Hotel Santa Maria is on Avenida Santos Dumont, in Codó, in the interior of Maranhão, on the banks of the Itapecuru river. The town is known throughout Brazil for its strong tradition of Afro-Brazilian religious practice, especially Tambor de Mina, one of the country's oldest African-rooted religions.
Codó combines this distinctive cultural identity with the agricultural economy typical of Maranhão's interior, sitting in a transition zone between the Maranhão coast and the cerrado of the northeastern interior.