BahiaChevron Oliver PilcherSave this storySaveSave this storySaveThis is the place where most of the Africans were brought. That's probably the first thing you should know about Bahia. They were brought from the western coast of Africa to toil in the vast fields of sugarcane that once helped make Portugal one of the wealthiest empires in the world Nearly 1.7 million enslaved Africans arrived in Brazil during the slave trade and the country was the last in the Americas to make the practice illegal with more than three quarters of its 15 million inhabitants tracing their roots back to the opposite side of the Atlantic But really that's just another way of saying that Bahia is Brazil's most Brazilian state since so many of the country's contributions to the world were first created in Bahia by Africans and their descendants and continue to grow and flourish there today and part of the growing number of luxury hotels to bet on the city's prospects in recent years he praised the revitalization projects of the youthful mayor “He's like a dog with a bone,” Conor said “Once he says he's going to do something We saw evidence of those efforts as we drove Crews of workers were spreading fresh asphalt on the roads construction was underway on the Museum of Brazilian Music—a tribute to the illustrious musical legacy of a city where Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso pioneered the Afro-Brazilian sound Tropicália which rivals Rio's as the biggest in Brazil “It's not difficult to be waylaid here,” said Conor “There's a spontaneity and a sense of fun I didn't fail to notice that my guide to the most African city outside Africa was as Irish a guy as you could hope to meet west of Galway but Conor has lived in Salvador since 1982 a charismatic capoeira master who welcomed us into his training center and held forth about the origins of the martial art recounting how slaves developed it in the sugarcane fields adopting musical instruments and acrobatic moves to fool their oppressors into thinking they were dancing as opposed to practicing a form of self-defense We watched his students take turns facing off in the center of a circle while he led a group of musicians on the berimbau The fighters would plant their hands on the floor and wheel their heels at each other while carefully avoiding contact “Capoeira teaches respect for the other,” he explained “You don't want to hit the other person Another friend of Conor's is Tereza Paim one of a crop of restaurants that have established Salvador as a rising South American food city Bahia's spicy cuisine has always stood out from the relatively mild fare found in other parts of Brazil a peppery fish stew cooked in the ubiquitous azeite de dendê a thick orange oil derived from the berries of the African oil palm The stew arrived sizzling in a terra-cotta pot the smell of onions and tomatoes and fish and spices all mingling above the brightly painted tabletop Ingredients from across the Portuguese empire merged before us into something delicious—Bahian history boiled down to its culinary essence Daré took us behind the whitewashed walls of her terreiro set amid a stretch of forest in an outlying area of the city inconspicuous structures of stucco and wood stood in stark contrast to the gilded extravagance of the Baroque churches that loomed over the city's central squares Some were decorated with simple carvings or motifs that represented different orixás and the whimsical painter Carybé held honorary positions of prestige in the community Together with the photographer Pierre Verger they brought international attention to Salvador's vibrant culture and the daily lives of its people Salvador was a stronghold of the Brazilian left in those days One night we squeezed into a packed bar called O Cravinho where cachaça infused with cloves and other spices filled an array of casks lining a high shelf along the wall Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was giving what you could see was an emotional speech even if you couldn't hear him above the cheerful commotion in the wood-paneled barroom A Supreme Court ruling had just led to Lula's release from prison where he'd served a year and a half of a 12-year sentence for corruption but no one I met in Bahia doubted the sincerity of his dedication to the cause of improving the lives of Brazilians of color was leading an assault on his social programs and affirmative action policies which had been widely credited with lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty At the bar old men were staring at the TV with tears in their eyes a woman in a wheelchair who must have been 90 tipped a plastic cup to her lips you're probably also looking for serene beaches and scenes of natural splendor and you can find superlative versions of both without venturing outside of Bahia a state about the size of France with dazzling diversity of landscapes more and more people have been drawn to the remote Maraú peninsula To get to the boutique hotel where I was staying I first boarded an hour-long flight from Salvador to Ilhéus the faded former hub of the chocolate industry that reigned over this region—the so-called