Sun and sand, salsa and style, Miami is distinctly different from any other city in America -- or any city in Latin America, for that matter. This is no sleepy little beach outpost, no drowsy southern town.

The first inhabitants here were the Tequesta, who called this area home long before Spain's gold-hungry treasure ships sailed along the Gulf Stream a few miles offshore. They were followed by the Seminole, who learned how to prosper in the local ecosystem. Eventually the Seminole skedaddled, the result of Andrew Jackson's rampages and other political mayhem.

The end of the 20th century brought big changes to Miami. In the early 1980s, Miami Beach was an oceanside geriatric ward. Today's South Beach residents have a hip that doesn't break. The average age of locals dropped from the mid-sixties in 1980 to a youthful early forties today. Toned young men outnumber svelte young women two to one, and hormones are as plentiful as cell phones. At night, the revitalized Lincoln Road Mall gets into full swing as crowds descend on its restaurants, cafés, galleries, and theaters -- but the Road also suffers from the vacancies that come with rapidly rising rents. Those who have seen how high rents can crush a dream are heading to the northern beaches and to the southern reaches of South Beach, whose derelict buildings are being refitted as affordable apartments and boutique hotels. This is where the Miami Beach revival is taking place.

In Miami (as opposed to Miami Beach), boom times started in the 1970s for a small group of Latin American drug dealers. These "Cocaine Cowboys," as they were known, made and spent millions in Miami, investing in real estate and launching major construction projects. Their day ended in the 1980s, but by then economic development had its own -- legal -- momentum. Today, 150-plus U.S. and multinational companies have their Latin American headquarters here. Greater Miami is home to more than 40 foreign bank agencies, 11 Edge Act banks, 23 foreign trade offices, 31 binational chambers of commerce, and 53 foreign consulates.

Miami has always attracted its fair share of hucksters, scammers, and fly-by-nighters and celebs, too. From the carpetbaggers to Al Capone, from the Colombian druglords of the 1980s to the Russian mafia in the 1990s, this city opens its arms to anyone with flash and cash. Miami bid farewell to Madonna and Sylvester Stallone, who swept into town for a few years, and extended an uneasy greeting to O. J. Simpson and his children. High-profile hometown heroes Gloria and Emilio Estefan lead the list of Latin artists who spend much of their time here, along with Jon Secada, Julio Iglesias, Albita, and Andy Garcia.