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What began as a recreation area for immigrants from Brazil’s northeast is now a destination for visitors looking to get off the beaten tourist path. The densely populated São Cristóvão quarter is home to this enormous complex, open seven days a week, to which visitors may arrive at a reasonable hour and not get out before dawn. Afternoons are for shopping and noshing; but after dark, the volume goes up, and the marketplace becomes a scene for partying, pop-up karaokes, and live-music performances that are 100-proof Brazil. Authentic northeastern music known as forró plays until sunup.

I think the most appealing aspect of Old San Juan is the architecture and design of the city. Residential apartment buildings have been converted to designer boutiques or little B&Bs, and interior courtyards invite hungry guests to relax and unwind in the shade.... I’ve been to this area multiple times and still I manage to find a street I’ve never wandered down. Some are more popular than others, in particular Calle San Sebastian, which hosts eateries, bars, and shops, and Calle San Francisco. At the corner of this street is my particular favorite, Franky’s antiques. It’s in a four-story building, loaded with vintage goodies. There’s so much to see, one trip is not enough. If you want to shop, consider wandering all morning and into the early afternoon. You’ll be delighted by all the unique shops. Then, take a break at my favorite restaurant, Triana, for Spanish-style tapas and their famous sangria. It’s a must-stop place any time I’m in the old city. You don’t need a car to get around. Just park at one of the garages and explore by foot. There’s lots to see and do in Old San Juan.

One can’t help noticing Brazil’s stark social contrasts, especially visible in Rio thanks to rich neighborhoods that often sit cheek by jowl next to some of its poorest, the city’s famous favelas. High up in the favela called Tavares Bastos, visitors can take in an evening that includes some of the city’s best jazz, yet in a setting like few others: a boîte called The Maze. The owner, a British artist and longtime Rio resident, first decided to mount a First Fridays show in 2005, and those monthly events have become a citywide musical tradition. Those who journey up—aboard a minibus or in a taxi—will get breathtaking vistas to go with the great entertainment.

A Carioca version of the São Paulo classic, the Rio Astor has two straightaway advantages: It sits on a magical city corner, at the start of Ipanema, just across from the beach, and it has a wide, airy terrace. From there, visitors delight in its drink menu (one of the city’s most complete) as waiters scurry hither and yon at cocktail hour, serving draft beers, which are called chopps and which somehow taste creamier here. The Astor also features a wide-ranging menu that updates Brazilian classics with unusual ingredients and more ambitious presentations of standards like arroz com feijão. The entire mix translates to one of Rio’s winningest combo of bar-rail and white tablecloth venue.

Since 2014 the last word in Rio for contemporary cuisine has been Lasai. Chef Rafael Costa e Silva cut his teeth in the kitchen at the Basque country’s famed Andoni Aduriz. At Rio’s Lasai, he presents two menus—Festival and Don’t Tell Me Tales—both of which aim to take diners on a culinary tour of Brazil via local ingredients and garden vegetables. You can order your own wine bottle, of course, but the proposed pairings are highly recommended. The warm-toned surroundings and multinational staff ease you into the restaurant’s vibe. For these reasons and more, Lasai—one of seven Michelin-starred restaurants in the city—merits your visit.

These ruins, rediscovered in 2011, reveal a fundamental part of Rio and Brazil history (and indeed that of humankind itself). On the unearthed stones, slavery left its mark; this site was South America’s largest slave port at which, between 1811 and 1831, it’s estimated that between a half-million to a million captured Africans were unloaded from ships and sold as slaves. Buried in 1843 to make way for a different wharf, this blot on history was hidden (at least for a time) but came to light once more as the neighborhood was being fixed up for the Olympics. It was named a World Heritage Site in 2017 and merits a visit, if only to recognize and atone for the tragedy it represents.

Beginning right at the entrance to downtown Cancún (kilometer 0, where the median is also home to a spacious outdoor gym) and tracing the Hotel Zone’s entire northern stretch, this wide, red-paved path is a favorite for runners, in-line skaters, and cyclists in search of outdoor exercise with a merciful bit of shade (the path along Boulevard Kukulcan is lined with jungle flora, palm trees, tropical plants, and a smattering of hotel entrances). Locals especially love working out on the Ciclopista early in the morning and in the evening, when temperatures are cooler.