Cacao Coast—until a blight decimated the crop in the 1980s From there it was another hour down a dirt road that runs the length of the peninsula The difficulty of getting from one end of Maraú to the other has kept the peninsula safe from the depredations of big developers My hotel, Casa dos Arandis, which was nestled between the palm-fringed beach and the rain forest, had the laid-back vibe of a surf retreat, with bungalows made of salvaged wood and Tibetan prayer flags flapping in the salty breeze. Lying in the hammock on my porch I could hear the churning of the Atlantic beyond the clusters of tropical greenery that shaded the sandy footpaths I passed three people in the span of a mile which means “cocoa,” and although he tried explaining the origins of the nickname to me over a fresh bowl of locally grown açai He served nectar from cocoa fruit in a shot glass as soon as I stepped out of the car and continued to offer it to me throughout my visit sometimes spiking the milky ambrosia with cachaça always extolling its myriad nutritional benefits Salvaged wood and hammocks set the scene at Casa dos Arandis Cacau was bullish about the local cacao industry's prospects of recapturing its former glory were embracing organic methods and other ecologically enlightened practices partly to stave off the sorts of diseases that had ravaged the region's cacao crop in the past I sat down at a table laden with their products—not just cacao nibs but also banana and papaya and mango and a cherry-like fruit called pitanga I followed Cacau on a stand-up paddleboard through a maze of mangroves to an uninhabited island where some of his farmer friends had been growing all kinds of fruits I'd never heard of a small yellow ball with the texture and taste of a sweet potato then one of the farmhands hacked apart a cocoa pod—oblong We all just stood around grinning at each other while chewing on the sweet lemony pulp spitting out the bitter seeds that are used to make chocolate and ancient white seashells on the bottoms of the ponds the rugged outback that ripples across northeast Brazil's interior It's difficult to sum up the place's staggering scale and scenic beauty and sheer ecological variety without just resorting to a recital of its greatest hits I'm thinking of its dozens of waterfalls which draw spelunkers from around the world and a freshwater pond carpeted with ancient white seashells so tiny you could fit dozens on the tip of your finger The land is mostly dry and rocky, dominated by dramatic bluffs and buttes. Stretches might remind you of the American Southwest or the Black Hills of North Dakota but then you'll spot a little capuchin monkey scurrying across a cliff or a tree that sheds its bark each day so the green skin beneath it can draw energy directly from the sun and you'll realize that there's no other place like this in the world Right in the middle of all this natural beauty is a burst of unnatural color the pastel-painted colonial town of Lençóis I spent four nights at Hotel Canto Das Águas a rambling pousada of pink and green stones on the banks of a rushing river In the mornings I'd sit on the veranda with my coffee and watch jewellike birds peck at the papaya that the staff had set out for them in bowls In the evenings I'd stroll across a footbridge into the town center where scores of backpackers sat outside the restaurants that lined the cobblestone side streets while street musicians strummed and sang mellow bossa nova classics The Portuguese influence on display in Salvador’s Old Town A lookout at Chapada Diamantina National Park Decades ago this town wasn't so charming and the African people and their descendants in the area ended up working in the region's mines told me that the mining companies would buy diamonds from the workers at just 1.5 percent of their market value—and in most cases probably less since the workers were essentially confined to their isolated settlements and had no way of ascertaining the value themselves trading diamonds for sacks of tapioca and beans Mil would drive me to some beautiful site that somehow outdid whatever he'd shown me the day before One morning we hiked along a river in a striated gorge strewn with slabs of pink quartz Another day we penetrated the darkness of the soaring Lapa Doce cave while Mil provided running commentary on the ghostly stalagmites that revealed themselves in the beam of his flashlight it look like the nativity when Jesus is born.”) Mil said there was a view I absolutely had to see We'd have to drive two hours to get to the trailhead People from Africa had given it that name long ago We climbed a steep trail onto the top of a plateau then walked for about two miles across a savanna Every so often some arresting new species of flora would appear Bright red bursts of threadlike petals flaring up from the rocks across the green valley to colossal gray cliffs rising like ships from a sea of leaves I thought about something Mil had told me on an earlier hike pressed his wrists together behind his back and stood very still with his ankles touching if you were caught practicing capoeira or candomblé or committing some other transgression in