Praia da Tainha

Praia da Tainha has around 200 metres of fine sand, rocks and crystal-clear water, set among forest and rocky headlands. It lies at the southern tip of the Bombinhas peninsula, far from the built-up seafront — and that distance is what keeps the beach the way it is.

It sits inside the Parque Natural Municipal do Morro do Macaco, a conservation area created by municipal law and run by FAMAB, Bombinhas' environmental foundation. The park lies in the Canto Grande neighbourhood and protects Morro do Macaco hill, Macuco Island and a handful of small, unspoilt beaches. Tainha is one of them, with very little development: just a few small houses behind the vegetated dune ridge.

There are two ways to get there. By car, along a dirt road that is already part of the outing. Or on foot, along the Trilha da Tainha, which starts at the park gateway on Rua Jequitibá, near the Canto Grande Mar de Dentro pier. The town council rates the trail as easy to moderate: the round trip is about 5 km and takes 3 to 5 hours, through protected areas with several viewpoints along the way.

The name isn't decoration — tainha is Portuguese for mullet. The beach is one of the spots for the artisanal mullet fishery, which the town council recognises as cultural heritage of the town and of Santa Catarina. Between May and July, when the shoals move up the coast, the beach's fishing shack comes back to life: lookouts on watch, dugout canoes carved from a single trunk, and the net hauled in from the sand by whoever is nearby.

In that season the beach has different rules. So as not to scare off the shoals, the town council asks people to avoid swimming, diving and noise on the sand, and municipal laws ban surfing, sailing and jet skis during the fishing. Winter visitors come to watch — and, with luck, to help haul in the net.

For anyone thinking about property, Tainha is the most unspoilt side of Canto Grande. The neighbourhood has the beach life of Mar de Dentro and Mar de Fora; the park, which exists to protect this tip of the peninsula, keeps the green all around. It's the kind of neighbourhood that doesn't change its face from one summer to the next.