Porto Seguro & Arraial D'Ajuda 07 days/ 06 nights with breakfast. Tours under request. Porto Seguro No one could guess that, 500 years later, that landmark of Brazilian “discovery” would become one of the most important tourism centers in the country. Not only due to its historical churches and beautiful beaches, but specially due to the city’s ability to offer music, dancing and great fun to all visitors. Shops open at peculiar hours in Porto Seguro: many outlets and handcrafts stores are open until midnight. The celebration goes on along the city’s coastline with lots of reggae, fun parties and live music. Many beach bars offer great music shows with national and foreign attractions. Despite all that energy, Porto Seguro still offers untouched landscapes, with calm beautiful beaches, the city has some 90 km of coastline taken by coral reefs, including also coves, rivers and creeks, coconut tree plantations and the gorgeous Atlantic Forest. Receptive tourism agencies organize ecological tours that may take from 3 hours to a whole day or even longer. For those who love free flying, the local “Clube de Ultraleves” (Hang Gliders Club) offer visitors the chance to see, by hang glider or helicopter, the beauties found along the Brazilian “Discovery Coast”. Arraial D'Ajuda Popular among hippies in the 1970’s, Arraial D’Ajuda has won international fame due to its elegant simplicity. Seduced by its special atmosphere, adventurers from all corners of the world have settled there, turning Arraial into a “corner of the world”, as people call it. Events Carnival The city offers the most fun Carnival parties in Bahia, second only to the street parties of that State’s capital city, Salvador. “Electric Trios” (trucks carrying sound systems and live bands), dancing “blocos” and “cordões” (street dancing groups) drag thousands of happy tourists along the Passarela do Álcool (the traditional local avenue) and to beach bars. Attractions The Alcohol Catwalk After recent urbanization, the Alcohol Catwalk is one of the main city’s postcards. Including the entire Portugal Avenue, the Alcohol Catwalk presents colonial buildings, which house many restaurants, boutiques and crafts shops. At night, the setting up of kiosks selling the famous “batidas” of Porto Seguro, including the “Capeta” (Little Devil), a typical drink made of vodka, guarana powder and condensed milk. At the bars, the live music guarantees the permanent joyful ambiance. The Alcohol Catwalk is the stage for big popular feasts like Carnival and concerts. Historical Downtown Area The historical site in the Cidade Alta area is a National Heritage Monument put under government trust by a Federal Decree since 1973. It was one of the first towns in Brazil and played an important role during the first years of European colonization. It includes three churches and around 40 buildings (among private residential houses and public institutions), restored by the State Government for the 500th anniversary celebration of Brazilian “discovery”. At night the whole area is bathed by a special lighting system, offering a beautiful view. Monte Pascoal National Park Created in 1961 to preserve the place where Brazil was “discovered” by Portuguese warriors. It includes swamp areas, salt marshes, river marshes and a coastline around the rocky, high and round hill, considered the first point of land to be seen by the Portuguese traveler Pedro Álvares Cabral’s crew. It extends over an area of 14,480 hectares, including the Pataxó tribe’s indigenous protection land. Besides its historical importance, it also offers protection to one of the last stretches of Atlantic forest in the Northeastern area of Brazil. The area is aimed at preserving valuable woods such as Brazil wood, and still hosts many species of animals threatened by extinction, such as “collar sloth”, “black burs”, among others. Recife de Fora Sea Park It was the first city owned park in Brazil. During low tide, visitor can view a wide range of coral reefs, fish and many sea species. Tours are available on schooners. Glória Hillock Here, visitors find the ruins of what many consider to be the São Francisco Church, the where Ynaiá was buried, an Indian woman who died for the love of a crewmember of Portuguese navigator Gonçalo Coelho‘s fleet. People say the São Francisco Church was the first one built in Brazil, in baroque style, probably in 1504, whose ruins date to 1730. The Nossa Senhora da Penha Matrix Church Located on Pero de Campos Tourinho Square, in Cidade Alta, it was built at the 18th century’s end. It comprises an aisle, a main chapel, a sacristy and a bell tower. Jaqueira Indigenous Protection Reservation A huge jackfruit tree trunk, tumbled down by nature itself, represents the return to one’s origins and acts as a historical and cultural reference to honor the ancestral fathers and mothers of Pataxó families who recently moved into this 827-hectare Indian protection area. Their huts, spread around original Atlantic Forest woods, keeps original old formats, giving visitors the impression of being back 500 years in time to pre-Colombian Brazil. Pirata Island It is considered as one of the most sophisticated aquarium complexes in South America. Pirata Island is a thematic leisure center combining nightlife infrastructure and environmental and sea biodiversity protection, with giant aquariums. It is located on Pacuio Island, on Buranhém River and access is available exclusively by boat. The “Discovery” Outdoors Museum An outdoors, natural museum, whose “art galleries” are its beaches, valleys and natural trails and whose “collection” is a set of geographical formations and traditional villages, disposed as art works in permanent exhibition, engraved in very ancient media, which are spread along the 130-km length of Bahia’s historical southern coastline. Terravista Golf Course The golf course, designed by architect Dan Blankenship, offers 18 holes and demanded US$ 4 million in investment to be built. The project follows the most sophisticated and up to date trends in golf course building in the world today, as done in California, USA, and in Algarve, Portugal – all of which look very similar in terms of weather and geographical conditions, for all three golf courses are close to sea areas. Beaches Porto Seguro offers dozens of beaches to please all tastes and styles. Those who are looking for fun, should go directly to Rio dos Mangues Beach (also called Barramares), 8 km away from Porto Seguro. Lots of young people, sports, dancing and live music. Other options for partying include Taperapuã and Itacimirim beaches. For naturists, there is a wide range of beautiful and reserved beaches such as Nudism Breach, Pedra Grande, Itapororoca and Taipe beaches. Divers also find great beaches to appreciate the many local natural beauties. Most famous ones are: Parracho, Mundaí beach, the Coroa Vermelha Coral Reef on Mutá Beach, Coqueiros Beach and Nativos Beach. For visitors seeking beautiful landscapes, mains options are: Barra Velha Beach, Mutá Beach, Lagoa Azul Beach, Rio da Barra Beach and Espelho Beach. This last one, elected as the third most beautiful beach in Brazil, was so named after the transparency of its waters, which reflect the surrounding landscape as if a mirror. For those who love bathing in calm waters, options are Caraíva Beach, Juacema or Satu Beach, Curuípe Beach and Mucugê Beach. For who appreciate natural environments, trekking between Arraial D'Ajuda and Trancoso is an excellent attraction. Ponta Grande Beach, for instance, offers equipment like banana-jet, kayaks and launches. Schooner Rides Local companies offer tours to Recife de Fora (“The Outer Sea Coral Reef”), the Coroa Alta Coral Reef, to Caraíva, Trancoso, Abrolhos and Paraíso Island. Trancoso Located on the top of a hillock, this small 16th century village founded by Portuguese Jesuits today is an ideal hideout to run away from big city strife and stress. It offers 12 Km of beaches uniting Arraial d'Ajuda and Trancoso, a length that can be covered on a walk along the beach, or by bus or by car, on an unpaved road departing from Arraial. Quadrado Square is the main meeting point in the city, where everything happens. The city offers rustic and sophisticated restaurants, inns, bars and handcrafts stores, all of which help keep the exciting mood of the place. This square also hosts the headquarters of The Discovery Square Foundation (Fundação Quadrilátero do Descobrimento) and the São João Batista Church. |