The river crossing
By rowing canoe.
Vilamir Azevedo — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Vilamir Azevedo — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Vilamir Azevedo — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Otávio Nogueira from Fortaleza, BR — CC BY 2.0
Caraíva, a district of Porto Seguro on the south coast of Bahia, is a village with no cars and no asphalt: streets of soft sand, rustic colourful houses, and electricity that only arrived in 2007, its cables buried underground to keep the view. To enter, you leave your car on the opposite bank at Nova Caraíva and cross the Caraíva River in a rowing canoe paddled by a local boatman, about ten minutes (around R$10 per person each crossing). It is about 70 km from Porto Seguro airport by way of Arraial d'Ajuda and Trancoso, with a final dirt stretch. Its neighbours are the Pataxó, who lived in the region before the Portuguese arrived; their village of Barra Velha lies within the Monte Pascoal National and Historical Park.
By rowing canoe.
No asphalt.
The village's neighbours.
Caraíva, Porto Seguro, south Bahia
Leave the car at Nova Caraíva and cross the river by rowing canoe in about ten minutes, for around R$10 per person.