Itacaré

Itacaré
Municipality
The sun sets over Itacaré on Feb. 9, 2006
Location in Bahia
Country	Brazil
Region	Nordeste
State	Bahia
Time zone	UTC -3

Itacaré is a municipality in the cocoa zone of the state of Bahia in Brazil, south of Salvador.

Itacaré is located 70 km north of Ilhéus where the Rio de Contas, which comes from the Chapada Diamantina, meets the Atlantic Ocean. Itacaré has about 27,000 residents. Out of these, approximately 50% live in the rural interior. A mixture of races - Amerindian, black and white - can be seen in the features of the natives, called "nação grapiúna", whom Jorge Amado affectionately referred to as "the captivating people of this land". The town was founded as a Portuguese colonial settlement, originally called São Jorge dos Ilhéus, in 1532. The town was a notorious hangout for Dutch and Portuguese pirates during the early colonial period and later became a hub for the cocoa planting and a port for whalers. It was officially given city status in 1881.

The municipality contains 41% of the 9,275 hectares (22,920 acres) Serra do Conduru State Park, created in 1997. It also contains 14.88% of the 118,000 hectares (290,000 acres) Baía de Camamu Environmental Protection Area, created in 2002.

After suffering a massive blight of Vassoura de Bruxa (Witch's broom) devastated the region's cocoa crops in the 1980s, Itacaré has depended mostly upon tourism. It is a popular destination for surfers, hikers and ecotourists. The town has a series of beautiful small cove-type beaches and other picturesque beaches further along the coast. Itacaré is on the edge of a national park, one of the last large expanses of Atlantic rain forest left in Brazil.