Caravelas is a city of about 20,000 inhabitants in southern
Bahia
Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, a few miles above the mouth of the
Caravelas River.
Caravelas was founded in 1581 by
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Port ...
settlers. It was once the centre of a flourishing whale fishery. It is the port of the Bahia & Minas railway
pt. Caravelas is the nearest town to the uninhabited
Abrolhos Archipelago.
The city contains part of the
Cassurubá Extractive Reserve, a sustainable use conservation unit that protects an area of mangroves, river and sea where shellfish are harvested.
The city is served by
Caravelas Airport.
See also
*
Abrolhos Marine National Park
References
Populated coastal places in Bahia
Populated places established in 1503
Municipalities in Bahia
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