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Salvador sits on a vast bay -- a Bahia de Todos os Santos (the Bay of All Saints), which at 1,100 square kilometers, 70 kilometers from north to south, and 60 kilometers from east to west (at its widest point) is the largest in Brazil. A Bahia de Todos os Santos is fed by the Paraguaçu river (among numerous smaller sources), which opens into the smaller bay of Iguape, which in turn gives onto the principal bay. The largest town along the Paraguaçu is Cachoeira.
What appears to be the other side of the bay as you look out over the water from Salvador, is actually the ilha (island) of Itaparica. Itaparica is the largest of the bay's 56 islands.
There are several ways of getting there: the ferryboat, the catamaran, and the pequena lancha, or small boat. The latter has my vote, unless you're taking a car across.
Disembarking at Mar Grande
The pequena lancha leaves from the Terminal Marítimo -- a blue-and-white building behind the Mercado Modelo -- and takes you right across to Mar Grande. It's not a small boat like, say, a rowboat or something like that; but it's small enough that the ride across the bay feels like an adventure in itself -- sun, sea, and air. Mar Grande (Big Sea) is a small town with a nice beach and some great barracas. The beach scene is especially hot (people-wise) during the summer months of January and February. There's a really funky nice cool inexpensive pousada in Mar Grande called Arco Iris (Rainbow), seat of an old mango plantation.
Terminal Marítimo
Ponta de Areia (Sandy Point) is a huge, wide beach close to the northern tip of the island, kind of like the Daytona of Itaparica (in terms of the beach itself anyway). It's a good place to spend a day, again and more particularly, during Brazilian summer.
And by the way, transportation from place to place on the island is available in the form of kombis (a word familiar to German-speakers), usually Volkswagen vans which tend to congregrate at disembarkation points and which will drop one off anywhere along their routes. Likewise they will pick up anyone flagging them down at any point along those routes. There are also city-type buses running from Bom Despacho, the island's landing point for the big ferry-boat and the catamaran.
The larger ferry boat (which also carries cars) and the catamaran leave from the Terminal São Joaquim, close to the Feira de São Joaquim. A schedule is below. But...
...the Salvador ferry boat system is having big problems with maintenance and upkeep, and therefore with the schedule. There are hours-long waits for crossings. Unless you absolutely have to get a car across you are better off taking the pequena lancha from the Terminal Marítimo. |
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Of the smaller islands (meaning not Itaparica), one of the most popular as a destination via schooner or ferry boat is the Ilha de Maré (Tide Island) , located in the northern area of the bay. Boats generally pull up to the praia (beach) of Itamoabo, and because there is no pier one reaches the beach by getting off the boat into waist-deep water and wading up to dry ground. Itamoabo is nice, though not particularly beautiful in and of itself, and it is lined by the usual Bahian assortment of slap-dash barracas and bars serving beer, carangeijo (crabs), and fish.
Some three hundred meters or so along the island's coast to the left (as one faces out to the water) is a truly lovely little beach called Praia das Neves (Beach of the Snows, not much frequented except during high Brazilian summer) which has several houses set up as beachbars, very sweet and organized.
Maré is home to a small population of fishermen. Their communities are not visible from either of the two beaches described above, and are only reachable by boat or walking (not that I'm suggesting an excursion unless one happens to be curious). From Itamoabo a small sidewalk wends its way up a hill, then back down to the community of Santana where, on the weekends, the inhabitants will be doing what the visitors on Itamoabo are doing -- sitting in simple bars drinking beer and talking.
The next community along -- Praia Grande -- is only reachable by following the water's edge (or wading if the tide is high). From Praia Grande on one may (or could rather, I'm not recommending this) continue to follow the island's shoreline and circumnavigate; or there is a "shortcut" (a trek along a narrow twisting trail with some very muddy spots, also not recommended!) up through Atlantic rainforest, over the deserted center of the island, and down to the peaceful (and poor) little community of Botelho on the island's far side.
Botelho sits directly across from the Port of Aratú (an industrial boil on what would otherwise be a beautiful landscape) and is home to Maré's only pier. On weekends when the weather is nice Botelho's small, open-air bar is packed with off-islanders who've arrived by speedboat.
Continuing along the coast takes one past the island's high-walled brothel and on to the community of Neves, and thence back to Itamoabo.
A lovely song called "Ilha de Maré" was written by Bahian sambista Walmir Lima. Clicking the play button below will stream (Salvador band) Conexão Negra's version of the song.
The fishing village of Santana on the Ilha de Maré
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