A coastal city with colonial architecture and Afro-Brazilian culture. Home to samba music, traditional cuisine, and passionate football fans. Birthplace of Brazil's soccer.
Salvador, the capital of Brazil's Bahia state, is a city where Afro-Brazilian culture, colonial architecture, and beach life converge. This coastal city in northeastern Brazil is home to the UNESCO-listed Pelourinho district, hosts one of the country's largest Carnival celebrations, and sits along the scenic Bay of All Saints. In Salvador, you can watch capoeira performances in historic squares, taste traditional Bahian dishes like acarajé and moqueca, and explore miles of Atlantic coastline.
Exploring Pelourinho
Salvador's historic center, Pelourinho, consists of winding cobblestone streets surrounded by colorful 17th and 18th-century buildings. This UNESCO World Heritage site contains over 800 restored structures. You'll find the São Francisco Church here, known for its intricate gold-leaf interior. In Largo do Pelourinho, the main square, you can often see capoeira demonstrations and listen to Bahian drum circles. The area is filled with art galleries, handicraft shops, and outdoor cafes where you can take a break and watch the world go by.
Afro-Brazilian Culture
With over 80% of its population being Afro-Brazilian, Salvador is a major center for African-derived traditions in the Americas. You can learn about this cultural influence at the Afro-Brazilian Museum, which displays exhibits on religion, art, and daily life. To understand Candomblé, a religion that combines African beliefs with Catholicism, you can visit temples (terreiros) such as Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá. The Pierre Verger Foundation houses an extensive collection of photographs documenting Afro-Brazilian culture, taken by the French ethnographer Pierre Verger.
Beaches and Coastal Areas
Salvador's 50 km coastline offers a range of beach experiences. At Porto da Barra Beach, located at the entrance to All Saints Bay, you can swim and observe local life. The calm waters here differ from the surf beaches along the Atlantic coast, such as Itapuã and Stella Maris. For a quieter day out, take a boat to Frades Island or Itaparica Island in the bay. These islands have clean beaches and small fishing villages where you can eat freshly caught seafood.
Carnival and Festivals
Salvador's Carnival is one of the largest in Brazil, with millions of people participating in street parties for a week. Unlike Rio's seated parade, Salvador's Carnival allows anyone to join in. Large trucks called trio elétricos, equipped with sound systems and stages, lead the crowds through the streets, with local bands performing on top. Throughout the year, Salvador also hosts many other festivals celebrating its music, food, and religious traditions.
Culinary Delights
Bahian cuisine is an essential part of visiting Salvador. You can buy acarajé, deep-fried black-eyed pea fritters filled with shrimp and spices, from vendors known as Baianas on street corners. Many local restaurants serve moqueca, a flavorful seafood stew cooked in coconut milk and palm oil. For something sweet, try cocada, a coconut treat. The Mercado Modelo, located in a restored customs building, is a good place to sample various local foods and buy spices to take home.
Music and Arts Scene
Salvador has produced many famous musicians, including Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. You can hear live music most nights in the bars of Rio Vermelho neighborhood or attend a performance at the Teatro Castro Alves. In Pelourinho, you'll often hear the rhythms of Afro-Brazilian percussion groups like Olodum. For a cultural show combining traditional dance, capoeira, and music, you can watch a performance by the Balé Folclórico da Bahia.
Getting Around and Safety
Salvador's hilly landscape can make walking difficult, but the city has a reliable bus system and metro. The Lacerda Elevator connects the upper and lower parts of the city and provides views of the bay. While popular tourist areas in Salvador are generally safe during the day, it's important to be cautious, especially at night. It's advisable to stay on well-lit, busy streets and use official taxis or ride-hailing apps for transportation after dark.
![Português
Paraty é um município brasileiro do estado do Rio de Janeiro. Localizado no litoral sul do estado, distante 258 quilômetros da capital, a cidade do Rio de Janeiro.
Em 1667, teve sua emancipação política decretada após várias revoltas populares contra o centralismo que Angra dos Reis exercia sobre a cidade, em especial após a revolta liderada por Domingos Gonçalves de Abreu, tornando-se assim independente.
Junto ao oceano, entre dois rios, Paraty está a uma altitude média de apenas cinco metros. Hoje, é o centro de um município com 930,7 km² com uma população de 39 965 habitantes (densidade demográfica: 35,6 h/km²).
A cidade foi, durante o período colonial brasileiro (1530-1815), sede do mais importante porto exportador de ouro do Brasil.
Por estar localizada quase ao nível do mar, a cidade foi projetada levando em conta o fluxo das marés. Como resultado, muitas de suas ruas são periodicamente inundadas pela maré.
O longo processo de estagnação vivido por Paraty ao longo do século XX manteve, paradoxalmente, o casario colonial, conservado no conjunto conhecido como Centro Histórico, tornando a cidade um dos destinos turísticos mais procurados do país.
Pelas ruas de pedra irregular, circulam, a pé – a entrada de veículos é proibida na maior parte do Centro Histórico -, turistas do mundo inteiro, atraídos pela beleza da arquitetura típica do Brasil Colônia. As casas históricas foram requalificadas como pousadas, restaurantes, lojas de artesanato e museus, em meio a apresentações de músicos populares e de estátuas vivas.
