Gamboa Sandbank

Banco de Areia da Gamboa is a strip of sand that rises out of the open sea when the tide is right. While it stays exposed, natural pools form around it, and you can walk along the sand, get in the water and take in a view with nothing around but the sea.

Because everything there depends on the tide, no two visits are quite the same: how wide the sand is and how long it stays above water change with the day and the hour. It is worth going with someone who knows how the tide works locally.

The sandbank is in Gamboa, in the municipality of Cairu, Bahia, within the Valença microregion. Nearby, the Vivai catalogue also lists other spots in the same municipality, such as Mirante da Gamboa, Parede de Argila (the clay wall), Praia do Tatiba and the natural pools of Moreré and Garapuá.