Circuito Maratour 2026 — Mahi-Mahi (Salvador)

The water here carries the weight of 1549, the year Tomé de Sousa dropped anchor at Praia do Porto da Barra to establish the first capital of Colonial Brazil. As you push through the chop, you are essentially tracing the same coastline where a six-meter stone monument now stands, silently marking the birth of a nation. This is the backdrop of the Circuito Maratour, an annual gathering that brings swimmers into the heart of the Bay of All Saints.

Swimming here means moving through layers of history that defined the South Atlantic. In the 17th century, these same waters were contested by the Dutch during their 1624 invasion; they famously seized the local Jesuit chapel, turning a place of worship into a warehouse for their confiscated wine. You might catch a glimpse of the historic center's silhouette, where the Lacerda Elevator—that 72-meter engineering feat from 1873—connects the bustling Cidade Baixa to the elevated city above. Further along the line of sight, the Cruz Caída monument stands as a stark reminder of the 1933 demolition of the original 16th-century cathedral, a landmark that orients every swimmer heading toward the historic core.

Yet, the coast holds darker memories, too. Near the Ladeira da Barra, Francisco Pereira Coutinho established an early settlement in 1536, only for his tenure to end in a shipwreck near Itaparica Island, followed by a grim fate in an anthropophagic ritual. Today’s event, the Mahi-Mahi stage, offers a more harmonious experience with the ocean, providing distances of 250m, 750m, 1500m, and 3000m. While the nearby UltraMaratour tests endurance across the 16km channel, this stage focuses on the tactical navigation of the bay's currents. Consecrated in 1654, the Jesuit complex nearby—where the community was once held prisoner before their 1760 expulsion—still watches over the harbor. It is a unique vantage point, seeing the city from the water, where the rhythm of your stroke is the only thing that breaks the stillness of a bay that has witnessed centuries of global change.