Trancoso

Located at a strategic hilltop overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and with four rivers nearby, the village of São João Batista dos Índios was founded by Portuguese Jessuits in 1583 and was home to a mission. Lacking a natural harbour the town never expanded in any signifcant way and spent centuries in relative isolation, developing a peaceful and timeless lifestyle built around fishing, farming, craft and the São João Batista catholic church which was attended on Sunday by visiting priests and held annual religious festivals. Locals and a small number of visitors lived together in harmony with nature and tradition with a total population maintained at around 300 people.

By the 1970's the first wave of hippies began to arrive, walking along the beach from Porto Seguro and seeking alternative lifestyles outside big cities during a period of military dictatorship. Already known popularly as Trancoso, the village offered an idyllic way of life to newcomers, who were enchanted by the local receptivity and the semi-communal way of living.

Even though Trancoso at the time lacked electricity or running water, members of the counter-culture movement and the arts world slowly began to arrive with more frequency, living plainly and provoking a unique cultural exchange that introduced locals to modernity with a 'hippie twist', enjoying macrobiotic food and brown rice long before trying out processed foods.

In those years an ideal balance was struck between outsiders who loved their new home, but recognized the threat urbanization could bring to it, and local families wise enough over the centuries to preserve their traditions and craft, and all willing to unite to guarantee Trancoso would not lose its identity even with the arrival of urban expansion and the 21st century.

As tourism grew an emphasis was put on organizing conservation of natural and historic patrimony, and by 2010 Trancoso was home to one of the first NGO’s in all Brazil fully dedicated to sustainable tourism called Association Despertar Trancoso, a partner of Organic Festival Trancoso.

The magic of Trancoso endures today only because of the union of residents and businesses committed to its preservation.