It’s worth arriving in Trancoso, a chic little town on the north-east Brazilian coast about 300 miles south of Salvador, at night-time. A preservation order means the Quadrado, the broad village green that makes up the town’s historic centre, has almost no outdoor electric light. Instead, after sunset, the boutique bars, shops and restaurants that now occupy most of the one-storey artisans’ houses on either side of the grass put out gently flickering coloured candles on their tables and window sills, giving the place a wonderfully fairy-tale feel. Above you a carpet of stars shines down and, perched on top of the cliffs near to where the Portuguese first landed in Brazil 500 years ago, a simple, slightly dilapidated church basks, with just the slightest ecclesiastical aloofness, in its (permitted) electric floodlighting. Starting at the bottom of the cliff, the sand stretches for hundreds of kilometres in either direction and, however busy the town seems to be, you can pretty soon find a quiet spot to yourself. Trancoso is a small historic, Indian village with a serene atmosphere, nice restaurants, shops and lounge bars. It is mentioned as a transcendant place and compared with Ibiza, Goa and Bali. The houses on the Quadrado have, as much as possible, been kept in their original form. With so much outdoor beauty, it's not surprising that in Trancoso you spend very little time indoors ... even when you are indoors.
Softly, softly under a Brazilian sky. By David Baker. Published: November 25 2005, Financial Times.
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