Emotion of a trip to Bahia – Salvador / Morro de Sao Paulo / Barra Grande / Itacarè / Cachoeira / Praia do Forte

1st day – Salvador

Arrival in Salvador.  From this point on you are part of the “Culturianos,”  who will accompany you, take care of you, and embrace you while you are here.  Meyre will meet you at the airport and accompany you to the pousada Catharina Paraguaçu, and old house accurately rebuilt.  The pousada is located in the Rio Vermelho (Red River), the bohemian neighborhood in the city.  Free day in which we will give you some suggestions of how to experience the city.

2nd day – Salvador

We will head out for Cultour’s “Experiencing Cidade Baixa (the lower city) – One Salvador in Salvador”.  We will experience the lower city of Salvador and a surburban rail.  An immersion in the most authentic “bahianess”, from the oldest market in the city, to the popular train, to a typical Bahian restaurant (you will be the only tourists), and even a trip to the bucolic Ribeira neighborhood with its old and decadent houses. The beautiful view of the Bay of All Saints will accompany us during the entire tour.  At night we will suggest an activity based on what the city has to offer.

3rd day – Salvador

Free day.  We will give you suggestions on how to live it.

4th day – Salvador

We will go out for Cultour’s “Afro Bahia – the culture that resists”.  The Pelourinho (the historic center of the upper city) and then to Curuzu, a street in the Liberdade neighborhood with the greatest concentration of black people.  We will experience, with our local friends, the roots of the Afro-Bahian day-to-day life.  Our gracious host Olivia will serve us one of her Bahian specialties in her bar.  At night we will attend an afro-catholic mass, and afterwards the Terça da Bençao (Blessed Tuesday) party in Pelourinho, with live music and dancing in the streets and plazas of the historic center.  Lose yourselves (accompanied my Meyre) and live Salvador’s bahianess to its fullest, instead of just being simple tourists.

5th day – Morro de São Paulo

You will be accompanied to the port to board a catamaran that will take you to Morro de São Paulo.  You will be met by Mariana, who will take you to the Pousada Vila Guaiamu located at the third beach (in Morro the beaches are known by number) and immersed in green where the cottages and the guaiamu (crabs) coexist in perfect harmony.  Mariana will explain all the details of how to get around in Morro.

6th day – Morro de São Paulo

Departure of the group (maximum 12 people) by boat to visit the Moreré beach on the island of Boipeba, with its splendid natural pools and coral reefs full of fish.  The return route will be through the maguezais (mangrove) canals and the island of Tinharé.  At night in Morro there are almost always organized parties.  Mariana will tell you which will be the best.

7th day – Morro de São Paulo

Enjoy the fourth and fifth beaches, less frequented and more native.

8th day – Barra Grande

We will head to Barra Grande by boat and car, accompanied along the entire route by the beautiful beach Ponta do Mutá, until we arrive at the Pousada do Mutá.  Our friend Simone, owner and hostess of the pousada, will welcome you and give you all the information about how to experience Barra Grande.  Saturday night is generally something with live music.

9th day – Barra Grande

If you would like, in Barra Grande you can rent a small boat with a sailor and do a tour of the gorgeous little islands of Camamú Bay.  Simone will give you all the information.

10th day – Itacaré

In the morning we will leave the pousada and begin our tour by Land Rover, crossing the whole Maraú peninsula, stopping in Taipú de Fora, considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil.  Arrive in Itacaré and the Pousada Arte na Mata, with ecological cottages in the middle of the lush green Mata Atlantica.  Pascoal will welcome you and accompany you to your refuge.  The starlit nights lying in the hammocks of the pousada are magical.

11th day – Itacaré

Sergio and Pascoal will tell you how you can discover the less frequented beaches and enjoy the best nightlife in Itacaré, to experience alone or accompanied by them.

12th day – Itacaré

Same as the previous day.

