The island

Itamaracá is an attractive island, with a beautiful tropical landscape, and various ‘surprises’ of different characters: mangroves, a historical village called Vila Velha (Old Village), which hides one of the oldest churches of Brazil as well as beautiful view over the island´s coastline, an ‘engenho’ (former land house of owners of sugarcane-plantations), and, last but not least, a Dutch fortress called Forte Orange, from which the hotel gained its name.

The Forte Orange was built at the beginning of the period of the Dutch occupation (1630-1654), when the WIC (Westi-Indian Company) governed a big part of northeastern Brazil. The fortress is located directly at the seashore, and just in front of the fortress lies a small, idyllic, un-habited island with a surface of 2 ha., called ‘Coroa do Avião’. This small island can be reached by small motor- or sailing-boats, and counts with a number of simple fish restaurants. Swimming is good on the beach next to the fortress as well as on the Coroa do Avião. The water is clear, and its temperature stays always around 28-30 ºC.

The island of Itamaracá counts with several other beautiful beaches, but still the one right in front of the Hotel Orange is one of the most, if not the most, attractive.

Throughout the year on Itamaracá various traditional, folkloric events take place. Handicraft-workers produce lots of different types of products, made with wood, shells and coconuts.

Fortress Orange

The ‘Forte Orange’ was built by the Dutch in 1631, during the initial phase of the 24-years of occupation of a big part of northeastern Brazil. Initially it was built with sand-walls and wood. This occurred directly after the conquest of the Isle of Itamaracá. In 1637 the fortress was rebuilt with stones. Throughout its history the fortress has been changed a few times, but still it has many historical elements of the Dutch period.

In 2002 a delegation of the University of Leiden led a project of archeological excavations. The results were shown to Queen Beatrix, Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima, during their official State visit to Brazil in March 2003.

The Fortress can be visited every day, from 10 to 17 hrs.

The project Peixe Boi (Sea Cow)

The sea cow is the only aquatic herbivore mammal. This means, he lives under water, but he gets to the surface every two to five minutes to breathe. He can get up to 4 meters long and its weight can be up to 800 kg. The Amazon-version is smaller, with 2,5 meters and aprox. 300 kg. This specie only lives in the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, in Brazil and Peru.

The sea cow can live as much as 60 years, but only rarely he reaches that age, because the specie is hunted a lot. In Brazil the specie is threatened with extinction. Apart from the human hunt also fishing-nets and pollution are factors which put the sea cow in danger.

In Brazil the sea cow is protected by law since 1967. Hunting sea cows and selling sea cow products are prohibited and are punished with sentences up to 2 years in jail.

The project on Itamaracá

In 1990 the ‘Centro Peixe-Boi’ (Sea Cow Centre) on Itamaracá was established by Ibama (the federal organization for environmental protection) and 1998 it received the status of Research Centre for Aquatic Mammals. The centre mapped the Brazilian sea cow population and works on the prevention of the extinction of the specie. The study showed that in the Brazilian living area, being the northern and northeastern coastal waters, still live about 400 sea cows.

Therefore a relief centre was established on Itamaracá, with the objective to look after young sea cows stranded on the beaches. They are prepared to return to sea. Once back in sea they are being followed during some time, to maximize their chances of survival. So far this has been done successfully a lot of times.

The island "Coroa do Avião"

Just in front of Itamaracá, at about 700 mts., you can find a small unhabited island, of 2 ha. It actually is a sandbank, which has grown out and got grown over with vegetation. There is some dispute about the origin of this small island´s name (literally the Plane´s sandbank). There is a story about an airplane which would have made an emergency landing on the island when it was really nothing more than a sandbank, and others say that the island, at that time, seen from above looked like the wings of a plane. However, most probable is that the name is degenerated from its original name: Coroa do Aluviã, which means ‘sandbank of alluvium’.

This small island represents an incredible idyllic spot on earth; a real mini-paradise. There are some small and simple fish-restaurants, visitors can swim in clear and warm seawater, and with low tide they can walk on about 1 km of shallows, which reach out to the sea.

The beaches on the island

The beaches of Itamaracá are characterized by a calm sea with a pleasant temperature, therefore very appropriate for swimming and water sports. There are some natural swimming pools, the coastline is full of palm trees and there are some coral reefs; all together Itamaracá offers a very tropical setting. The most beautiful beach on the island is the one directly in front of the Hotel Orange, and next to the Forte Orange. From there it is 700 mts. to the small island of Coroa do Avião. Eastward of this beach is the Atlantic Ocean, westward is the Canal de Santa Cruz, an open sea arm. The Centro do Peixe Boi (Sea Cow Centre) is situated just near to the Forte Orange.

Other beaches on Itamaracá are Praia do Pontal da Ilha, Praia do Fortinho / Enseada dos golfinhos, Praia do Sossego / Lance dos Cações, Praia do Pontal de Jaguaribe, Praia de Jaguaribe, Praia de Quatro Cantos, Pilar (the most visited urban beach), Baixa Verde / do Currupio, Praia do Rio Âmbar and Forno da Cal.