The best of Brazil is only a short walk from Cabo San Lucas’s downtown tourist heart. Madeira Bistro, a burnt-orange corner joint, features a wide entrance and wall made nearly entirely of windows. The airiness invites breezes in and allows the intoxicating aroma of the rodízio-style grilled meats to waft out. Here, round after round of rib eye, hanger steak, top sirloin, and other preparations are served, along with sides of basil mashed potatoes, coleslaw, sweet potatoes, and more. The food keeps coming until you cry uncle. The knowledgeable staff is there to help with pairings and perhaps wheel you out.

One of the capital’s original contemporary cocktail bars, Limantour ranks #20 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list. Mixologists here take their sweet time to make drinks, so don’t plan on stopping by if you’re in a hurry; the idea is to slow down and savor the experience of having a drink crafted carefully for you. Cocktails are named for places that inspire them or from which their spirits were derived. Try the Pernambuco, prepared with paprika-infused Cachaça from Brazil and mixed with a compote of plantain, vanilla, and lemon.

One of only two hotels right on Biscayne Bay (the other is the Standard), rooms at Mondrian South Beach are coveted by guests wanting a stellar view. Designed by Dutchman Marcel Wanders, the hotel’s decor is intended to evoke a sense that one is floating around in an underwater world, and the property is described as an homage to Sleeping Beauty’s castle. The slightly whimsical and slightly creepy mermaidlike woman whose face appears on walls throughout the hotel is the “keeper” of this “castle,” where incongruous elements—traditional blue-and-white Dutch porcelain juxtaposed with busy black-and-white patterned wallpaper, say—somehow work in odd, unexpected harmony. Everything about the hotel feels spacious, including oversized rooms, many of which are flooded with sunlight and enjoy bay views.

A symbol of Rio itself, it’s been called one of the seven wonders of the modern world, but it’s only when you visit that you really cop to its true dimensions. Designed in 1931 to crown Corcovado Peak, the monument is accessed by a cog railway. The statue and its pedestal, 98 feet tall, stands 2,340 feet above sea level, with the entire city at its feet. Cristo Redentor isn’t just a sculpture—it’s also Rio’s most famous postcard view. Go weekdays and early, with the sun to your back and reduced tourist hordes.

Between the São Conrado and Barra da Tijuca districts lies the exclusive quarter called Joá—Rio’s answer to Beverly Hills—amid whose mansions hides a secret next to zero visitors know: Joatinga Beach, a shoreline as incredible as it is hard to get to. For instance, you can find it only at low tide (yes, the beach is that small). And even though it’s officially public—as are all Brazilian beaches—you reach it by finding your way through the labyrinth of a built-up city neighborhood. There’s no cell service and barely any Internet. But the minute you tread the sand and wade into the turquoise waters, you forget all the rest, which is no easy trick in the middle of busy Rio.

Lying off the northern Freguesia de Santana peninsula, Ilha Grande’s Blue Lagoon (Lagoa Azul) is not a proper lagoon despite its name but rather an area of shallow Caribbean-colored waters. From Abraão, schooners bring you there to snorkel with striped and colorful fish. An old whitewashed church is all that remains onshore from the colonial era, and over a post-snorkel lunch in the small village that sits on Japariz Beach, you might spot dolphins swimming in the sea.

At the mouth of the Amazon, Marajó is the world’s largest fluvial (that is, river) island. With an area of 40,100 square kilometers (15,500 square miles), it is just a little smaller than Switzerland yet with a population of only some 250,000 residents. During the rainy season, much of this flat island becomes a vast lake. It is a popular destination for surfers, given the large waves created by the island’s tidal bore, and bird-watchers, who come in search of colorful species from scarlet ibises to blue herons.

Did you know that there are actually two equators? The terrestrial equator, like the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn as well as the poles, is based on the relationship between the Earth’s axis of rotation and the planet’s orbit around the sun. But there’s also something known as the celestial equator, which is an imaginary circle created by projecting the terrestrial equator into the night sky. The sun consistently hangs in the equatorial sky for 12 hours each day at the Earth’s widest part, but it passes directly over the actual line only twice each year, during the March and September equinoxes. Although many think that the equator is uniformly hot, in many areas it does experience wet and dry seasons. Biodiversity is extremely rich at the equator, particularly because half of the planet’s rain forests are concentrated in countries along the line: Brazil, Congo and Indonesia.