Just when you think Costa Rica is heading to the visitor breaking point, out comes a rash of new developments showing us that they still plan to bring in planeloads more people every year. As noted in Jaunted, Delta is increasing its weekly flights from 38 to 45 - just from New York.

First up, Mandarin Oriental is coming to Guanacaste. We’re not sure how Oriental and Latin will go together, but Francis Ford Coppola seemed to pull it off okay with Turtle Inn, so we’ll see.

There are new Four Seasons Hotels planned too. This announcement was so big the president showed up for it. There’s already one Four Seasons in Costa Rica, but with Ritz-Carlton supposedly scouting out spots as well, they are probably feeling the (tropical) heat.

Meanwhile, former AOL head Steve Case has announced a huge $800 million project in Guanacaste that would be run by Miraval and One & Only, plus have the requisite condos to bring in more cash. There’s just one problem: the government rejected the plans. Back to the drawing board.

We now have detailed reviews posted for the best Guatemala luxury hotels and the best Honduras luxury hotels. Here’s the full press release that went out last week.

Neither of these destinations have a full bounty of upscale hotels and resorts as they just haven’t had the traffic to justify it so far. This is changing rather rapidly however, especially as Americans realize what great surprises we have a few hours away on a plane, with no jet lag. Not to mention that in these two countries, the travel dollar is faring as well as it ever did. For the price of a small double room in Europe, you can splash out in the best suite in town.

Granted, these hotels still have a way to go before they’ll rank with the average of our listed hotels in Mexico, Costa Rica, or Argentina, but give them time…

A few weeks back, Robb Report launched a Luxury Travel Index to track the ups and downs of public companies peddling luxury goods. The goal is to have an index that shows the overall strength of this loosely defined industry, which doesn’t fit into one segment such as fashion, travel, real estate, or jewelry. So who qualifies?

“Global brand names among the index constituents are luxury houses such as LVMH, Richemont and PPR; fashion companies Hermes, Burberry, and Ralph Lauren; financial services providers UBS, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse; retailers Saks and Nordstrom; jewelers Tiffany & Co. and Harry Winston; airplane manufacturers Dassault and Embraer-Empresa; liquor companies Remy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard; auto companies Porsche, Daimler Chrysler and BMW; and lodging concerns Starwood and Mandarin Oriental.”

The index launched right before the worldwide wild stock market ride of the past few weeks, but it has been amazingly consistent so far. Trading under the symbol ROB on the NYSE, it has so far only ranged from 23.50 to 25.00 a share. It’s quite thinly traded right now though, so who knows if this trend will continue.

“Fractional vacation home” companies bristle at the word “timeshare” since it has connotations of tawdry developments and fast-talking sharks trying to bamboozle you into something you don’t really want. But at the risk of alienating future advertisers, the luxury version of this game is not any more secure when it comes to the financials. The numbers are just bigger. This became very clear with the recent belly-up move of a company marketed by esteemed names Abercrombie and Kent and Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report. Get the sordid details from this USA Today story: Members of a bankrupt vacation club strike back.

As anyone who runs these things should know, when you stiff a bunch of rich people, an army of lawyers will follow. And stiff them they did.

“The clubs, which enabled members to stay in a network of multimillion-dollar vacation homes in glamorous destinations, cost $100,000 to $1.3 million to join, plus annual dues and daily usage fees. Abercrombie & Kent and Harper ended their association with the clubs, which they did not operate, two years ago. Re-branded as Tanner & Haley destination clubs, they went bankrupt in 2006.”

In other words, people put up the price of a nice little beach house for a fractional share in a bigger and nicer one and were left with…nada.

Here’s a bit of advice. Buying a real house or condo that you own outright is real: real property, real title, real ownership, and you at the helm. If you must buy into a fractional plan to get rid of ownership hassles and leverage into a bigger place, due even more due diligence than you would for an outright purchase, not less. The risks are higher, the ability to even break even on a future sale is iffy, and the unknowns are greater. You can find plenty of people who have done this and are thrilled. Be one of them instead of the ones having weekly meetings with a class action attorney.

I got set up with some Peruvian Pisco recently and I was able to try some different brands and types of this little-known spirit. If you’ve been to Peru, of course, you’ve probably drunk plenty of Pisco sours. It’s a common welcome drink at hotels and it’s a freebie to lure you in for dinner at competitive restaurants in Cusco. At high-end hotels and bars, however, they make a far superior version with better ingredients, so it’s worth seeking out a good one just to see how good it can be in the hands of a skilled bartender.

I had never drunk it neat before, however, and didn’t even have any idea there were different varietals and blends. In the U.S., after all, it’s pretty hard to even find Pisco in a bar and even then it’s often a Chilean version that many experts say is inferior. So what does it taste like? Well, different, first of all. Pisco occupies that no man’s land of 20 percent alcohol, stronger than wine but half the strength of most spirits. Plus, like brandy or cognac, it’s made from grapes and not grains. But it’s not aged in barrels. It’s not aged at all actually. So it comes across as not all that smooth or mellowed, but more interesting and aromatic than a straight spirit like vodka and not as harsh as some of the firewater you are likely to come across elsewhere in Latin America.

There are different versions based on different grapes, but all are distilled and clear. In Peru you might find varietals like Torontel, and Italia (and you can special order them in the U.S.), but the varieties are usually mixed together in a blend called Acholado. The other common version you’ll likely find is Quebranta, which is non-aromatic and perhaps more elegant. Unless you’re intending to become an expert, you’ll be fine either way, especially if you are planning to use it for cocktails.

In my opinion, Pisco is a great undiscovered spirit when it comes to cocktails. It is less boring than vodka but blends in better with most juices than white rum or tequila (especially cheap white rum or tequila). There’s no oak aging, so it goes well with a lot of different mixers. Buy a bottle of BarSol Pisco if you see it on a shelf or try a Pisco Punch or Pisco Sour next time you’re in a well-stocked bar with a bartender who knows his or her stuff.