History of Tambaba

«João Pessoa
«Paraiba
«Tambaba

Around 1989, a group of friends, fascinated by the beautiness of Tambaba, and protected from curious views by the wall of cliffs which surrounds the beach, started to bath naked; friends invited friends, and by word of mouth, the group slowly grew.
In the early 1990s, visiting Tambaba in the weekends to take a bath naked had become a tradition for many people. The reactions didn't take long to appear; members of the community, of the Church and even some councilmen started to ask for measures to stop the habit.

Tambaba.
Source: Government of Paraiba.

There are no laws which prohibit people from being naked in public. However, there are laws against public obscenity and against 'attack to good habits' (the translation is 'atentado ao pudor'). Of course, it is up to personal interpretations to say whether or not a group of people having fun naked in an isolated area is an obscenity; in a small city of Brazilian Northeast, chances were that, yes, the authorities would see (and imagine) plenty of sins and obscenity in such situation.

In January of 1990, the city of Conde elected a new Mayor, Aluísio Vinagre Regis. Fortunately, Mr. Regis proved to be a man of long vision; instead of fighting the nude bathers, he tried to conciliate insterests. To speak in name of the nudists, the AAPT (Associação dos Amigos da Praia de Tambaba - Association of Friends of Tambaba Beach) was created.
Later that year, the Mayor and staff paid a visit to Praia do Pinho, in the Southern State of Santa Catarina, which was then gaining fame as the biggest nudism beach in Brazil.
Mr. Regis liked the orderly organization he saw, and realized that Tambaba, a sunny beach in the Northeast, could easily beat Pinho, located in a temperated zone with cold winters. On January 25th 1991, the City of Conde issued the Decree 276, which declared the area between Pedra dos Despachos and Rio Graú as an Area for Practice of Naturism.
To spread the news, the City organized, from 24th through 27th of October 1991, the II Brazilian Encounter of Naturism (the first one had been in Pinho), which attracted many visitors and the media; the event gained seven minutes of exposition in Fantástico, the Sunday nights most watched TV Show in Brazil.

Tambaba gained fame, but little more than that. The city of Conde, like most of Brazil, was going through financial difficulties, and investments were scarce during the remaining of Mr. Regis office, which ended in 1994.

SONATA logo

Realizing that there was little to expect from the State, a group of naturists created SONATA (Sociedade Naturista de Tambaba - Naturist Society of Tambaba), which struggled to keep Tambaba a Naturist Area. SONATA maintained channels opened with groups in all neighbour States, and helped Tambaba keep the status of most important nudism beach in Brazil.

Towards the end of the 20th Century, it was becoming clear that Tourism would be the main industry of the States of Northeast, such as Paraíba. The number of tourists, both Brazilians and foreign, has been consistenly growing since.
In April of 2003, the Mayor of Conde, Temístocles de Almeida Ribeiro, and the President of SONATA, José Damasceno Filho, signed an agreement by which both parties would work to give Tambaba a better infrastructure, without spoiling its natural beautiness.
In the following years, the City included Tambaba in its budget, and SONATA took care of maintaining the order and beautiness. Tambaba consolidated its status of main naturist beach in Brazil, and gained also World recognition.
In 2006, the International Naturist Federation chose Tambaba to be host of the XXXI World Congress of Naturism, to be held from 9th through 12nd September 2008.

Back to Top