Praiado Forte Travel Guide

Introduction

Even as recently as 10 years ago Praia do Forte was a sleepy little fishing town with a handful of streets (none of them paved), no banks, no post office, no business hours, a couple of small pousadas, and a tiny seaside church. Then a firestorm of real estate speculation swept the coast, bringing massive new resorts, upscale hotels, chain restaurants, and expensive clothing boutiques. Then the main street was covered with interlocking paving stones, festooned with signs brought to you by Visa, and flanked by shop windows of brightly lit plate glass offering R$300 (US$150/£81) bikinis and the chance to act now and secure your place in the latest and best condominium real estate opportunity on the coast.

Why anyone would come all this way to stroll a mall-ified street looking at the same chain stores found in any big shopping mall is beyond me. Indeed, what the people pushing all this development seem to have overlooked is that the attraction of Praia do Forte was never its...