Rio de Janeiro is surely the most mellifluously situated city in the world, but there’s more to Rio than eye-grabbing scenery. It’s one of the world’s most energized cities, sexy beyond measure. It’s a place, Jan Morris has written, “of deep and humane variety … a shot in the arm, a haunting tune in the head … a lovely greatheart.” In a grand study in contrasts, we head out to two of the world’s most beautiful places. Pantanal, westward, is the world’s largest wetland, a vast region of fabulous lushness—and the best place in South America to see large animals like marsh deer, giant anteaters, spectacled cayman, capybaras, tapirs, black howler monkeys, anacondas, crocodiles, jaguars, giant monitors, and a near-world record number of bird species. And Salvador de Bahia, on the Atlantic Coast, is a natural and human sensation. Often called the most African city in the Western Hemisphere, Salvador is a vibrant mix of cultures. Of the Bahia’s natural splendors, Darwin wrote, “The land is one great, wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse….How great would be the desire in every admirer of nature to behold the scenery of another planet! Yet [here are] the glories of another world.”