the eyes of your oppressors that's how they'd make you stand But if you just stood there and didn't move He considered the point important enough to bear repeating A beautiful place where people had endured unimaginable cruelty by creating a culture that made it even more beautiful This article appeared in the October 2020 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here. up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse We understand that time is the greatest luxury which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world Maria Shollenbarger selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter The pool at Pousada Literária In my experience most countries have a payoff place; the one that encapsulates everything about its appeal – landscape culture – and to which you know you can return for a 360-degree fix Its dense cobbled streets harbour not just the country’s most alluring aesthetic attributes but also one of its nicest vibes stopping for a drink at this café or admiring microscopic bikinis in the window of that boutique and never once felt anything but enveloped in its welcome The town isn’t short on boutique accommodations but I fell for Pousada Literária the day I visited possibly even jaguar – are on the activity agenda part of the proceeds of your stay goes to local conservation organisations Interior styling at Pousada Trijunção The gorgeous lodge itself (consider splurging on the master suite with its private sitting room and two balconies) is constructed partially of reclaimed demolition wood and naturally cooling ‘water mirrors’ occasionally stand in for air con temperature permitting Under-the-radar beachside bliss in Itacaré The hotel’s pool I recently met the owners of The Barracuda a rather magical-looking destination in Itacaré which now sits close to the top my 2023 list – and of which About halfway between Trancoso and Salvador The Barracuda consists of two small hotels Barracuda Boutique and The Barracuda Hotel & Villas (the latter of which is the more elegant and exclusive and soft-opened in 2020) as well as a handful of private villas ranging from four to eight bedrooms natural surfaces and open-plan common spaces everywhere a low divan or sofa or ipe wood chair asking to be reclined on Beach views from a villa at The Barracuda Cocktails at one of the hotel bars The Corner Suite at The Barracuda Hotel & Villas The villas are all privately owned (one or two of them by Swedes hailing from a very famous band but most are available for private rental throughout the year and the option for some local tailor-made experiences The whole enjoys a prime situation on a little peninsula between warm The Marea club at Hotel Fasano Angra dos Reis If there’s one Brazilian who can be relied on to set a bar for coolness (and really good Italian food) it’s Rogério Fasano While his empire of hotels and gastronomia now extends from Punta del Este to Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Brazil still feels like where Fasano does Fasano best it’s a beach community and island archipelago between São Paulo and Rio that’s a popular second-home destination with the beau monde of both cities A bedroom at Fasano Angra dos Reis Fasano Angra dos Reis multiple sunning decks overlooking a huge pool with lots of aqua and turquoise thrown in to reflect the marina and sea beyond But really that’s just another way of saying that Bahia is Brazil’s most Brazilian state since so many of the country’s contributions to the world were first created in Bahia by Africans and their descendants and continue to grow and flourish here today Tiririca beach, ItacaréOliver PilcherMy week in Bahia began in Salvador, the largest city in the country’s north-east region and the thumping heart of Afro-Brazilian culture. My guide Conor O’Sullivan picked me up at the airport and manoeuvred through the traffic skirting the edge of the sea Salvador lies near the southern tip of a peninsula that divides the immense Bahia de Todos Santos from the bright blue waters of the Atlantic carries people from the lower part of the city and part of the growing number of luxury hotels to bet on the city’s prospects he praised the revitalisation projects of recent local governments and in a palatial old building construction was underway on the Museum of Brazilian Music – a tribute to the musical legacy of a city where Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso pioneered the Afro-Brazilian sound Tropicália in the late 1960s Grand old houses are painted the colour of The Tropics – the orange of papaya with steep cobbled streets twisting in every direction and stone squares flanked by Portuguese cathedrals lined with gold the sounds of elaborate drumming ricochet off the façades of the grand old houses which are painted in the colours of the tropics – the orange of papaya Brazil has been hard-hit by Covid and lockdown means these sounds have likely been muted for now while hurrying to a dance performance at a local theatre Conor and I ran into a throng that had gathered in a narrow street to watch an impromptu show by one of the neighbourhood’s drum groups we stood there swaying to the thunderous rhythms of Banda Olodum a legendary samba-reggae band that performs each February during Salvador’s Carnaval which rivals Rio’s as the biggest in Brazil ‘It’s not difficult to be waylaid here,’ said Conor ‘There’s a spontaneity and a sense of fun.’ Mestre Valmir and his son practising Angolan capoiera in his studio in SalvadorOliver PilcherI didn’t fail to notice that my guide to the most African city outside Africa was as Irish a guy as you could hope to meet west of Galway a charismatic capoeira master who welcomed us into his training centre and held forth about the origins of the martial art as opposed to practising a form of self-defence Mestre Valmir’s capoeira studioOliver PilcherWe watched his students take turns facing off in the centre of a circle while he led a group of musicians on the berimbau ‘Capoeira teaches respect for the other,’ he explained Moqueca fish stew at Casas Bahia in the cityOliver PilcherAnother friend of Conor’s is Tereza Paim, the chef at Casa de Tereza, one of a crop of restaurants that have established Salvador as a rising South American food city Bahia’s spicy cooking has always stood out from the relatively mild fare found in other parts of Brazil a peppery fish stew cooked in azeite de dende The stew arrived sizzling in a terracotta pot Ingredients from across the Portuguese empire merged before us into something delicious – Bahian history boiled down to its culinary essence A third friend offered an engrossing account of an important facet of that history Daré Rose is a scholar and Filha de Santo (congressional member) of candomblé a religion born of beliefs and customs that travelled to Salvador from West Africa in the holds of slave ships its followers faced persecution by the government and today in Brazil they number in the millions Daré took us behind the whitewashed walls of her terreiro stood in stark contrast to the gilded extravagance of the baroque churches that loomed over the central squares Some were decorated with simple carvings or motifs that represented different orixás Brazil’s preeminent novelist Jorge Amado and the whimsical painter Carybé held honorary positions of prestige in the community they culture and the daily lives of its people If you're looking for serene beaches and scenes of natural splendour you'll find 76 superlative versions of both here Cabana Bobo on Resende beachOliver PilcherSalvador was a stronghold of the Brazilian left in those days, and it still is. One night we squeezed into a packed bar called O Cravinho where cachaça infused with cloves and other spices filled casks lining a shelf along the wall former president Luiz Inácio Lulada Silva even if you couldn’t hear him above the cheerful commotion in the wood-panelled bar A Supreme Court ruling had just led to Lula’s release from prison where he’d served a year and a half of a 12-year sentence for corruption but no one I met in Bahia doubted the sincerity of his dedication to the cause of improving the lives of Brazilians of colour was leading an assault on his social programmes and affirmative action policies which had been widely credited with lifting millions out of poverty old men were staring at the TV with tears in their eyes Locals’ bar on the Maraú peninsulaOliver PilcherIf you visit Brazil you’re probably also looking for serene beaches and scenes of natural splendour and you can find 76 superlative versions of both without venturing outside Bahia a state about the size of France with a dazzling diversity of landscapes more and more people have been drawn to the remote Maraú peninsula magnificent rainforest and miles and miles of idyllic beaches I first boarded an hour-long flight from Salvador to Ilhéus the faded former hub of the chocolate industry that reigned over this region – the so-called Cacao Coast – until a blight decimated the crop in the 1980s The difficulty of getting from one end of Maraú to the other has kept it safe from the depredations of big developers The hotel owner served nectar from cocoa fruit in a shot glass sometimes spiking the milky ambrosia with cachaca with bungalows made of salvaged wood and Tibetan prayer flags flapping in the salty breeze and although he tried explaining the origins of the nickname to me over a fresh bowl of locally grown açai sometimes spiking the milky ambrosia with cachaça always extolling its many nutritional benefits The hotel’s owner Nanana Teixeira talking with local surfer Juan Diego EvangelistaOliver PilcherCacau was bullish about the local cacao industry’s prospects of recapturing its former glory partly to stave off the sorts of diseases that had ravaged the region’s crop in the past I sat down at a table laden with their products – not just cacao nibs but also banana and papaya and mango and a cherry-like fruit called pitanga The outback has cacti taller than houses and a pond carpeted with ancient seashells so tiny you can fit dozens on your fingertip Chapada diamantina, my final stop in Bahia, is a national park in the sertão the rugged outback that ripples across north-east Brazil’s interior It’s difficult to sum up the place’s staggering scale scenic beauty and sheer ecological variety without