Caravelas

Caravelas is a small town with about 20,000 inhabitants on the Atlantic coast in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, a few kilometers north of the mouth of the river Rio Caravelas. The town is the starting point of the Bahia & Minas railway line.

The town was founded in 1581 by Portuguese settlers and has long been the center of a major whaling industry. The town was incorporated in 1700 and received city rights in 1855. On May 11, 1823 during the Brazilian War of Independence, a battle between Portuguese and Brazilian naval units took place at Caravelas.

About 70 kilometers east of Caravelas in the South Atlantic is the constituted in April 1983, 280 km ² National Marine Park Abrolhos with its five small islands of volcanic origin.