Have you ever wondered who is pulling out of the marina in those sleek yachts and buying those $5 million condos in Cabo San Lucas?

Apparently there are a good 47,000 people able to do that without breaking a sweat. A report out from the IRS earlier this week says the ranks of the ultrawealthy have grown 62 percent over the past decade.

The tax collection agency says 47,000 Americans had a net worth of $20 million or more in 2004, the latest year they have tabulated. (Really though, how bad is their computer system if it takes them four years to figure that out?!) Another 79,000 had a net worth of 10 to 20 million dollars, up from 51,000 in 1998.

Where are these people? The top two are states where the housing bubble has burst the most dramatically, so these figures may dip lower in years to come. Tops with a net worth of $1.5 million or more were California, Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

The super-rich definitely do not have all their money in real estate though. “Of the total income for the $20 million or more group, the biggest single asset category by far was publicly traded stock ($719.28 billion).”

Running a magazine full of perfume and watch ads (surrounded by a bit of travel content) is apparently not a sure thing anymore. Town & Country Travel is folding.

Here’s the quote from Wooden Horse Publishing:

TOWN & COUNTRY TRAVEL, the quarterly spin-off, has been folded by Hearst Magazines.  Launched in 2003, the magazine became a supplement in 2006.  “Given the small number of people affected, and that the product never was a full-fledged newsstand magazine, but rather a polybagged brand extension, it made sense to fold the content into the flagship,” a spokeswoman said…

I’m not sure what it takes to be “a full-fledged newsstand magazine” since I used to see a stack of copies on the shelf at every Borders and Barnes & Noble. Perhaps they mean you couldn’t find it at Wal-mart?

The magazine was launched with plenty of fanfare in 2003 and this quote from the editor-in-chief looks kind of comical now. “I believe the moment is right for a magazine called Town & Country Travel, largely because I know there is an audience eager for it.” Hmmm, maybe not so eager after all.

The one article from this magazine that really stuck with me was perhaps emblematic of the limits of its audience. Fifteen women took so much stuff with them on an Inca Trail hike that they required 54 porters and 800 pounds of food. The New York City writer doing the story admitted that she hadn’t been away from home for more than a week since her 12-year-old daughter was born.

The publisher will still operate a travel section on their website, but for Latin America anyway, there are better places to find luxury travel features and reviews.

The author Isabel Allende was born in Chile and worked there as a journalist between 1964 and 1974, before she went on to write such highly regarded and successful books as The House of the Spirits and Ines of My Soul–which takes place in Chile. Here newest book is a memoir, The Sum of Our Days.

Geographic Expeditions runs an online literary travel publication called Reece and they recently ran an article where Allende discusses her homeland: My Chile.

She gets right to the point as to why this is a good country for travelers. “Good coffee and clean bathrooms and clean water everywhere. No scorpions or poisonous snakes or gorillas.” She notes that the food is not all that sophisticated, but that’s because “we have so many great raw materials. Everything is fresh and wonderful.”

In the conversational article, she describes some of her favorite places in the country, including spots in Patagonia. “The full moon between the two incredible mountain towers of the Cuernos del Paine, reflected on the lagoon, is an unforgettable sight. The air is crispy, like paper, so that you feel you can cut it with scissors.”

And here’s something you won’t hear from many Chileans: you get better wine for the money in California. “In Chile you can get excellent wine, but you have to pay more for the very good ones, and the other ones are not that good.” We can assume Ms. Allende will not become a corporate spokesperson for Concha y Toro anytime soon.

For the past six years, sales of premium tequila have been averaging growth of 20 percent per year. The good side of that is that the rot-gut stuff that is only half agave is becoming less popular and the finely crafted good stuff is showing up in more and more bars. But which brands are for real and which ones are just riding the bandwagon?

Fortunately, most of the good stuff is quite good, so most of the silliness in pricing comes from fancy hand-blown bottles, silver medallions, and carved wooden cases. If you’re paying more than $80 for a bottle that hasn’t been aged for years, you are likely paying for one of these marketing enhancements.

Siembra Azul (Blue Harvest) tequila is a nice departure. Trusting buyers to purchase based on taste instead of flash, this is a high-end, high-scoring tequila that puts its money into agave fruit instead of eye candy bottles.

I’ve been sipping the añejo version of Siembra Azul this past week and it ranks among the best I’ve sampled over the years, with the distinct floral and herbal overtones you get from the highland regions of Jalisco and the perfect interweaving of flavors you get from an attention to high quality throughout the process. In this region, the agave plants grow at an average elevation of 7200 feet above sea level, giving them a terroir and flavor profile that many believe is more distinctive and complex than the brands grown at lower elevations.

This version was developed by David Suro-Piñera, a Guadalajara native who has owned a restaurant and tequila bar in Philadelphia since 1986. He wasn’t content to go halfway: each liter requires around 11.5 kilos of agave, compared to a standard level of 7 kilos. The agave piñas are roasted in ovens for 36 hours, with each oven cleaned between roastings. There’s double distillation, copper pot stills, and then the añejo is aged for 12 months in new American oak barrels.

The quality shines through and this tequila has been winning raves in blind taste tests, even before the judges find out that the list price is $45. But what about a hook? Anything to make Siembra Azul really stand out from the pack? Well, how about this—it’s kosher!

For more on the subject, see our feature story on premium tequila in Jalisco.

We’ve had our first batch of luxury hotels in Belize up for quite a while, but with one nagging omission. We were missing the exclusive private island hotel Cayo Espanto.

Well, thanks to Kirsten Hubbard, who runs the Central America travel section of About.com, we now have a nice comprehensive review of Cayo Espanto.

This is, by most accounts, the best and most exclusive hotel in Belize. It’s a magnet for celebrities who want to escape those nagging photographers and for wealthy tycoons who rent out the whole place and have their own island resort completely staffed. Although Cayo Espanto is removed from all else, you don’t have to go very far out of the way to get to it. It’s located between Ambergris Caye and the mainland of Belize. (But the beach is nicer than you’ll find on most parts of Ambergris.) We’ve got some photos on our site, but the one above is from the resort itself. A view from one bungalow’s dock.

We also added a review of Ka’ana Boutique Resort and Spa, which is in the interior instead of on the sea. For those who want their jungle experience in small doses—and would like to come back to a fancy room with lots of gadgets—this is an upscale alternative to Chaa Creek Lodge, which has far more land but is more rustic.