The sleepy state of Bahia in Brazil has lengthy been a magnet for tradition vultures who flock to its capital, Salvador, to wander alongside its World Heritage streets, dance to Afro-Brazilian beats and marvel at its baroque church buildings.
As one of many nation’s key World Cup cities, Salvador will even play host to hundreds of soccer followers this summer season. However with virtually 700 miles of palm-fringed shoreline and a few of Brazil’s final pockets of Atlantic rainforest, I used to be eager to discover Bahia for its most neglected asset: its excellent pure magnificence. I used to be going to try the unthinkable and take an lively vacation in Brazil’s laziest state.
All a-board: Lucy, proper, and surf teacher Jane get able to journey the waves
I started my journey by heading inland from Salvador to discover the epic surroundings of Chapada Diamantina Nationwide Park. It is a misplaced world of table-top mountains swathed in semi-tropical jungle, dripping with waterfalls and peppered with huge water-filled caverns.
After a sweaty, seven-hour drive from Salvador, I arrived on the peaceable hilltop city of Lencois, a colonial time warp of cobbled streets and candy-coloured homes.
The air was full of hundreds of migrating butterflies and the scent of jasmine. The general impact was fairly intoxicating, quite like standing inside a closely perfumed snow dome.
Brazil is the house of the B&B, often small family-run inns often called pousadas, which should you’re fortunate provide not solely a comfy and reasonably priced place to sleep however an enthralling host with native tricks to tailor your keep. Alison, from Hidden Pousadas, helped me plan my journey and booked me into Alcino Estalagem, which has, she claimed, the most effective breakfast in Brazil.
In my expertise as a presenter on Nationwide Geographic Wild, Brazil is many issues, however a connoisseur vacation spot shouldn’t be one in all them. To most Bahians, breakfast is a type of styrofoam sandwich made out of tapioca and lined with molten plastic cheese, so my expectations had been low.
Branching out: Lucy sits on an unlimited bromeliad tree within the Marau peninsula
However my prejudice was quickly thwarted as a gentle procession of little plates crammed the communal breakfast desk. Together with completely scrambled eggs, toasted granola and impossibly unique fruits from Alcino’s very personal orchard had been some delightfully unconventional selections – crunchy home-made falafels, circles of squash topped with blue cheese, and spiced poached apples.
It was all completely scrumptious and the proper approach to begin the day forward of an extended trek. Alcino additionally organised my information for the day, Roy Funch, an avuncular and humble American who performed a pivotal position in creating this nationwide park.
When Roy arrived within the Seventies, Chapada’s sweeping mountain surroundings reminded him of Arizona’s Monument Valley, solely greener. However he was alone in seeing magnificence in these historical weather-worn sculptures. In distinction, all of the locals wished to do was blast them for diamonds.
From the mid-1840s, the Chapada had been the supply of the best black industrial diamonds that went on to form a lot of the trendy world – drilling the Panama Canal and even our very personal London Underground.
However after 130 years, the growth had gone bust and Lencois was diminished to a washed-up, poverty-stricken mining city.
Nonetheless, Roy’s enthusiasm for the panorama satisfied native bureaucrats to petition for nationwide park standing. Now Lencois is a thriving eco-tourism hub and the sons of dynamite-happy miners make their cash preserving, quite than destroying, the panorama. They information vacationers alongside previous trails and exhibit the distinctive natural world that features unique orchids discovered nowhere else on Earth.
Because of Roy, Chapada is a type of uncommon issues – a real conservation success story.
Journey right here is available in all sizes and styles, from five-day treks sleeping in centuries-old miners’ stone huts to rappelling down waterfalls or snorkelling within the aquamarine waters of large flooded caverns.
Roy took me on a easy single-day hike, tracing the trail of the Ribeirao river to the Sossego waterfall. At 65, Roy is an advert for following your ardour; he bounced over boulders like a mountain goat whereas sharing his encyclopaedic data of Chapada’s historical past and biology.
It was a brilliantly sunny day, with temperatures hovering round 85F, so clambering alongside the rocky river mattress was scorching work. To chill off, we splashed about in Chapada’s pure swimming pools, the place curious fish nibbled at my toes. My closing dunk was a 15ft soar into the falls – terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure.
My action-packed vacation continued again on the coast, 190 miles south of Salvador in Itacare – a critical candidate for probably the most lovely nook of Brazil. Right here the volcanic rock headland is dotted with crescents of sand so comfortable that it squeaks underfoot. It is usually cloaked in rainforest so particular that it has been declared a world biosphere reserve by Unesco.
Magnificence: The beautiful inside of Sao Francisco church in Salvador
My base, the Pousada Tanara, boasts the most effective views of the attractive Tiririca seashore. From the consolation of my hammock I watched surfers practise a succession of tips because the sky turned pink.
The sleepy fishing village of Itacare was found by surfers some 25 years in the past and, due to a number of breaks catering to all ability ranges, it is probably the greatest locations to study the game.
Being slightly rusty, I booked in for a refresher course with a beautiful instructor known as Jane. After a 20-minute trek by means of the pristine rainforest, we reached Jane’s secret surf seashore. It could not have been extra excellent: the emerald ocean was the temperature of bathwater, and we had been serenaded by cicadas as we surfed a lazy level break designed for freshmen. I used to be in heaven.
After spending the subsequent 4 days browsing, my physique was in want of a relaxation, so I headed north to my closing vacation spot: the Marau peninsula. This 30-mile spit of sand is basically one very lengthy golden seashore. With no paved roads and solely a smattering of pousadas, it was nearly abandoned.
Operating down the centre of the peninsula is a sequence of freshwater lakes, fed by underground springs. In some locations their distance from the ocean is lower than 50 yards so you’ll be able to take an energising tumble within the surf after which rinse off with a soothing float in nonetheless, candy water. Bliss.
The lakes are surrounded by a peculiar forest, straight out of Jurassic Park. Large twisted timber laden with large bromeliads, a relative of the pineapple, are so massive they assist their very own distinctive ecosystem of frogs, bugs and butterflies.
I stayed on the super-chic Butterfly Home, positioned on the seashore about midway up the peninsula. Its British proprietor, Chloe, was a disillusioned nurse when she determined to maneuver to sunnier climes about eight years in the past. ‘I threw a peanut at a map and it landed on Brazil,’ she instructed me.
She searched alongside the coast for a spot to cease till one night time she noticed an orange full moon above Cassange seashore. ‘I knew this was the place my peanut had landed,’ she stated with a smile. And mendacity on this abandoned golden seashore, listening to the sound of the surf, I may perceive why.
Lucy Cooke’s new pure historical past sequence, Speak To The Animals, is coming quickly to BBC1.
Getting there
For data on pousadas in Brazil, go to hiddenpousadasbrazil.com, butterflyhousebahia.com, pousadatanara.com/en and alcinoestalagem.com/site/index1.htm.
Rainbow Excursions (rainbowtours.co.uk, 020 7666 1260) provides an 11-night itinerary in Brazil incorporating three nights in Salvador, three nights within the Chapada Diamantina Nationwide Park, 4 nights on the seashore at Butterfly Home and extra in a single day in Salvador, from £2,855. This contains B&B, some further meals and shared companies of a information within the nationwide park, return flights from London to Salvador through Lisbon with TAP, home flights and all transfers.
