Porto Seguro
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| Porto Seguro | |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Region | Nordeste |
| State | Bahia |
| Founded | 30 June 1534 |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Jânio Natal (PR) |
| Area | |
| - Total | 2.408 km² (0.9 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 4 m (13 ft) |
| Population (2006) | |
| - Total | 140.000 |
| - Density | 58/km² (150.2/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC-3 (UTC) |
| Postal code | 45810-000 |
| Website: [1] | |
Porto Seguro is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is the site where the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral first set foot on Brazilian soil on April 22, 1500. It was the busiest port of the developing Portuguese colonies from 1500 into the early 1800s and is now a major tourist destination.
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[edit] Location
Porto Seguro is located on the Atlantic coast at a midway point between Salvador and Vitória. It is 707 km. south of Salvador and 613 km. north of Vitória. It is 62 km. east of the connection with the important BR-101 highway at Eunápolis.
[edit] Airport
An international airport was completed in 1993, and it receives direct flights from Salvador, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro. The airlines serving the city are Varig, Tam, Gol, and Ocean Air, besides the charters flights arriving from Europe: Portugal, Amsterdam, Italy and France.
[edit] Tourism
The region is also notable for its many beaches and vestiges of its colonial past. There are still vestiges of the Atlantic Tropical Forest nearby. There are also a number of beach-side dance floors, playing Bahia's popular music, known as "Axé".
Tourism has expanded fast in recent years and there is highly visible growth in Porto Seguro. What was once a small town of fewer than 10,000 people in the 1970s has become a city of over 100,000 people. One suburb on the southern bank of the Buranhem River, Arraial d'Ajuda, has grown from approximately 900 people in 1990 to 11,411 in 2005.
[edit] Carnival
The city offers one of the most famous Carnival parties in Bahia. “Electric Trios” (trucks carrying sound systems and live bands), dancing “blocos” and “cordões” (street dancing groups) drag thousands of tourists along the "Passarela do Álcool" Passageway (the traditional local avenue) and to beach bars.
[edit] Economic information
The economy is based on services, tourism, light transformation industries, fishing, government employment, agriculture, and cattle raising.
In 2003 there were 66,513 head of cattle, of which 8,647 were milk cows. The main agricultural products were pineapple, sugarcane, manioc, banana, rubber (19.8 km² in 2003), cacau (6.4 km²), coffee, coconut (19.95 km²), guava, oranges, lemons, papaya (10 km²), passion fruit, and pepper.
[edit] Attractions
Night Leisure The Passarela do Álcool Passageway is a famous spot in the city. Here, visitors find the famous "Capeta” drink, can have dinner with live music and buy gifts made in the region; or visitors may go to Capitania dos Peixes, on Pacu Island, with ecological landscapes and an assorted variety of music genres and ambiences, near giant aquariums.
Historical Downtown Area The historical site in the Cidade Alta area is a National Heritage Monument put under government trust by a Federal Decree since 1973. It was one of the first towns in Brazil and played an important role during the first years of European colonization. It includes three churches and around 40 buildings (among private residential houses and public institutions), restored by the State Government for the 500th anniversary celebration of Brazilian “discovery”. At night the whole area is bathed by a special lighting system, offering an impressive view.
Monte Pascoal National Park Created in 1961 to preserve the place where Brazil was “discovered” by Portuguese warriors. It includes swamp areas, salt marshes, river marshes and a coastline around the rocky, high and round hill, considered the first point of land to be seen by the Portuguese traveler Pedro Álvares Cabral’s crew. It extends over an area of 144.8 km², including the Pataxó tribe’s indigenous protection land. Besides its historical importance, it also offers protection to one of the last stretches of Atlantic forest in the Northeastern area of Brazil. The area is aimed at preserving valuable woods such as Brazil wood, and still hosts many species of animals threatened by extinction, such as “collar sloth”, “black burs”, among others.
Recife de Fora Sea Park It was the first city owned park in Brazil. During low tide, visitor can view a wide range of coral reefs, fish and many sea species. Tours are available on schooners.
Glória Hillock Here, visitors find the ruins of what many consider to be the São Francisco Church, the where Ynaiá was buried, an Indian woman who died for the love of a crewmember of Portuguese navigator Gonçalo Coelho‘s fleet. People say the São Francisco Church was the first one built in Brazil, in baroque style, probably in 1504, whose ruins date to 1730.
The Nossa Senhora da Penha Matrix Church Located on Pero de Campos Tourinho Square, in Cidade Alta, it was built at the 18th century’s end. It comprises an aisle, a main chapel, a sacristy and a bell tower.
Jaqueira Indigenous Protection Reservation A huge jackfruit tree trunk, tumbled down by nature itself, represents the return to one’s origins and acts as a historical and cultural reference to honor the ancestral fathers and mothers of Pataxó families who recently moved into this 8.27 km² Indian protection area. Their huts, spread around original Atlantic Forest woods, keeps original old formats, giving visitors the impression of being back 500 years in time to pre-Colombian Brazil.
Pirata Island It is considered as one of the most sophisticated aquarium complexes in South America]].[citation needed] Pirata Island is a thematic leisure center combining nightlife infrastructure and environmental and sea biodiversity protection, with giant aquariums. It is located on Pacuio Island, on Buranhém River and access is available exclusively by boat.
The “Discovery” Outdoors Museum An outdoors, natural museum, whose “art galleries” are its beaches, valleys and natural trails and whose “collection” is a set of geographical formations and traditional villages, disposed as art works in permanent exhibition, engraved in very ancient media, which are spread along the 130 km length of Bahia’s historical southern coastline.
Terravista Golf Course The golf course, designed by architect Dan Blankenship, offers 18 holes and demanded US$ 4 million in investment to be built]].[citation needed] The project follows the most sophisticated and up to date trends in golf course building in the world today, as done in California, USA, and in Algarve, Portugal – all of which look very similar in terms of weather and geographical conditions, for all three golf courses are close to sea areas.
[edit] External sources
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