EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Whether you choose the route north or west, you're likely to pass through FEIRA DE SANTANA , 112km from Salvador, known primarily for its enormous Feira do Couro , literally "leather market" - the best place to buy leatherwork in the Northeast. Leatherwork is the main form of artesanato in the sertão, as you'd expect from cattle country. The market happens every Monday, taking over the centre of town with tens of thousands of customers, and thousands of stalls selling cheap and very high-quality wallets, handbags, satchels, cases and bags of every shape and size, many of them beautifully tooled. You should get there early, as the market starts to wind down after lunchtime, although it does go on all day. Buses leave every fifteen minutes from Salvador on market day, every half-hour the rest of the week; the journey takes about two hours.

If you can't make it there on a Monday, the permanent Mercado de Artesanato in the centre has a wide range of leather goods every day of the week. Apart from the market, though, there's little reason to come, or to stay. The town itself is rather ugly and the countryside around is nothing special; it's best to make a day-trip from Salvador.