I could live here.

When I stepped out on the deck I was startled by green of the sea. It was translucent and refracted like a peridot. [Oh, Michael, you’re so poetic.] There was a white line on the horizon and just above these beaches were green hills, cliffs, occasional towns and yacht harbors. I have been under the impression that Maceio was a small sleepy village. Not so; it is a huge city of some 800,000 souls. It’s the capital of Brazil’s tiny Algoas state. It is a fairly new city; there are old buildings but you see many more modern ones. There are SPECTACULAR beaches, the best I’ve seen. They stretch endlessly north of the harbor. The beachfront has many very nice hotels and apartment houses all looking very upscale. It’s a place for Brazilians to vacation so other than 30 tour busses from the occasional ship you see very few non-natives. It is very reasonable to live here, too. You can rent a very nice 3 bedroom flat for $300. The temperature rarely drops below 75F and it doesn’t rain too much. There are simply no seasons. I could live here! There are lovely modern shopping centers one of which was recently bought by Wal-Mart but they can’t change the name for 5 years. They have a very progressive local government and a lot is being done to restore and preserve the older buildings as well as cleaning up the polluted river to make the area more attractive for new residents. They have 2 enormous businesses there that employ thousands so they need to beef up their work force. There is a joke that says the locals are so laid back and stress free that it takes 5 months to die suddenly. I could live here.