Praia do Rosa

From July the whales are back, up from Antarctica to the one stretch of warm quiet water where a calf can be born and fed. You watch them from the rock at either end of the beach, which is where the rules want you, because boats stress the animals and the headlands are close enough anyway.

Praia do Rosa is a village on the Imbituba coast of Santa Catarina, ninety kilometres south of Florianópolis, and it sits inside the Área de Proteção Ambiental da Baleia Franca, about 130 kilometres of protected shoreline running through nine municipalities. Southern right whales come here between July and November to mate, calve and nurse, which is why the beach is called the nursery, and the same waters carry sea turtles, migratory birds and otters. Out of season the village is a surf town with an international reputation, alongside Praia da Silveira up the coast, and the Lagoa de Ibiraquera behind it takes the kitesurfers and the paddleboarders. Paths do the joining: the Caminho do Rei down to Praia do Luz, the Trilha do Mudo past the fishing shacks at Portinho do Rosa, the Trilha da Praia Vermelha around the northern headland. The long version is the Caminhos da Baleia Franca, a free public route of about 172 kilometres along beaches, headlands, dunes and lagoons.