just resorting to a recital of its greatest hits Restaurant in São Francisco square in the city’s old townOliver PilcherThe land is mostly dry and rocky Stretches might remind you of the American Southwest but then you’ll spot a capuchin monkey scurrying across a cliff and you’ll realise that there’s no other place like this in the world Right in the middle of all this natural beauty is a burst of unnatural colour In the mornings I’d sit on the veranda with my coffee and watch jewel-like birds peck at the papaya the staff had set out for them in bowls In the evenings I’d stroll across a footbridge into the centre where scores of backpackers gathered outside the restaurants that line the cobblestone streets Mil would drive me to some spectacular site that somehow outdid whatever he’d shown me the day before Another day we penetrated the darkness of the soaring Lapa Doce cave while he provided running commentary on the ghostly stalagmites that revealed themselves in the beam of his torch it looks like the nativity when Jesus is born.’) On my last day, Mil said there was a view I had to see. We’d have to drive two hours to get to the trailhead Musicians walking from Tiririca to Prainha beachOliver PilcherWe climbed a steep trail onto the top of a plateau, then walked for about two miles across a savannah. Every so often some arresting new species of flora would appear. Furry cacti. Purple blossoms shaped like slippers. Bright red bursts of threadlike petals flaring up from the rocks. The view across the green valley to colossal grey cliffs rising like ships from a sea of leaves We’d been discussing what makes Bahia special when he asserted pressed his wrists together behind his back and stood very still with his ankles touching if you were caught practising capoeira or candomblé Sunday afternoon on Prainha beach, ItacaréOliver PilcherGetting aroundTour operator Matueté can arrange tailor-made itineraries around Bahia, including guides, transfers and accommodation. matuete.com hire a buggy and zip about the rugged hinterland at the country's best beach bar - Rocka owned by yummy ex-surfer Santiago Bebianno Laze about on the giant beds and dance to bossanova in the sand Pack your sketchpad for a slice of perfectly preserved 16th-century Brazil a colonial starlet with a nice sideline in blinding beaches and a glittering arts scene Nanda Costa (Brazilian actress - total stunner) was born here and she pulls a stylish crowd Weekending cariocas (Rio dwellers) stroll between groovy boutiques and galleries hidden in Smartie-coloured houses the water is crystal-clear-teal and the harbour crammed with wooden boats ready to zip you to the tiny islands Wiggle away to live bossanova then boat to your private Bondesque villa Get your adrenaline on at this pretty fishing town on the Cocoa Coast where rainforest meets rocking surf breaks and leap into the natural pools along the Cachoeira do Tijuípe Leave the Gore-Tex at home - this place attracts a cool sort of adventurer like Brazilian- Mexican actress Gisele Itié [RelatedContent##default.14125##Display¬Normal##HAVE YOU SEEN?##KeepInline] [RelatedContent##default.14158##Display¬Normal####KeepInline] [RelatedContent##default.14147##Display¬Normal####KeepInline] Alamy1/9The hippie one: JericoacoaraThe hippie one: Jericoacoara Alamy2/9The beach-bum one: BoipebaAlamy3/9The wild one: CaraivaThe wild one: Caraiva Alamy4/9The nightlife one: BuziosThe nightlife one: Buzios Alamy5/9The culture one: ParatyThe culture one: Paraty Alamy6/9The primeval one: Ilha GrandeThe primeval one: Ilha Grande Alamy7/9The action one: ItacareThe action one: Itacare Alamy8/9The surf one: PipaThe surf one: Pipa Alamy9/9The nature one: Fernando de NoronhaThe nature one: Fernando de Noronha MENUTRAVELPop Goes BrazilSeldom-seen Keith Haring artworks come back to life in a rustic Brazilian getaway purchased 160 beachfront acres in the state of Bahia The New York–based couple longed for a place to relax and since Tereza had grown up in the nearby town of Ilhéus The land came with a humble two-bedroom house their good friend Keith Haring came to visit and he immediately set about decorating the shack with a splashy mural of dolphins in his unmistakable pop style Haring came back and embellished the floor of their newly built beach cabana .s470218930{padding-top:56.4103%}@media(min-width:768px){.s470218930{padding-top:56.4474%}}@media(min-width:1025px){.s470218930{padding-top:56.4474%}}A few years ago Tereza decided to spruce up Paraiso Verde (as she calls the property): She constructed five ecofriendly but perfectly appointed “tree houses” overlooking the ocean and asked Kenny to restore Haring’s weather-beaten artworks to their original condition The project caught the attention of the Keith Haring Foundation which worked with director Guto Barra to document the process for an upcoming film on Haring Get our news on your inbox! Suscribe x MercoPress, en Español Montevideo, May 5th 2025 - 12:48 UTC yellow fever virus transmission continues to expand towards the Atlantic coast of Brazil in areas not deemed to be at risk for yellow fever transmission prior to the revised risk assessment published by WHO