When you travel, where you stay matters. Beyond comfort and beautiful surroundings, your choice can help support the people who make a destination special. In Caraíva, a charming village on the southern coast of Bahia, Vila Fulô is an example of how hospitality can go beyond providing a place to sleep. It can also help preserve local culture, create opportunities, and strengthen the community. A Weekend House That Became Something More Rodrigo Furtado and his wife, Carol, arr

(Artigo em Português depois desse texto) What can you expect from something when you know almost nothing about it? When we decided to visit Caraíva, in the south part of Bahia state in Brazil, we wanted more than simply to see a beautiful place. After all, if there is one thing Long Life Locals stands for, it is this: travel shouldn't just be about places. It should be about people. The project was born from a simple question: What if our travels could do more for the communi

(Portuguese version at the end) I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Usually, I read a lot about the places I'm going to visit. This time, though, I decided to let myself be surprised. The only things I knew were that there were no cars in the village and that the electricity lines in the streets ran underground. I decided to go to Caraíva to get to know the local people, learn more about the Indigenous communities in the region, and interview some of the key

I never get tired of Brazilian culture. I’ve been living abroad for over 20 years, and every single time I come back, I’m shocked by how much life you can fit into just a few days here. Brazil doesn’t do “quiet schedule.” Brazil does festival mode . I’ll write more about my experiences in this magical country, but I had to start with my final days — because they felt like a Netflix mini-series with too many plot twists and zero sleep. Three days before my departure, I met fri

We arrived in the city with not many expectations. Lately, we had been visiting different towns and finding ourselves underwhelmed, only...