Cabral's Beachfront Property.

Can Porto Seguro turn Brazil's 500th anniversary celebration into a steady stream of tourist dollars?

FOR DECADES, HISTORIANS HAVE argued over the site where Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500 discovered the vast land that eventually became Latin America's largest nation.

Some say he first spotted Brazil at Monte Pascoal, a 528-meter hill. Others insist the Portuguese waded ashore at Coroa Vermelha, where they held their first mass. Finally, there are those who claim they landed farther south at Santa Cruz Cabralia.

Marios Vidal, a local tourist guide, says he has no inside information to help solve the landing-site mystery, but he does offer a theory about why Porto Seguro, a town located near the above-mentioned places and 700 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro, enjoys the official celebration in April of Brazil's 500th anniversary. Seven years ago, "Porto Seguro [officials] declared the town as the [discovery] place," he says. "It was an administrative decision."

Certainly, few scholars dispute the fact that Cabral's fleet rested here after a punishing 44-day journey from Portugal, and town officials hope their decision will help to turn this once-sleepy fishing village into a tourist mecca. In fact, the sheltered stretch of ocean along a scenic sun-drenched coastline in the northern state of Bahia has changed more in the past 10 years than in the previous 490.

"Things really started to grow after the mayor promoted Porto Seguro as the discovery site in anticipation of the 500th anniversary," says Hilda Rodrigues, a press aide to the town's Secretary of Tourism. "Since then it [tourism] has been growing astronomically."

With an eye on the birthday festivities and an influx of visitors, the town slowly transformed its economy away from fishing and cocoa. In 1992, an official census showed Porto Seguro with just 34,566 residents. Today, there is an international airport, 781 hotels and inns, three Internet cafes, a town psychiatrist and a plastic surgeon, a tattoo parlor and a convention center under construction. About 95% percent of its nearly 70,000 inhabitants earn a living from tourism.

Porto Seguro has also become the nation's third-leading tourist destination after Rio and the Bahia state capital of Salvador, drawing 909,000 visitors in 1999. By the end of this year, officials hope to surpass the one million mark for the first time.

The Land of Parrots. On March 9, 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral set sail from Lisbon with a fleet of 13 ships, the most ambitious expedition ever to leave Portugal. Since he had previously never commanded a ship, some historians believe he was chosen because of his wife, a wealthy woman who happened to be the king's granddaughter.

Cabral hoped to find more wealth than his colleague, Vasco da Gama, whose 1499 voyage to India netted the crown spices, silk, perfume, ivory and other riches. Like da Gama, Cabral traveled around the west coast of Africa past Cape Verde. But, unlike his famed predecessor, he encountered heavy winds that blew his expedition off course to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

After six weeks at sea, Cabral's exhausted fleet sighted land on April 21. A small landing party soon encountered some 20 naked natives from the Tupiniquim tribe carrying bows and arrows. When the Portuguese threw them colored hats, the friendly Indians responded by tossing necklaces of feathers and bones. The following day, Gabral sailed into an inlet he later christened Porto Seguro or "Safe Port."

The Portuguese believed that they had discovered a large island with no apparent riches but with breathtaking beauty. The pristine beaches, a bright blue sea and many multicolored birds so captivated the sailors that they dubbed the new territory "The Land of Parrots."

Despite the natural beauty and hospitable natives, Cabral stayed only 10 days, time enough to stock up on food and water and set out again for India. It would be up to other explorers such as Amerigo Vespucci to further explore the new land.

Quiet dignity or more "Miss Bikini Contests?" Porto Seguro is not rich in Portuguese colonial architecture. In the old section of town along tree-shaded Rua Marechal Deodoro, homes and storefronts have been restored and painted to resemble the brightly colored facades seen in the Caribbean. The street takes visitors past a swamp toward the harbor, with so many bars that the locals call it "Alcohol Alley." Yet the waterfront has an Old World charm. In the late afternoon, fisherman quietly haul their day's catch ashore along cobblestone streets, while residents chat with family and neighbors and neighbors at open-air cafes or on the front steps of homes capped with traditional tile roofs.

At present, authorities are in a quandary over how to preserve Porto Seguro's Bahian charm and scenic beaches while providing tourists with the infrastructure and entertainment they expect after shelling out big bucks for flights, hotels, food and drink.

In recent years, they have passed strict building codes to forbid certain materials and structures higher than seven meters. As a result, there are no Sheratons, Four Seasons or other five-star luxury hotels. Instead, the town is dotted with hundreds of family-run pousadas, many of which are charming villas overlooking the ocean or the Buranhem River, which flows along the southern side of the harbor.

Large-scale tourism has also been thwarted by a law that prohibits landowners from building with non-biodegradable materials on 30% of their beachfront property and up to 50% on inland property. Proponents say the measure will help preserve the remaining lush vegetation that so inspired Cabral and his men. Moreover, authorities have relegated mass tourism to the town's outskirts, leaving the modest "cidade historica" and its two churches from the 1530s with a quiet dignity.

