Santos and São Vicente near Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Portuguese knew how to choose a location for a new settlement. Santos stands on an island in a bay surrounded by towering mountains and extensive areas of lowland mangrove forest - a setting equally as beautiful as that of Salvador or Rio. When it was dominated by colonial houses, churches and clean white-sand beaches Santos itself must have been one of Brazil's most enchanting cities. But in the 20th century an evil reputation for yellow fever and industrial pollution from nearby Cubatão left the city to decay and it lost much of its architecture along with its charm. Contemporary Santos, however, is getting its act together. The old colonial centre has been tidied up and Scottish trams ferry tourists past the city's sights. These include a series of colonial churches and the Bolsa do Café - a superb little museum whose café-restaurant serves the most delicious espresso in Brazil. Santos is also Pelé's home and the city he played for almost all his career. Santos FC has a museum devoted to the club and to Pelé and it is easy to attend a game.
On the mainland,
São Vicente
is, to all intents and purposes, a suburb of Santos, having been absorbed into the conurbation. It was the first town founded in Brazil, in 1532, but nowadays it is scruffy and with very few sights of interest but for the rather dilapidated colonial church, the Matriz São Vicente Mártir (1542, rebuilt in 1757) in the Praça do Mercado. The Litoral Sul begins after São Vicente.
Santos is one of Brazil's oldest cities and has long been its most important port. The coast around the city is broken by sambaqui shell mounds that show the area has been inhabited by humans since at least 5000 BC . When the Portuguese arrived, the Tupinikin people dominated the region. However, the first settlements at neighbouring São Vicente (1532) were constantly under attack by the Tamoio who were allies of the French. The French were defeated at Rio in 1560 and the Tamoio massacred soon after.
By the 1580s Santos was a burgeoning port with some 400 houses. The first export was sugar, grown as cane at the foot of the mountains and on the plateau. By the late 19th century this had been replaced by coffee, which rapidly became Brazil's main source of income. The city was connected to São Paulo and the coffee region by the British under the guidance of Barão Visconde de Mauá, and the city grew wealthy. The seafront was lined with opulent coffee mansions and the centre was home to Brazil's most important stock exchange, the Bolsa do Café.
In the 1980s, the hinterland between the sea and mountains became the site of one of South America's most unpleasant industrial zones. The petrochemical plants of Cubatão were so notorious that they were referred to in the press as the 'The Valley of Death'. Santos and around was said to be the most contaminated corner of the planet, with so much toxic waste undermining the hills that the whole lot threatened to slip down into the sea. In the late 1980s, a spate of mutant births in Cubatão eventually prompted a clean-up operation, which is said to have been largely successful.
Getting thereSantos is served by regular buses from São Paulo as well as towns along the Litoral Norte and Litoral Sul such as Curitibia, Rio de Janeiro and Florianópolis. Buses arrive at the
rodoviária
The best way to get around the centre of Santos is by the newly restored Victorian trams, which leave on guided tours from in front of the Prefeitura Municipal on Praça Visconde de Mauá. The tram passes most of the interesting sights, including the
azulejo
-covered houses on Rua do Comércio, the Bolsa do Café and some of the oldest churches. Local buses run from the colonial centre and
rodoviária
to the seafront - look for Gonzaga or Praia on their destination plaque.
The centre of the city is on the north side of the island. Due south, on the Baía de Santos, is
Gonzaga
, São Paulo's favourite beach resort where much of the city's entertainment takes place. Between these two areas, the eastern end of the island curves round within the Santos Channel. At the eastern tip, a ferry crosses the estuary to give access to the busy beaches of Guarujá and Praia Grande. The city has impressive modern buildings, wide, tree-lined avenues, and wealthy suburbs.
There are
SETUR
offices at the
rodoviária
, at Praía do Gonzaga on the seafront, and next to the British railway station on Largo Monte Alegre. The
Orquidário Municipal
, www.santos. sp.gov.br
, has limited opening hours. Although poverty is apparent the city is generally safe but it is wise to exercise caution at night and near the port.
The heart of the colonial centre is
Praça Mauá
. The surrounding streets are very lively in the daytime, with plenty of cheap shops and restaurants. The most interesting buildings are to be found here and all can be visited by tram. The most impressive is the
Museu do Café
, www.museudocafe.com.br, housed in the old Bolsa Oficial de Café. Its plain exterior hides a grand marble-floored art deco stock exchange and museum, with a café serving some of the best coffee and cakes in South America. The building was once open only to wealthy (and exclusively male) coffee barons who haggled beneath a magnificent stained-glass skylight, depicting a bare-breasted Brazil - the
Mãe Douro
- crowned with a star in a tropical landscape populated with tropical animals and perplexed
indígenas
. The skylight and the beautiful neo-Renaissance painting of Santos that decorates the walls of the exchange is by Brazil's most respected 19th-century artist, Benedito Calixto, who was born in Santos. One of the few remaining coffee baron mansions the,
Fundação Pinacoteca
, www.pinacoteca.unisanta.br,
on the seafront, is now a gallery housing some of his paintings, most of them landscapes, which give some idea of the city's original beauty.
Santos has a few interesting and ancient colonial churches. Only the
Santuário Santo Antônio do Valongo
On Avenida Ana Costa there is an interesting monument to commemorate the brothers Andradas, who took a leading part in the movement for Independence. There are other monuments on Praça Rui Barbosa to Bartolomeu de Gusmão, who has a claim to the world's first historically recorded airborne ascent in 1709; in the Praça da República to Brás Cubas, who founded the city in 1534; and in the Praça José Bonifácio to the soldiers of Santos who died in the Revolution of 1932.
Brazil's iconic football hero, Pelé, played for Santos for almost all his professional life, signing when he was in his teens.
Santos Football Club
, http://santos.globo.com,
has an excellent museum, the Memorial das Conquistas, which showcases not only Pelé, but the history of the club. Its collection of gold and silver includes several international championship trophies. Pelé still lives in the city and can sometimes be seen at matches. It is possible to see Santos play; details available on their website.
Monte Serrat
, just south of the city centre, has at its summit a semaphore station and look-out post which reports the arrival of all ships in Santos harbour. There is also an old church,
Nossa Senhora da Monte Serrat
, where the patron, Our Lady of Montserrat, is said to have performed many miracles.
The top can be reached on foot or by
funicular
, which leaves every 30 minutes. Seven shrines have been built on the way up and annual pilgrimages are made by the local people. There are fine views.
In the western district of José Menino is the
Orquidário Municipal
. The flowers bloom from October to February and there is an orchid show in November. Visitors can wander among giant subtropical and tropical trees, amazing orchids and, when the aviary is open, meet macaws, toucans and parrots. The open-air cage contains hummingbirds of 20 different species and the park is a sanctuary for other birds.
Santo has 8 km of beaches stretching round the Baía de Santos to those of São Vicente at the western end. From east to west they are
Ponta da Praia
, below the sea wall and on the estuary, no good for bathing, but fine for watching the movements of the ships. Next are
Aparecida
,
Embaré
,
Boqueirão
,
Gonzaga
and
José Menino
(the original seaside resort for the merchants of Santos). São Vicente's beaches of
Itararé
and
Ilha Porchat
are on the island, while
Gonzaguinha
is on the mainland. The last beach is
Itaquitanduva
, which is in a military area but may be visited with authorization. In all cases, check the cleanliness of the water before venturing in (a red flag means it is too polluted for bathing).
The small island of
Ilha Porchat
is reached by a bridge at the far end of Santos/São Vicente bay. It has beautiful views over rocky precipices, of the high seas on one side and of the city and bay on the other. At the summit is
Terraço Chopp
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