Itacaré

The name Itacaré comes from Old Tupi and means "stone caiman". Tupiniquim people lived here when Europeans arrived in the 16th century, and the coast formed part of the captaincy of São Jorge dos Ilhéus, founded in the 1530s. The Jesuit Luís da Grã founded a chapel dedicated to Saint Michael, and the settlement that grew around it became São Miguel da Barra do Rio de Contas; it was officially recognised as a vila in 1732. In the early colonial period the coast was a haunt of Dutch and Portuguese pirates, and the area supplied brazilwood for European dyes and cassava flour to feed the enslaved workers of the sugar plantations around Salvador. The town took its present name in 1931.

Its great boom came with cocoa in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it grew rapidly as a port shipping beans from the plantations inland to Europe; the houses and warehouses of that era still line the riverfront. The expansion of Ilhéus and the road and rail networks reduced its trade, the harbour silted up, and two dams built upriver in the 1960s made it harder for larger ships to enter. The witches' broom blight devastated the region's cocoa in the 1980s.

Isolation preserved the landscape. Because cocoa here was grown under the shade of the Atlantic Forest, in the cabruca system, the forest still runs down to the sea. The opening of the Estrada Parque from Ilhéus in 1998 brought tourism and new neighbourhoods, and the town now lives mainly from it.

Itacaré remains a Bahian town in its culture. Capoeira is a strong presence, with several groups whose rodas and training sessions draw visitors, and many come specifically to join them. Local people, of mixed Indigenous, African and European descent, are known as the nação grapiúna, whom Jorge Amado called the captivating people of this land.

Surfing has shaped the town's second identity. Surf schools work from the main street, and Praia da Tiririca has hosted the Brazilian leg of the World Surf League. Alongside the surfers came hikers and ecotourists, and the town is now a popular destination for all three.

The change from a quiet farming town to a resort has brought tension as well as income. Residents fought a long campaign against landowners and developers who tried to charge for access to beaches, and Prainha and São José are now open to walkers free of charge. New Year and Carnival bring the biggest crowds, when the town fills with revellers.

About 27,700 people lived in the municipality at the 2022 census, and the 2024 estimate put the figure at about 29,300. Roughly half live in the rural interior, among farms and forest along the river and the hills behind the coast, rather than in the town itself.

Tourism is the economy: ecotourism alone accounts for more than 90 per cent of local output. Pousadas, restaurants, surf schools, guides and boat operators employ much of the town. Two protected areas cover part of the municipality, the Serra do Conduru State Park and the Baía de Camamu Environmental Protection Area, created in 2002.

The day follows the sea and the sun. Surfers are out early, the beaches fill by late morning, and when Rua Pedro Longo closes to traffic in the late afternoon the town gathers there to eat and walk. The busy summer and the quiet months between holidays make for a seasonal income, and growth has pushed new neighbourhoods out along the roads since the highway arrived.

Itacaré eats the food of the Bahian coast: moqueca, fish or shrimp stewed in coconut milk and dendê palm oil with peppers, tomato and coriander, served with rice and pirão, a thick fish gravy with cassava flour. Shrimp cooked in coconut is on the menu in town, and fish and seafood from the coast fill most menus.

Cocoa built the region, and the stall at the Cleandro waterfalls sells fresh and dried cacao beans and chocolate. Chocolate-making is a growing trade around Ilhéus.

Tapioca, a crêpe of cassava starch filled with cheese, coconut or other fillings, is a common snack, and acarajé, the black-eyed pea fritter fried in dendê and filled with vatapá and shrimp, comes from the same Bahian kitchen. As elsewhere on this coast, the catch of the day shapes much of what restaurants serve. The town also has Italian, Arabic and vegetarian restaurants, and coconut water, fruit juices and caipirinhas made with cachaça are the drinks of the beach.