But there is nothing quiet or dignified about the tourist development along the coastline several kilometers up the road. Buses filled with visitors on package tours zoom past huge cigar-store-Indian-like statues, and highway billboards advertise the imminent opening of a discotheque called Transylvania. These bus armadas typically stop at one of many beach hotels and entertainment complexes that have sprouted in recent years.

Take the Axe Moi, which just six years ago was a 40-square-meter mass of umbrellas and food stalls along a white sandy beach. Today, its 1,500 square meters sport numerous dance floors, hot-dog stands and souvenir shops. During the high season (December-March), an average 4,000 tourists are bused in each morning to bask in the sun, dance to the thump of Brazilian pop music and line up to participate in either the Mr. Swimsuit or Miss Bikini beauty contests. Hundreds more return in the evening to dance and drink into the wee hours.

"We have grown so much that we can't grow anymore," says Axe Moi owner Carlos Humberto Nascimento.

When Axe Moi and other tourist hangouts along the northern shore do actually hit the saturation level, developers will probably redirect their efforts south to Arraial d'Ajuda and Trancoso, small villages that boast two of Brazil's most scenic beaches. The villages have been known for years as popular. "hippie" resorts. In recent years, improved roads have made it easier for developers to put the coastline up for sale.

To be sure, Porto Seguro is expanding primarily because of domestic tourists, the majority under 25 years of age. Although there are increasing numbers of charter flights and frequent tourists from Italy, Germany, France and Argentina, foreigners make up just 10% of annual visitors. Industry officials point out that Porto Seguro is an eight-hour plane ride from New York and nine hours from London. The town's remoteness and strict building codes will also prevent it from ever becoming a glitzy Cancun catering to hordes of American and European tourists. For Axe Moi's Nascimento, that's not a problem.

"Tourist surveys show that Brazilians want beaches and that we have a high rate of returning visitors," he says. "This means a great future for Porto Seguro."

Developers discover coast. When Cabral landed, the fate of the tropical redwood that gave Brazil its name was sealed. Back in 1500, the coast was lush with Brazilwood, so called because the color of the bark reminded the explorers of red-hot coals, or brasas. The tough and durable tree made exceptional furniture and boats and Europeans coveted its deep red color.

In the first years of the colony, the Portuguese chopped down as much Brazilwood as they could muster. Although it took the Tupi more than 40 days to fell a hearty tree, a Portuguese ax could do the job in a day. Today, Brazilwood is a rare species and the only significant concentrations are protected in government-funded reserves and in privately owned plantations.

Environmentalists have used the 500th anniversary to alert Brazilians to the dangers of deforestation and to solicit funds from government and private institutions. The losses in Bahia, which has just 5% of the original rainforest that existed when the Portuguese arrived, mirror the destruction of Brazil's entire coastline.

"People are beginning to realize that Brazilwood is an important part of their history and must be saved," says Dan Erico Lobao, a forestry engineer at the Monte Pascoal National Park who oversees a Brazilwood reforestation project. "A lot has happened in the past 500 years and people are more aware of environmental issues."

Although Lobao's program is considered a success story, he and other ecologists are quick to point out that Bahia's "Discovery Coast" is still under siege. Brazilian ranchers clear-cutting trees for grazing lands have replaced lumber-crazed Portuguese. Ensuing deforestation has caused soil to erode and run off into rivers. Polluted waters are suffocating coral reefs, four of which are endemic to the region. Moreover, beachfront real estate development has disrupted breeding grounds for sea turtles and the glare of newly installed artificial lighting has caused hatchlings to become disoriented and head away from the sea. Last year, about 400 baby turtles were run over by vehicles along the coastal highway, according to Italian biologist Paulo Botticelli.

"Instead of concentrating on sewage and garbage, the authorities only think about how to make money during the 500th-year celebration," says Botticelli, who also runs a Porto Seguro inn. "They must realize that there is more to life than package tourism."

A HISTORY OF OCCUPATION

Brazil's indigenous peoples haven't fared much better than the rain forest. No one knows how many native peoples lived in Brazil when Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral landed; estimates vary from 1 million to 5 million. Today, some 200 tribes with just 325,000 inhabitants survive.

Many tribes are struggling to demarcate their lands to prevent constant invasions from miners, cattlemen, loggers and poor dirt farmers. In Brasilia, politicians have long criticized the government's effort to set aside some 198 million acres of the Amazon jungle, or 11% of the nation's territory, for indigenous peoples. That policy is based on the 1988 Constitution's recognition of their "original right to the land they traditionally occupy."

Last year, several hundred Pataxo, who are ancestors of the Tupi and number roughly 6,000 members, occupied Monte Pascoal National Park in the Porto Seguro area. The Pataxo demanded that the government give them the entire 138,000 acres that had been initially allocated for the park, most of which ended up being taken by ranchers. The Pataxo consider the reserve, which has some of the last stands of virgin Atlantic rain forest, to be their traditional land and have tried unsuccessfully to get it back since the 1940s. There have been numerous clashes with authorities, including a skirmish last November in which two policemen were shot to death.

Porto Seguro Tourism spokeswoman Hilda Rodrigues sums it up: "The history of Brazil is a story of occupation.