Paradise Found

Globe-trotting CNN anchor Anderson Cooper takes refuge from the 24-hour news cycle in a heavenly tropical compound nestled in the postcard-perfect Brazilian town of Trancoso.

- Mayer Rus

It wasn’t convenience that inspired Anderson Cooper to build a home in the Brazilian town of Trancoso. Situated on the Atlantic coast in the state of Bahia, the village is a 14-hour schlep—including a flight change and a healthy car ride—from the CNN anchor’s base in Manhattan. Cooper first visited the idyllic hamlet in 2013 on a holiday with his partner, nightlife impresario Benjamin Maisani, and their friend Andy Cohen, the television personality and Real Housewives sire. “Within a day I was fantasising about buying a house there,” the well-travelled journalist recalls. “Ben thought I’d lost my mind, and Andy, who is encouraging about almost everything, thought I was nuts, too.”

Still, Cooper describes that inaugural sojourn as an intoxicating reverie. “I put my bags down in the bungalow where we were staying, I walked out onto the porch overlooking the Quadrado, the town square, and I just watched for a couple of hours. In the late afternoon, the kids started playing soccer, the horsemen began to return from the fields, and the lights came on in the little fishermen’s cottages. It’s hard to explain the attraction, but I just sat there, spellbound,” he remembers.