01The place
On one side, the open sea. On the other, the bay.
The Maraú Peninsula lies in southern Bahia, on the Costa do Dendê. It is a narrow tongue of land: the Atlantic on one side, Camamu Bay, among the largest in the country, on the other. At the mouth of the bay, Ponta do Mutá has a lighthouse.
One arrives by launch, leaving Camamu for Barra Grande, or overland, along the BR-030 road. Nearly everyone chooses the water. The crossing separates what was left behind from what lies ahead.
The town of Maraú grew out of a village founded by Capuchin friars in the early eighteenth century, called Mayrahú. On the ocean side are Taipu de Fora and the Cassange lagoon, freshwater, set apart from the beach by a narrow strip of land.
APA Baía de Camamu, BA
02Why here
Because the road runs out.
There are places one reaches only by meaning to. The peninsula is one of them. Nobody passes through on the way to something else.
One returns across the same water. Some put the return off.
03Images
From the bay to the open sea.
04What one does here
Verbs, not a programme.
Cross
The bay, from Camamu to Barra Grande.
Dive
At Taipu de Fora, among the reefs.
Sail
Around the bay, between islands and mangroves.
Trade
The salt of the sea for the fresh water of Cassange.
Watch
The day ending, at Ponta do Mutá.
05The region
The bay and its saveiros.
Across the bay, at Cajaíba, wooden saveiros and schooners are still built by hand. The craft is learned in the boatyard.
On land, the oil palm, brought from Africa, lines the coast from Itaparica to Maraú and gives the region its name.
Nobody passes through here on the way to something else.
Maraú · Bahia
