Brazil’s Best-Kept Secret: Caraíva
Electricity arrived just a few years ago. It’s a helluva trek to make. And yet: Once you arrive at this beach town on the Bahian coast, you’ll find a zenlike paradise that’s simply unmatchable.
Photographs by Pia Riverola
NATACHA DA COSTA MARQUES’S dream was to grow old by the sea, eating fried shrimp and drinking cold beer within earshot of waves lapping the shore. She first visited Caraíva, a remote fishing village on the southern end of Brazil’s Bahian coastline, a decade ago. She’d been working in Kuwait as a teacher and — eager to reconnect with her home country after 18 years living abroad — made the journey to Caraíva over two nights, two days, and four modes of transportation: four planes, a river ferry from Porto Seguro to Arraial d’Ajuda, a small rental car that barely survived 20 miles of dirt roads, and, just when she thought she’d arrived, a canoe to cross the Caraíva River.
But the fatigue from the journey was gone the instant she saw the strip of beach formed where the river flowed out to the sea. “Out on the sandbank, surrounded by fresh- and saltwater, there was a guy standing on his head doing yoga,” she remembers. “I knew it was a special place. I felt something, a sense of completeness.” After years of back-and-forth, she finally bought some land, built a house, made it a home, and became an Airbnb host. Today guests eat breakfast at a communal table in her kitchen, the smell of fresh coffee mingling with the salt air.
When it comes to transportation, not much has changed since Marques’s first visit. The nearest airport, Porto Seguro, is just 45 miles away, but the journey — unless you go by helicopter — still involves that river ferry, those 20 miles of dirt roads, that canoe crossing. Less intrepid travelers might stop at better-known and more upmarket neighbor Trancoso a few miles away. (Anderson Cooper has a pad there.) But for those wanting to escape the modern world, there’s little that rivals Caraíva, with its warren of sandy streets flanked on one side by a river and on the other by an indigenous reserve that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For years, it’s been a well-kept secret among the travelers who started arriving in the 1980s.
“We washed in the river and got drinking water from another stream,” host Carleto Franco remembers of those quiet early days. Electricity came in 2007 and with it an influx of tourists, but Caraíva remains charmingly rugged. Power outages happen, Wi-Fi is patchy, and cell service is as minimal as the beachwear. Mule and cart are the main modes of transport — plus your own two feet — and the pace is led by the rise and fall of the sun and tides. But that’s part of the appeal.
“Today when I look out at this house and the garden that has grown around it,” says Marques, “I feel I’ve made a dream come true.”
Food
BAHIAN CUISINE is packed with the flavors of its Afro-Brazilian heritage, from coconut milk to chilies and palm oil. No dish combines these better than a moqueca — fish stew cooked in a clay pot — a staple on menus in Caraíva, where restaurants cluster along sandy Avenida dos Navegantes.
The proprietor of Boteco do Pará has his own fishing boat and serves eight moquecas, each packed with fresh fish swimming in a sweet broth. “It’s an unmissable spot for sunset,” says host Geoffroy “Jô” Journaud, a regular at the restaurant who started opening up his house to travelers in 2014.
If you’re a fish lover, head to Patioba Restaurante and order the peixe na patioba — lane snapper wrapped in palm leaves and roasted with plantain on a wood-fired grill, the dish and technique inspired by the neighboring indigenous Pataxó community.
Enjoy light, summery dishes like ceviche and quinoa bowls with your toes in the sand and a cold beer in hand at Bar da Praia.
And if it’s cachaça you’re after, Caraíva Cachaçaria offers 40-plus varieties and has been a favorite for years.
Day Trips
SATU BEACH, two miles north, is where sunbaked wanderers cool off with chilled coconut water and a dip in freshwater lagoons formed by sandbanks and rainwater. Another six miles on is Espelho Beach, named for the mirror (espelho) effect of the sun shimmering on the water at low tide. Speedboats shuttle day-trippers back and forth from Caraíva to Espelho Beach in just 20 minutes; if you’re feeling adventurous, hike it. It’ll take the better part of a day, but what a lovely day.
Travel upstream — by paddleboard, kayak, or motorboat — where the mangrove turns to low-lying Atlantic Forest. For a more leisurely experience, rent a rubber ring and take a lazy float downriver with the tide.
Getting to Corumbau, a sweeping, palm-lined beach seven miles south, is half the fun; pick up a beach buggy and driver in Caraíva and bounce through the scrub and along deserted beaches to the Corumbau River, where a canoe will take you across. Then settle in for the day at one of a cluster of beach restaurants. As the day draws on and the tide goes out, little sand islands emerge, waiting to be explored. “In Caraíva you go to sleep to the sound of the waves, but the sea in Corumbau is much calmer and bluer,” says Marques.
Music
CARAÍVA has long been the inspiration for songs and the adopted home of many musicians. In recent years, it’s become a destination for high-profile artists who headline big summer beach parties at Coco Brasil.
But a lively local music scene flourishes year-round. Down by the river, neighboring clubs Forró do Ouriço and Forró do Pelé open their doors on alternate nights. Little more than concrete front yards with small stages, both host live forró, a northeastern musical style played typically with an accordion, a zabumba drum, and a triangle. Gigs start around midnight and go until the last dancers call it a night (generally around sunrise).
Across the road at Bar do Porto, live music is played in a more subdued setting to diners eating pizza and crepes at tables overlooking the river. Forró, samba, choro, and Música Popular Brasileira all are on the lineup here, overseen by the bar’s French owner, Daniel Bangalter, a songwriter and producer who’s been an important driver of Caraíva’s cultural scene for years.