13th day – Ilhéus/Salvador/Cachoeira

In the morning we will pick you up from the pousada and accompany you to Ilheús, the native city of Jorge Amado and where some of his books took place, including “Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon.”  Ilheús is the city of the “colonels of cacau”.  Thirty years ago if was the largest cacau producer in the world.  We will have a homemade breakfast at the a cacau plantation prepared by the proprietress.  Next we will take a tour of the plantation, where we will see the production process of cacau and its derivatives.  At night, a flight to Salvador.  You will be met at the airport and taken directly to Cachoeira.

During this time in Cachoeira there is a celebration called Festa da Boa Morte, literally translated to “Party of the Good Dead”.  It is one of the most vivid manifestations of Brazilian religious syncretism (a forced but tolerated mix of Catholisim and Candomblé, an ancient African religion).  Celebrations and parties to the rhythms of samba de roda (the samba dance that the samba from Rio de Janeiro came from) are organized in the streets of the old Cachoeira, a city considered a national monument because of its rich history and art.  It is the city where one of the most important “brazilian aristocrats” resided – sugarcane.  It was the most important commercial port on the Paraguaçu river, and the main route of communication between the rich bahian interior and the Salvador port in the Bay of All Saints.  The richer they got the more African slaves they owned.  Cachoeira is the city in the Reconcavo Baiano most infused with African and native culture.  Our friend Davi, native artist of Cachoeira, will be our host and will help us experience the party “behind the scenes” that which only the Culturianos can experience.  Lodging in the Pousada Paraguaçu in São Félix, a city that is across the river from Cachoeira and appears to be its reflection.

14th day – Cachoeira

In the city the celebrations and parties continue all day.  If you would like, you can take a tour of the beautiful and interesting Paraguaçu River with Bim’s boat, enjoying the mangrove ecosystem, seeing small fishing and artisan communities and visiting the ruins of an old sugarcane mill, a place where the families of the Portuguese men lived with their slaves and produced sugar.  Obviously all this accompanied by Davi, since thanks to him and his knowledge we can be introduced to places and people most tourists don’t get to see.  Zé Miúdo’s carne do sol (salty yummy meat) and Magali’s maniçoba (an indigenous dish with mandioca leaves) are two of many options that the gastronomy of the region offers.

15th day – Praia do Forte

One of you will leave for Italy – what a shame!  Obviously all of us will accompany you to the airport and wish you a good trip.  The fortunate ones who stay will head to Praia do Forte on the Costa dos Coqueiros (the coconut coast), the north coast of Salvador and of Bahia, a well-known Brasilian resort.  Lodging at the graceful and charming Pousada Tatuapara, owned by our German friend Manfred.  You can walk along the beach with gorgeous natural pools.  At night we will go out to Bar de Souza to listen to live music and see beautiful people.

16th day – Praia do Forte

During this time of year it’s possible to do a tour on the open ocean and see humpback whales.  You can also visit Projeto Tamar, responsible for the preservation of sea turtles.

17th day – Praia do Forte

Leave for Cultours “Culture and Nature” tour.  The ruins of the Garcia D’Avila castle, hiking in the lush greenery, the idyllic Aruá lagoon where we can explore by canoe or enjoy the beach, the yummy moqueca prepared by Cristina, are the experiences of this day in contact with nature and the wild and inevitably with natives going about their daily lives.  Reinildo and Pedro will accompany you so that you can live more fully this exciting day.

18th day – Praia do Forte/next destination

Last hour in Bahia.  Unfortunately the time has come for us to accompany you to the airport.  “Fiquem com Deus” (Go with God) is the blessing that all Bahians use when they say goodbye to each other, and it is this way that we will send you off. “The trip is over, but it continues and will accompany you for the rest of your life because it changed you.  This is the work that we do with so much love:  to experience the emotions that you can’t erase, those which you can no longer live without. Nothing is really improvised, but to truly improvise you need baggage.  Cultour has been filling this baggage for years and offers it to you.”

Marco Tardio

(Travel Designer, Cultour)