Porto Seguro

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See also Agbodrafo for the city in Togo formerly known as Porto Seguro.

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.

Estimated population (2005): 133,976
Municipal area: 2,409.6 km²
Elevation: 49 meters
Founded: 1534
Postal code: 45810-000

Contents

1 Location
2 Airport
3 Tourism
4 Economic Information
5 External Sources

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.

Airport

An international airport was completed in 1993, and today Porto Seguro is an international tourist destination known for its busy nightlife. The airport receives direct flights from Salvador, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro. The airlines sering the city are Varig, Tam, Gol, and Oceanair.

Tourism

The region is also noted for its many attractive 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 "Axe". Axe is an electrifying rhythm similar to samba. Another attraction in the city is the "Passarela do Alcool" (Alcohol Passway) where you will be fought over to try one of the local alcohol-based drinks.

Tourism has expanded fast in recent years and there is highly visible growth in Porto Seguro. What was once a small town of less 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.

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 (1,980 hectares in 2003), cacau (640 hectares), coffee, coconut (1,995 hectares), guava, oranges, lemons, papaya (1,000 hectares), passion fruit, and pepper.

Trancoso is a small village, 15 miles south of Porto Seguro, with attractive beaches.

External Sources

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