Caravelas is a city of about 20,000 inhabitants in southern Bahia, Brazil, a few miles above the mouth of the Caravelas River. Caravelas was founded in 1581 by Portuguese settlers. It was once the centre of a flourishing whale fishery. It is the port of the Bahia& Minas railway pt. Caravelas is the nearest town to the uninhabited Abrolhos Archipelago.