Porto da Barra Beach is located in the city of Salvador

Salvador, Bahia

Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It is located at the entrance of the Baía de Todos os Santos

Baía de Todos os Santos

Baía de Todos os Santos is the main and biggest bay of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Its name expanded to include a whole province, now known as the state of Bahia), where the city of São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos was built...

, with a small, white

White

White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...

 colonial

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

 fort at one end and a whitewashed church sitting up on a hill

Hill

A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...

 at the other.

As the beach is in a bay, the water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 is calm

CALM

CALM may refer to:*Campaign Against Living Miserably, UK charity aimed at bringing down the suicide rate among young men.*Café-Au-Lait Macules as seen in the medical condition neurofibromatosis...

 (given that it is right in the heart of Brazil's third-largest city). And in a country with over 7,000 km (4,349 mi) of east-facing coastline, the Porto is one of the few facing west, and sunset

Sunset

Sunset or sundown is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon in the west as a result of Earth's rotation.The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment the trailing edge of the Sun's disk disappears below the horizon in the west...

s can be seen from there.

Porto da Barra was the site of Bahia's first Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an settlement, Vila Velha, or the Old Village. During the 1960's it was a hangout for Tropicalistas Caetano Veloso (who sang of the beach

Beach

A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...

 in his song "Qual é Baiana?") and Gilberto Gil and their crowd.

The LGBT community focuses on the extreme right of the beach, near the grand staircase that connects the beach and the avenue.