From the airport at Porto Seguro it takes about 75 minutes to reach the languid seaside town of Trancoso, including a short crossing of the Rio Buranhém aboard a local ferry. Surprisingly, since it is known to be a place favored by the famous and the extremely wealthy — CNN’s Anderson Cooper has a house here, as does Adam Clayton of U2 — the last 20 minutes of the drive are along a (reasonably smooth) dirt road. “The residents want to keep out the tourists, so they don’t let the government build a paved road,” our driver informed us, with a grin and a shrug.