If you ever get the chance to visit Fazenda da Lagoa on Bahia’s Cocoa Coast, take my tip. Arrive at night. Forty kilometres (25 miles) south of Ilhéus, the minibus that had met me off an evening flight from Salvador turned off the main coast road and followed a rutted dirt track into a tangle of tropical Atlantic forest.
After winding and lurching through dense trees, bushes and creepers for 20 minutes, I was delivered to the edge of a glassy lagoon, where a little ferry waited for me. As the boat set off on the short journey to the guesthouse, ink-black forest, alive with chirps and cries, rose to each side, framing the starriest sky I’ve ever seen. The heart of darkness, with a ceiling by Studio 54.
Sitting on a 600ha swath of private land with its own 4km beach, Fazenda da Lagoa is a love letter to the region’s tranquil natural beauty. With the help of Rio’s botanical gardens, degraded farmland has been restored to wild luxuriance. The retreat offers 14 sumptuous apartments to well-heeled guests with some seriously stylish R&R in mind.
While a range of excursions, from rafting to golf to tours of local attractions, is on offer, the sheer luxury of the suites and the grounds’ rambling, naturalistic plantings makes a persuasive case for just staying put. Torn on my first morning between exploring the site and enjoying my gigantic bed a while longer, I found the architect was one step ahead of me. Sliding back the floor-to-ceiling panels of my apartment’s front wall, I jumped back into bed and spent a happy hour gazing at the coconut palms, exotic succulents and cartoon-bright flowers, which were all that stood between me and the Atlantic Ocean.
Later I checked out the beach (deserted), the 35m (115ft) infinity pool (empty) and had a perfect Camembert salad for lunch in the airy indoor garden. A shower in my second, outdoor bathroom while a dramatic tropical storm swept across the sky finally roused me to action, and I took a Jeep tour of the rolling grounds with the Fazenda’s charming manager, Rimark. Unseen hands had left champagne and a fruit buffet in a cabana (shelter) by the spring-fed lake, and we watched from kayaks on the water as the sunset turned the sky violet and pink.
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Next stop, Fazenda São Francisco do Corumbau, 300km farther south and 50km from the nearest surfaced road. Corumbau, too, cultivates a relaxed, private house atmosphere — front desks, apparently, are soooo last year — and its nine suites sit on a pristine, palm-studded strip between virgin mangrove swamp and a perfect 2km arc of white sand.
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This is the baby of a São Paulo couple who wanted a sophisticated yet simple retreat for their city-stressed friends. Where my previous address featured playful splashes of vibrant colour and rough-hewn folksy artefacts, Corumbau was pure metropolitan elegance.
My huge suite was a Zen poem in dark wood and white, white and more white. In a bathroom the size of an average London starter home, my sunken bath was big enough to host a small caipirinha party.
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Once again, I ignored an energetic roster of sporty, sightseeing and cultural excursions in favour of naps by the pool, gourmet dining and general lounging duties. My greatest exertion was a long walk along the sand to the ramshackle, Caribbean-colourful houses of the tiny fishing village of Corumbau, where groups of black vultures squabbled over fish heads around the beached boats, and a couple of local women, wading in crystalline baby-blue water, were the only souls to be seen.
Both Corumbau and Fazenda da Lagoa signal an emerging trend in southern Bahia. The past few years have seen a handful of small-scale, independent boutique resorts appear in this relatively undeveloped area which balances high-end city trimmings with a back-to-basics ethos and hands-on, personalised owner management.
It all began in Trancoso, scene in 1500 of Europe’s first contact with South America, and five years ago a simple little hippy town. Then Beth Giavole opened the funky five-star Pousada Estrela d’Agua — today it sits on some of the country’s prime real estate. Pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio and Gisele Bündchen holidaying here in 2003 sent the town’s stock soaring; now its central Quadrado square is lined with glamorous restaurants, hip bars, art galleries and clubs, all charging city prices.
Some may question whether Bahia’s unsophisticated charm will survive this boom in luxury. My mind replayed the non-five-star highlights of my trip — the rolling ranches, colourful one-horse towns, the sweaty samba club in a scruffy Salvador suburb, the general store in the middle of nowhere where I had played pool with my cab driver, Alvaro.
For me, the posh pousada phenomenon is an authentically Brazilian development, by Brazilians for Brazilians. We tourists are just welcome latecomers. My laughable Portuguese had got me further ordering food and drink than any waiter’s English. This, I understood, is simply one more face of a vast and endlessly various country.
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Getting there: Rupert Mellor travelled with Cazenove and Loyd (020-7384 2332, www.cazloyd.com). Nine nights — three each at Estrela d’Agua and Fazenda da Lagoa with breakfast, and three nights full board at Corumbau — cost from £2,745pp. The price includes flights from Heathrow to São Paulo on British Airways, domestic flights and transfers.