The lifestyle of Itacaré

The life in Itacaré is very relaxed. All the people I get to know here are super open-minded and welcoming. Every time I get out, I meet someone new, be it in the washing salon, a café or just doing my weekly shopping. I was totally not used to this kind of openness and it took me some getting used to. As Itacaré is a very touristy place, with people coming and going every single day, it was pretty hard for me to find closer friends at first, as many were leaving again after a few weeks.

However, I found a way to overcome this difficulty. Sport has really opened up the possibility for me to get in contact with the Natives and to encounter more meaningful connections. There are many options in Itacaré to get active. Be it Volleyball, Capoeira, Surfing, Rowing, Soccer or Footvolley. At the beginning, I felt rather overwhelmed, because there isn’t really a website to find these opportunities, but after a while, I started establishing ties with all sorts of people, who introduced me to this other kind of life in this little town.

‘Roda’ in my Capoeira class

When you arrive in Itacaré, the first thing that you are gonna get to know is probably the night life, which is very fun. However, Itacaré has a far deeper layer to it, which is easy to overlook. It took me some time to get involved into this more profound way of life, but it finally gave me a deeper sense of belonging and definitely increased my wellbeing by a lot. I can only recommend you find a club, group or place to interact with the really amazing and super relaxed inhabitants of Itacaré with this incredible down-to-earth mentality.

Capoeira

I find the way of life here totally astonishing. I am used to a very hectic, anonymous and rather narrow-minded lifestyle in my city in Germany, with always the same people, thoroughly planned agendas and a lot of punctuality. This here is the total opposite! You are probably gonna make tons of plans that no one is gonna remember the next day, but at the same time you will always meet someone on the streets when you leave the house to spontaneously do something!

by Emilie Merta