Travel Tips

I HAVE to start by Baia de Todos os Santos (All Saints' Bay) first of all because it's the most ecumenical place name I have ever heard! *grin* And second of all because this is the view I get from my window and third of all because it is a beaaaaaauuutiful place.

There are three main islands in this bay - Itaparica, Ilha de Mare and Ilha dos Frades.

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Getting to those islands is very very easy. Go to Mercado Modelo. Got there? cross it through. See a yellow little house in front of the ocean? Go there. Now you just have to pay like 2 reais (less than one dollar) or maybe 6, depending on the island, to get there by slow delicious boat.

Once you get to the islands, you'll find Pousadas (Inns) or just fishermen houses where you can rent a room and enjoy your pleasant fantastic calm and hot stay!

:)

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ITAPARICA

If you'd like to stick to Itaparica, though, you can either get the slow boat (70 minutes), the ferryboat (50 minutes and twice the price of the slow boat) or a catamaran (20 minutes and three times the price of the ferry).

Once you get to the island, have a beer at the bar on the entrance and then get a kombi (minibus) to one of the beaches. I recommend Caixa Pregos (the name is mispelled on the map), Mar Grande, Barra do Pote, Ilha do Cal and MOSTLY Ponta de Areia!!!!!!!!!

And the cool part is that you dont even have to stay there - you can go to the island in the morning and come back to Salvador in the early evening...

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ABROLHOS

"In the region between Caravelas, southern Bahia, and Sao Mateus, northern Espirito Santo, the continental plataform stretches for over 200 kilometers.

Its borders often raise abruptly to 50 meters of depth and then degress again, just as of a sudden, to 400 m deeo.

Those shallow bits of the plataform are basis for millions coral banks, very dangerous for ships and boats.

It's in this geological context that the Archipelog of Abrolhos is located, 70 km (35 miles) away from the country coast. It's a National Park of a wonderful and complex sea ecosystem, with transparent waters (25 to 30 meters of visibility), relatively calm and appoximate depths of 5 meters. The average temperature of the water is 22/24 C.

The Park includes five rocky formations: the islands of Santa Barbara, Siriba, Redonda, Sueste and Guarita.

In shape of a bow, probably remains of a volcano border (long dead, dont panic!) those rocky formations shelter one of the most beautiful, rich and exuberant corak banks of the South Atlantic.

Abrolhos has a coral formation that in singular in the whole world called "chapeirao", and its shape reminds of a mushroom or a brain, and that go from down below until the surface (16 meters). In several places, one chapeirao is nearby the other and its borders meet to form the banks (labirynths crowded with fishes) that will make a salesman life pretty hard.

From July to November, the jubarte whales arrive to mate and give birth to their puppies.

You can also find there eals, turtles, dolphins, sharks and several fishes whose name in english I have no freaking idea.

The surface of the islands is covered with sea birds, who go there to mate as well.

Only a few countris in the world have as many Natural Parks as Brazil: 35! Amongst them lies Abrolhos.

The PARNA (National Parks) were created to preserve the nature, fully protect faune and flora and to forbid any sort of exploitation or extract of natural resources. "

This text was roughly translated from the original in portuguese at the site www.abrolhos.com.br and I did insert a lot of comments in there... *lol*

Now, ladies and gents, to the pictures...

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::

did you doubt the waters were clear?

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JUBARTES (HUMPBACK WHALES)

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), also known as black whales, belong to the family Balaenopteridae and are well known for their docile behavior, for their many antics (jumps, head-up displays, pectoral fin slappings, etc.) and for a very well developed sound communication system.
Another striking characteristic of this species is the size of the pectoral fins, which are unusually long, reaching around one-third of total body length. Females are slightly larger than males and may reach 16 meters in length, weighing around 40 tons. While fleeing they may reach speeds of up to 27 kilometers per hour.
Humpbacks migrate seasonally between feeding grounds in high latitudes and breeding grounds located in tropical waters.
In the Western South Atlantic, the main breeding are for the species is the Abrolhos Bank, off Southern Bahia State in Brazil. Between july and november, these whales reach the warm, shallow and calm waters of Abrolhos to mate and give birth to a single calf, which is born after a gestation period of about 11 months.
Wanton slaughter has drastically reduced slmost all whale populations of the planet. Humpbacks, which numbered 150,000 strong before commercial whaling began, may have only some 25,000 individuals remaining today in all oceans. They are inscribed in the Brazilian List of Endangered Species published by IBAMA (the National Environmental Authority).

Source: http://www.cria-ative.com.br/jubarte