Arraial do Cabo

The cape was Tamoio land when the Portuguese arrived, and people had lived on its hills for some five thousand years. In 1503 Amerigo Vespucci, sailing with the second Portuguese expedition to the Brazilian coast, anchored at the beach now called Praia dos Anjos. The water and the wind here were far colder than elsewhere on the Brazilian coast, which is why the cape is called Cabo Frio, the cold cape, and Vespucci left 24 men at a small fort. A trading post followed nearby — one of the first in Brazil — and around it grew a modest settlement, the arraial that gave the town its name.

The cape's position made it an important and dangerous landmark in the age of sail, and many ships were wrecked on its rocks and islands from the 16th to the 19th century. A lighthouse was built on the island off the cape in 1833. For centuries the village lived from fishing.

Change came in 1943, when the Companhia Nacional de Álcalis opened a plant here to produce soda ash and salt, bringing jobs and workers from other parts of Brazil. Arraial do Cabo remained a district of Cabo Frio until 13 May 1985, when it became a municipality of its own. Since the 1990s tourism has grown quickly, and in 1997 the surrounding sea was declared a marine extractive reserve to protect the traditional fishing communities.

Arraial do Cabo sees itself as different from the other towns of the Lakes Region. Its people, the cabistas, have a recognisable accent and a stock of local words, and conversation in the street is loud, teasing and public. The town is also the only one in the state to mark Thanksgiving, on 23 November, as a local holiday.

Fishing still shapes local identity. In 2002 about 300 registered fishing families had worked these waters for more than a century, and the marine reserve was created for them; within it, only traditional fishing boats are allowed. The rapid growth of tourism since the mid-1990s has brought conflict between these fishermen and the companies running tour boats and dives, a tension that runs through local politics. In 1960 the filmmakers Mário Carneiro and Paulo Cesar Saraceni made a documentary about the town's fishermen.

Diving gives the town its other identity. The upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep brings an abundance of marine life — turtles, groupers, rays and dolphins among the islands and coves — and Arraial do Cabo calls itself Brazil's diving capital. Churches such as Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, on the rise above Praia dos Anjos, and the old historical marker recalling Vespucci's landing tie the town to its long past.

Arraial do Cabo had a population of about 30,600 in 2020, spread between the town on the cape and districts such as Monte Alto, Figueira and Pernambuca along the road west. The town's sights are few beyond its beaches and its two churches, Sagrado Coração de Jesus and Nossa Senhora dos Remédios.

Ecotourism is the base of the economy: boat trips, beach kiosks, guesthouses and dive schools employ much of the town, and summer weekends bring large crowds from Rio and beyond. The small port, the Porto do Forno, is really a marina with three piers, through which goods come into the town and the local salt production goes out. Fishing remains important, and the soda-ash works that once drove the economy are part of the town's recent memory.

The rhythm follows the season and the weather. In summer the beaches and boats are packed and the streets busy late into the evening; out of season the town is quieter and closer to the fishing village it was. The pressure of tourism on the fragile beaches and the marine reserve, and the balance between visitors and fishermen, are the town's constant debates.

As a fishing town, Arraial do Cabo eats from the sea. Grilled fish, fried fish served with rice, beans and salad, prawns, squid and octopus fill the menus of the restaurants around Praia dos Anjos and the main street, much of it landed by local boats. Squid fishing is regulated within the marine reserve, and octopus is still caught by divers in the traditional way.

Everyday food follows the Rio de Janeiro coast. Lunch is often a comida a quilo, a self-service buffet paid by weight, or a prato feito, a set plate of rice, beans, salad and a piece of fish or meat. On the beaches, vendors and kiosks sell cold coconut water, grilled cheese on a stick, fried snacks and ice-cold beer.

Evenings are for moqueca — fish stewed with tomato, onion and coriander, in the Bahian style with palm oil and coconut milk, or the lighter capixaba version — and for petiscos, plates of fried fish, bolinhos de bacalhau (salt-cod fritters) or pastéis shared over beer. The caipirinha, made with cachaça, lime and sugar, is the standard drink, and açaí is served frozen in bowls with granola and banana.