I’ve posted some info on here before about the ongoing soap opera that is the Yellowstone Club World Blixseth couple, a man and wife that have led a boom and bust life more dramatic than any reality TV script Bravo could throw together. The latest news from the Wall Street Journal has a Mexico twist: wife Edra Blixseth is putting their Los Cabos home up for sale at a list price of $12.88 million.

If you’re interested, it’s a two-acre oceanfront estate with 10,000 square feet of living space inside (six bedrooms) and another 7,000 feet outside.

She was awarded the house as part of the couple’s knock-down, drag-out divorce proceedings, but she has since declared personal bankruptcy. This Los Cabos home pales in comparison to their one near Palm Springs, CA. That listing has “excess” written all over it. The Journal described “a fountain with jets whose sprays rise about 80 feet and a private, 19-hole golf course of about 240 acres. The roughly 25,000-square-foot main residence is decorated with several ceiling murals and has a prayer room and separate wings for guests and children.”

My personal background on all this is that several years ago I was reviewing the property called Yellowstone Club World Tamarindo that was part of their vacation club, located in the Costalegre area a couple hours south of Puerto Vallarta. The lackey general manager pointed to the Blixseth yacht moored off the shore and told me how rich the owner was, that he was a billionaire who traveled the world and was pouring money into the resort to make it the best in Mexico. If you’ve seen the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie, picture this guy as one of the Red Queen court helpers with pasted on large ears. I could tell then that something was not quite right, but the resort looked great so I moved on.

Thankfully the resort and excellent golf course were quickly bought by someone else and both are still great, as simply El Tamarindo, but there’s no Blixseth yacht in the harbor anymore…

When we first sent someone to review the best hotels in Brazil, the Mofarrej business hotel in São Paulo didn’t come close to making the cut. Now completely revamped as the Tivoli Mofarrej São Paulo, it has a different face and attitude to show off.

“Although in theory, the São Paulo Mofarrej has been around for some time—it spent more than 25 years under the aegis of both Sheraton and Gran Melia–the hotel had the recent good fortune to land in the hands of Portugal’s Tivoli chain. After spending seven months closed for (much anticipated) renovations, the new and very much improved Tivoli São Paulo Mofarrej reopened in February 2009 to great acclaim. Within months it joined the exclusive Leading Hotels of the World club and was named by the Quatros Rodas guide (Brazil’s equivalent of the Michelin) as one of the top hotels in the country.”

We don’t automatically add hotels that have paid to be part of the Leading Hotels of the World marketing group, but it’s a good sign, as is the addition of a spa run by Banyan Tree. Since our contributor Michael Sommers lives in Brazil and is a guidebook writer, his endorsement tipped the scales and we’re happy to add this rejuvenated hotel in a great location to our reviews of the best hotels in Brazil’s capital. See our full review of  Tivoli São Paulo Mofarrej.

Central America has long been in the forefront of eco-tourism, but much of the focus has not been on Guatemala, but some of its neighbors to the south.

Our man on the scene, Al Argueta, says it’s time to add Laguna Lodge on Lake Atitlan to the list of eco-friendly resorts that are also pampering enough to be considered luxe.

“The rooms themselves are made from materials that include volcanic stone, palm wood and adobe bricks made on site. Like the restaurant, they open up completely to the lake and enjoy wonderful views.”

The restaurant is vegetarian, but so good that you won’t care if you’re a carnivore. The bulbs may be a little dim and you may may a few small sacrifices, but the lake will thank you.

“The need for environmentally sustainable accommodations has been made abundantly clear with the recent proliferation of algal blooms on Guatemala’s most beautiful lake. Caused by phosphates from untreated waste water and agricultural fertilizer running into the lake, the first appearance of Lake Atitlan’s cyanobacteria dates to the 1970s but is only now getting the attention it deserves.”

See our full review of Laguna Lodge.

Wendy Perrin of Condé Nast Traveler has a good rundown on how the massive earthquake in Chile has affected various areas of the country. Figuring out the geography of a foreign land is always difficult, but with Chile being as long and skinny as it is, most of us have no clue which parts are a no-go zone and which aren’t. Here’s where it’s safe and not safe to travel there.

In a nutshell, these spots are off limits and will be in recovery mode for quite a while:

- Juan Fernández Islands
- Wine Region (Santa Cruz and surroundings)
- Concepción – the worst-hit area

The problem with many other areas not affected much at all, like the Patagonia Lake District to the south and the Atacama Desert up north, is that the Santiago airport is currently closed. So unless you’re coming and going overland from another country, you’ll have a tough time getting there or away. If you had a trip planned to Chile in the next couple weeks, do what you can to reschedule or adjust the itinerary and time frame to allow for diversions.

Our hearts go out to those Chileans affected by the horrible 8.8 Richter Scale quake that hit the country over the weekend. For those in the center of the action, all the preparation in the world could only do so much.

Thankfully there was plenty of preparation, however, so the news has been quick to compare the relatively small death toll in Chile compared to what happened in Haiti. Most people have reacted by saying it was worse in Haiti because they are so poor. But Time magazine says those people have it backwards: some countries are just more committed to a government that has its act together, which is exactly why they aren’t poor.

“Chile is more developed because it’s doing things right. The same goes for Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica and a handful of other Latin American and Caribbean nations that have decided in the 21st century to stop running their societies like medieval fiefdoms. They’ve conceded that niceties like rule of law, accountability, education, entrepreneurial opportunity and administrative efficiency actually have merit. And they’ve stopped making worn-out excuses, like the threats of communism or U.S. imperialism, for not modernizing their political and economic systems.”

Many investors are missing this point, thinking these countries are just doing well because they have a lot of commodities to sell. In fact they are doing well because their citizens are getting wealthier each year and have more money to spend. That can only happen with a stable, transparent government in place. With that happening, growth is almost a sure thing. (As opposed to Venezuala and Bolivia, countries that have plenty of commodities but a corrupt and backward-looking government.) Argentina could go either way, but right now it’s not looking promising.

Read the full Time article here.