Maceió comes as a surprise to first-time visitors. Alagoas, the state it's in, is traditionally cowboy country: dusty and dry. But Maceió is on a stretch of coastline marked by fine beaches, lagoons, reefs and vast mangrove swamps with manatee reserves, all of which are just beginning to be

Located some 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, on Brazil's Atlantic coast, Vitória is one of the country's oldest cities, dating from 1550. Vitória , the capital of the state of Espírito Santo—and boasting a population of more than 1.8 million—is Brazil's fourth-largest city. The metropolitan area is