No entanto, Paraty é muito mais que apenas uma pequena cidade histórica. Costeada por montanhas cobertas do denso verde da mata atlântica, a cidade é rodeada de Parques e Reservas Ecológicas, fazendo da região uma das mais preservadas do Brasil. Há mais de 60 ilhas e 90 praias em Paraty, boa parte delas acessível somente de barco ou trilhas. As praias de Trindade são uma atração à parte: em fevereiro de 2009, o governo federal delimitou a Praia do Meio, em Trindade, como parte integrante do Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina.
Outro aspecto de relevo no setor é a prática de esportes de aventura. Nas trilhas de Paraty pode-se caminhar por dias a fio. O roteiro mais tradicional entre os amantes da caminhada é a Travessia da Juatinga, que costeia toda a Península da Juatinga, em trilhas de servidão que datam do tempo dos escravos e passam por diversas comunidades caiçaras, responsáveis pela hospedagem e alimentação dos turistas. Dentre outras modalidades pode-se praticar a canoagem oceânica, a vela, o surf e o mergulho autônomo. As águas calmas, cristalinas e sempre tépidas da Baía da Ilha Grande são ideais para essa prática, atraindo grande número de praticantes. Várias operadoras de mergulho oferecem seus serviços na cidade e nas marinas, atendendo não apenas às escolas de mergulho, mas também a turistas interessados em conhecer a Parati subaquática. A canoagem também é idealmente praticada nas águas calmas da baia, destacando os roteiros de mais de um dia que exploram a Baia da Cajaíba e o Saco do Mamanguá. Já o surf é praticado na costa aberta ao mar, que se inicia na ponta da Juatinga e engloba as praias da Sumaca, Martin de Sá, Antigos, Sono e todas da Vila de Trindade.
A rede hoteleira é formada de pequenas pousadas, muitas delas situadas no Centro Histórico.
Fonte: Wikipedia
English:
Paraty (or Parati, Portuguese pronunciation: [pɐɾɐˈtʃi]) is a preserved Portuguese colonial (1500–1822) and Brazilian Imperial (1822–1889) municipality with a population of about 36,000. It is located on the Costa Verde (Green Coast), a lush, green corridor that runs along the coastline of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Paraty has become a popular tourist destination in recent years, renowned for the historic town and the coast and mountains in the region.
The town is located on the Bay of Ilha Grande, which is dotted with many tropical islands. Rising up as high as 1,300 meters behind the town are tropical forests, mountains, and waterfalls. It is the southernmost and westernmost city in Rio de Janeiro state.
Paraty is surrounded by many parks and nature reserves, including Serra da Bocaina National Park, Serra do Mar State Park (of São Paulo), the Park Reserve of Joatinga and the Cairuçu Environmental Protection Area, where the village of Trindade is located. The municipality also includes an indigenous village and an Afro-Brazilian quilombo.
The village of Paraty was founded in 1597. It was established formally as a town by Portuguese colonizers in 1667, in a region populated by the Guaianás Indians.
The Guaianás people who lived where the city now stands called the entire area “Paraty”. In the Tupi language “Paraty” means “river of fish”. Even today the Brazilian Mullet (Mugil brasiliensis) still come back to spawn in the rivers that spill into the Bay of Paraty. When the region was colonized by the Portuguese, they adopted the Guaianás name for their new town.
After the discovery of the world's richest gold mines in 1696 in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Paraty became an export port for gold to Rio de Janeiro and from there on to Portugal. The ensuing gold rush led to the construction of the "Caminho do Ouro" or "Gold Trail", a 1200 kilometer road, paved in steep areas with large stones, which connected Paraty to Diamantina via Ouro Preto and Tiradentes. Not only was it used to transport gold to Paraty, but it was also used to convey supplies, miners and African slaves by mule train over the mountains to and from the gold mining areas. Two substantial sections of the Caminho do Ouro have been excavated near Paraty and are now a popular tourist destination for hiking.
The Gold Trail fell into disuse because of attacks on the gold laden ships bound for Rio de Janeiro by pirates who frequented the islands and coves of the Bay of Angra dos Reis. Eventually a safer overland route from Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro was created because of these pirate raids. Finally, the gold itself began to run out in the late 18th century, and Paraty declined.
The Gold Trail was submitted for inclusion on the World Heritage List in August 2004.
The city's economic activity revived as a port for a new boom, the coffee trade of the Paraiba do Sul River Valley in the early 19th century, until a railway along the valley created cheaper transport to the port of Rio de Janeiro. Another smaller revival came late in the 19th century with the production of cachaça, which is a sugarcane-derived spirit best known today as the basis for Brazil's most famous drink, the caipirinha. The name "Paraty" in that period became synonymous with cachaça. Since then, Paraty has been out of the mainstream, which is why it did not change for centuries, until a paved road was built from Rio de Janeiro to Santos, near São Paulo, in the 1970s. The city then began a new cycle of activity, which transformed a small, almost abandoned town living on very limited economic activity, mainly fishing and agriculture (bananas, manioc, sugarcane) into a tourism destination.
Source: Wikipedia | Paraty in Brazil](https://humbo.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/place-photo/6095b189004fe6a53c371d71/hqb2td41ut_thumb.jpeg)
