|| MeenaKon Blog ||

THE sun was blazing at the Tostex beach club in Bahia, Brazil, and the tanned and toned partygoers were lounging on rustic queen-size beds, fighting off the unrelenting mosquitoes on an otherwise lazy day. A scruffy D.J. from S?o Paulo who went by the name Juli?o swayed in his thatch-roofed booth and cranked up a funky remix of Laurent Garnier’s saxophone-infused song “The Man With the Red Face.”

The sculptured 20- and 30-somethings — models and actors sprinkled in with S?o Paulo’s elite professionals — sipped colored martinis and bronzed on leopard-print pillows, as gentle Bahian breezes tickled their skin. Few flinched as a steady stream of private planes and helicopters zipped above the water.

It was another picture-perfect day in Trancoso, a former fishing village that has turned into a super-trendy getaway for Brazilians and fashionable jet-setters willing to pay St.-Tropez prices for rustic accommodations on an unspoiled beach.

Situated on the palm-fringed coast of Brazil’s Bahia state, Trancoso still looks like the hippie getaway that first made the town popular 20 years ago, with its uneven cobblestone streets and dirt roads. Colorfully painted low-rise wooden houses are the norm, even those that now sell $35 wineglasses and $3,000 paintings.

“Trancoso has an energy all its own,” said Paula Vigorito, 40, the owner of Tostex, as she ushered people into her house, which doubles as a store for chic jewelry and sculptured art, for a warm-up party one evening in early January. Inside, guests drank cocktails from plastic cups and grooved to a D.J. Outside, a crowd of long-haired men and young women dressed in printed T-shirts lounged on the front lawn.

“This is the freest place in Brazil,” Ms. Vigorito said. “You can do anything here, really.”

That let-loose spirit may explain the swirl of Brazilian and international celebrities who have jetted here in recent months to party. The roster reads like the pages of Quem, the Brazilian gossip magazine.