Things to Do in Santa Maria

Pra de the long curve of beach

You'll hear the Atlantic first. Waves slap the sand with a hollow thud inside your ribs. Walk east past the hotels. The beach empties into blonde grit bordered by ocher cliffs. Kite-surfers carve neon slashes. Sanderlings dart between your prints. Stay for sunset. The horizon melts to molten copper. Local boys kick football into driftwood goals.

Ponta Preta cliff walk

Thirty minutes west the lava rock buckles into dragon-back ridges. Wind switches direction. Brine stings your lips. Follow goat tracks to the lighthouse ruin. Waves explode in white geysers below. Stone is carpeted with tiny pink succulents that crunch like burnt sugar underfoot.

Fish market at 7 a.m.

The harbor stinks of diesel and scorched scales. Fishermen unload amberjack still twitching. Knives scrape in metallic rhythm. Spot the blue-and-yellow boat Tia Lita. Her crew sells sea-urchin roe in cut-off plastic bottles. Spread it on crusty papo seco. Salty jolt. Ocean sneezed.

Buracona lava pools

A twenty-minute drive north lands you in a cove. Rock has been drilled into sapphire cylinders. Sunlight at midday makes the water glow like liquefied neon. You'll hear increase sucking through blowholes before you see the pools. Jump fast. Atlantic temperature slaps. Skin tingles for hours.

Live music at Taberna n'Areia

By 10 p.m. the courtyard bar smells of grilled limpets and spilled Super Bock. A three-piece band plugs battered guitars into an amp duct-taped together. Bass thumps through sand floor. Dancers swirl between plastic tables. The singer may drag tourists onstage to shake a cabasa.

Praça de Pescadores. Old quarter lanes where balconied houses open straight onto cobbles. You'll fall asleep to accordion music from the bar below.

Beachfront strip east of the pier. Low-rise hotels step onto sand. Handy for dawn swims. Expect bass from beach clubs until 2 a.m.

Vila Verde zone. Five streets inland, quieter. Roosters replace dance beats. Guesthouse rates run half the waterfront price.

Torrenha point. Newer apartments, windy but wide balconies face sunset. Ten-minute walk to town center.

Hotel row south. Package-tour blocks with pools. Kids clubs and buffet smell of cinnamon cereal.

Residential Terra Boa. Back-of-town lanes where locals hang washing on cactus fences. No restaurants. Wake to bread vans honking.