in the Disease Outbreak News of 27 January 2017 and supported by the scientific and technical advisory group on geographical yellow fever risk mapping (GRYF)  The revised risk assessment was based on epidemiological evidence and ecological factors The expanded areas at risk of yellow fever transmission remain the same as in the Disease Outbreak News of 27 January 2017 and the WHO travel advice of 31 January 2017 • Espírito Santo State: at risk for yellow fever transmission with the exception of the urban area of Vitoria • Rio de Janeiro State: at risk for yellow fever transmission in the following northern municipalities bordering Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo States: Bom Jesus do Itabapoana; Cambuci; Cardoso Moreira; Italva; Itaperuna; Laje do Muriae; Miracema; Natividade; Porciuncula; Santo Antonio de Padua; São Fidelis; São Jose de Uba; Varre-Sai; Campos dos Goytacazes; São Francisco de Itabapoa; São João da Barra Currently there is no evidence of yellow fever virus transmission in the large metropolitan areas of the East Coast such as Rio de Janeiro The determination of new areas considered to be at risk for yellow fever transmission is preliminary and updates will be provided regularly and considering that travelers for the Carnival in the next few weeks may take side tours outside the main cities the current advice by the WHO Secretariat for international travelers going to areas of Brazil deemed to be at risk Vaccination against yellow fever at least 10 days prior to the travel as per Annex 7 of the International Health Regulations (2005) a single dose of a yellow fever vaccine approved by WHO is sufficient to confer sustained immunity and life-long protection against yellow fever disease Travelers with contraindications for yellow fever vaccine (children below 9 months people with severe hypersensitivity to egg antigens and severe immunodeficiency) or over 60 years of age should consult their health professional for advice; adoption of measures to avoid mosquito bites; awareness of symptoms and signs of yellow fever; seeking care in case of symptoms and signs of yellow fever while travelling and upon return from areas at risk for yellow fever transmission For 2017 updates on yellow fever vaccination requirements and WHO vaccination recommendations for travelers see Annex and country list on the WHO International Travel and Health website Commenting for this story is now closed.If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page WE HAVE not added to our tally of winners over the last few days with the weather putting paid to some plans, and from our very few runners we have had three seconds since last writing. Pachacuti bounced back from a below par effort on his seasonal return with a good performance at Wincanton, just losing out in a prolonged duel up the straight. He appreciated the return to three miles and he did nothing wrong in defeat, probably just bumping into a well-handicapped rival on old form. He has come out of the race well and it will not be too long before he will be back out on the track again. Jurancon finished second at Exeter on Friday. While disappointing not to win, they think a lot of the winner and we were perhaps not at our best. We are probably better going left-handed and he will appreciate slightly further than two miles. I do not think we lost too much in defeat trying to give away weight with a penalty and he seems fine after the race. Storm Darragh unfortunately caused the abandonment of both of our intended meetings at Aintree and Chepstow on Saturday. King Turgeon was due to run in the Becher chase over the National fences and I hope they may be able to reschedule the race, perhaps to their Boxing Day fixture? While we wait to hear any news of whether it might be re-scheduled, we have made an entry for King Turgeon at Cheltenham on Friday of this week so we will see what happens. I must take this opportunity to thank the staff for all of their efforts over the weekend in the wake of Storm Darragh. It was difficult conditions riding out on Saturday morning but we got all the horses exercised on the gallops and back in their stables safely. We lost power for 24 hours at the yard but the backup generator kicked in and did its job. Shot Boii ran well to be third in the staying chase at Lingfield on Monday afternoon. Our next runners will be on Thursday where we have entries at Taunton and Warwick. Tuxedo Junction is likely to run in the 2-mile novice’s hurdle, while Lady Balko has entries at both Taunton and Warwick. Lock Out and Chauffeur Driven are both entered in the three-mile handicap hurdle on the Taunton card and are likely to run. King Turgeon, Eden Du Houx, Gold in the Rivers and Thanksforthehelp are our four entries at Cheltenham on Friday while Belfrina, Yggdrasil and Itseemslikeit hold entries at Doncaster. Keep checking the Daily News on the website for all the latest information on the stable runners. Well done to Rian Corcoran who got off the mark for the point-to-point season on Sunday with a winner at Wadebridge. It was a competitive race but he rode Itacare well to win in the colours of Somerset Racing (the same