Ilheus

Ilheus was built on cocoa. The plantations behind it made a small number of families very rich in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the violence of that land grab is the subject of Jorge Amado's Terras do Sem Fim, while Gabriela, Cravo e Canela is set in the town itself - the Bataclan cabaret and the Vesuvio bar both exist and both trade on the connection, and Amado's family house is a museum. The industry collapsed in the late 1980s when witches' broom fungus reached Bahia and destroyed most of the crop, a blow the region has never fully recovered from. Some farms have since rebuilt around fine chocolate and open for tours through the cabruca system, where cocoa grows under retained Atlantic forest shade.

What you actually see

• Amado's town - the Vesuvio bar and Bataclan cabaret from the novels.
• Cocoa-boom architecture - the buildings the plantation money put up.
• Cabruca farms - cocoa grown under retained forest shade, open for tours.
• The witches' broom collapse - the fungus that ended the industry in the 1980s.

When to go

September to March. Two days.

Honest expectations

The city centre is worn and parts are run down. Farm visits need booking and a car or transfer. Beaches near the centre are polluted in places - the better ones are south toward Olivenca. Rain is frequent on this coast.

Nearby

Itacare is north up the coast; Olivenca is south.