I first flew to Brazil in October 1991, completely stressed out from a job I hated. The only reason I went there was because my close friend Sally was living in Salvador on the final leg of a South American tour. I was thrilled by the tropical climate, the beauty of the beaches, the intensity of the light, the prawn moqueca, the sheer foreignness of it all. I returned to my hateful job in London during a cold, wet November and felt as though someone had switched off the lights.

Fourteen years and many visits later, I bought a house on the beach a few miles north of where Sally now lives with her Brazilian husband and two children. I wanted a place in paradise, a place I could go to in my mind on dreary, grey English winter days.

I set up Brazil Beach Villas so that other English speaking people could explore the real Brazil instead of going to the isolated and sanitised tourist complexes to the north of Salvador. Perhaps you too will be thrilled by this exotic, happening and beautiful country and want to come back.