I’m currently in Peru and spent two amazing nights at the Orient-Express hotel Casitas del Colca, in the Colca Canyon region of Peru. I’ll be posting a full review of this impressive hotel in a couple weeks for our Peru Luxury Hotels section and am doing a story about touring the region. Here’s a video tour of Casitas del Colca though to give you a taste of what a special place this is.

Sadly, it was time to go…

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I am updating our content for Peru right now and am traveling through the country reviewing new hotels and taking a high-end trekking tour. I am encouraged by what I see happening here. First of all, if money is no object, you will be in great hands if you stay in hotels run by Orient-Express or Inkaterra. We’re adding the amazing Casitas del Colca from the former—watch for a video tour in a week or so. We are also adding the new Inkaterra boutique hotel in Cusco and their villas in Urubamba.

Casa Andina is kind of like the Marriott of Peru, with a standard decor across all their hotels. The new Private Collection series shows some promise though and we are adding their Arequipa hotel since it represents a welcome alternative to the Libertador Arequipa. I toured their Cusco version—with a new wing of suites being added right now—and will stay in the Lima one later this month.

Stay tuned!

In case the Detroit 3 money begging hearings weren’t bad enough for you, there was plenty of equally depressing news in Latin America to tune into also this week.

Once again, we’ve got a cruise ship wreck off Antarctica. I saw this first on the Expert Cruiser blog, but here’s the latest from the BBC. It’s a Panamanian-flagged ship from the tour company Antarpply Expeditions. Crews from Chile and Argentina are on the way to save the day. The ship is not in danger of sinking, but this will probably not be the last incident: “Tourist travel to Antarctica is believed to have increased five-fold in the last 15 years.”

Speaking of Argentina, did you hear the one about the president wanting to force a foreign company to sell themselves for one peso? Unfortunately, this is not a joke and it applies to the Spanish holding company of two airlines: Aerolinas Argentina and Austral. Those two airlines have a lock on local traffic, with 80% of all seats. Get the whole sordid story here. New Argentine financial crisis meltdown, here we come!

Mexican cement company CEMEX met the same fate in Venezuela, but isn’t taking it lying down. They’ve taken their case to the World Bank’s arbitration panel. Meanwhile, Chavez has made it clear he hopes to be president for life. Lord help Venezuela: they’ll need it.

Some disasters are not man-made. Hold off on going to Bocas del Toro: massive flooding has hit parts of Panama and Costa Rica.

Have a good weekend?

National Geographic Adventure had a rundown on top eco-lodges around the world in its November issue. Since Costa Rica played a part in starting the whole trend back before it was mainstream, naturally there are a few in the Americas. Here’s a link to NGA’s site, with an ecolodges interactive map.

Balancing green building and operation practices while also trying to be luxurious is not an easy task. Thankfully some try harder than others. Quick aside: two years ago I was on an African safari in Botswana with a very high-end company and when I asked what they did with all those plastic bottled water bottles being handed out to guests. “Burn them,” the manager replied. “The nearest recycling center is a three-hour flight away in another country.”

“Then why don’t you just give people reusable bottles with your logo on them and provide pitchers of purified water?” I asked.

“Hmmm, hadn’t thought about that,” the manager replied,” scratching his head.

Thankfully, there are more than a few operators that manage to make it work. Here are the ones we have reviewed that are featured in the article.

Lapa Rios Ecolodge – Costa Rica

The Lodge at Chaa Creek – Belize

The Lodge at Pico Bonito – Honduras

Sometime next year we’ll also have a review of Kapawi Ecolodge and Reserve in Ecuador and someday I hope to check out Uno Eco Lodge on the rim of the Copper Canyon in Mexico.