carried by King Turgeon). Comments Tel: 01984 632731[email protected]Follow us Further Links Owned or licensed to Tindle Newspapers Ltd | Independent Family-Owned Newspapers | Copyright & Trade Mark Notice & 2013 - 2025 is committed to helping people of the shanty town she lives near in South America she'd been working long hours and they were taking their toll She'd also been studying hard for upcoming paediatrics exams She was looking for somewhere she could let her hair down and forget about medicine -- just for a fortnight photos of its beautiful beaches proved irresistible sandy beaches and it just seemed idyllic," says Bridget Long days on the beach were followed by nights in the town's lively bars But it wasn't all picture-postcard perfection was this massive shanty town," says Bridget (29) Bridget returned from her two-week holiday but found that she couldn't put Itacare out of her mind Bridget had always been drawn to the laid-back lifestyle of surfing towns -- and she'd always wanted a beach home of her own They were all paying half a million euro for apartments in Dublin and here I was buying a house on the beach in Brazil for seventy grand But I thought it would be a good investment." Having begun a Masters degree in international health Bridget was due to begin a stint on a medical project in Uganda the following summer The intervening months were spent in Itacare Bridget was introduced to Marcio Carvalho and Wanderson Panniset The two men opened up their homes every Saturday as a soup kitchen for up to 50 local kids and quickly realised what an important role it played in the lives of children from the favela (the local term for shanty town) But since a devastating blight destroyed the crops during the 1980s Bahia has turned to tourism as its main source of income Itacare is lucky: its beaches and lush rainforests have spawned a thriving eco-tourist industry that has turned the resort into one of Brazil's most appealing high-end tourist destinations But for the employees of the glitzy resorts the five-star lifestyle is a world away from the reality they face as they return each night to the favela While Brazil has a booming economy fuelled by its wealth of natural resources and commodities recent estimates show that of the country's 170 million people 'People come to Itacare from all over the state for work in the hotels and bars or in the local fishing industry but there aren't enough jobs for everyone," says Bridget Local estimates put the figures living in the shacks at between 15,000 and 20,000 "Not everyone has a safe electricity supply The soup kitchen was a lifeline for kids who had little else Marcilho and Sagaez offered an escape from the increasing violence on the streets outside with it had come the inevitable rise in rapes "Being out on the streets is a very precarious environment for these kids Finding a place for them where they could be safe was important," says Bridget the soup kitchen took on an educational role Volunteers offered classes in English and Spanish With an education system creaking under the weight of increased numbers Volunteers offered one-to-one tuition to help them keep up Bridget's friends were settling into hospital jobs and further study But she was beginning to feel at home in South America But then when my first broadband bill arrived it was addressed to: Bridget Gringa (white girl) Itacare.' I quickly realised I wasn't blending in as much as I thought "But everyone was so friendly and fun-loving the opportunity to work one-one-one with the children who needed the most help was something Bridget couldn't turn down "Someone told us about 14-year-old Romario who'd been in a fight and had ended up in a coma and paralysed on one side," she recalls "He needed to be looked after when he was released from hospital But home was a wooden shack with no latrine three younger sisters and an unemployed mum with mental health issues He had terrible bedsores because there was no-one there to look after him "I started doing physio with him and took him to the local naturopath Then we got him signed up back into school." There Bridget worked in a HIV clinic for children Poverty in Africa is determined by international factors whereas in Brazil the poverty sits beside this enormous wealth so it is similar to the problems that poor people face in Irish urban society drug and alcohol problems which you don't see in Uganda." Bridget returned to Itacare with a wealth of experience that she put to good use in the favela becoming involved in sexual health programmes for teenage girls she came up with the idea for a new charity The initial goal was to fund a community centre that the children could use throughout the week for studying and socialising Bridget will move to Itacare for at least a year to continue working on the project "Having seen in Africa how big projects can get sidetracked by bureaucracy I've become a strong believer in community projects that offer a real chance to make a difference," she says "The tough part is missing everyone at home I've had 10 stitches in my head and cracked a bone in my wrist Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel