In case you missed it in all the 24/7 Michael Jackson coverage, there was a military coup in Honduras over the weekend.

If your travel plans in the coming weeks had something to do with Honduras, you may want to keep an eye on the news. This story has more layers than a big fat onion, but the headline version is that there has been a coup and the legally elected president was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica. He’s no angel either, and he had just sacked the head of the military and tried to pull a Chavez and alter the constitution to serve longer. It’s messy.

Honduras is not Iran, however, and things have remained pretty calm on the mainland. They may not stay that way, but for now, no bloodshed. On Roatan and Utila, the divers are probably oblivious, so if you’re just flying into an island and flying out, there’s probably no need to change plans.

Just stay up on what’s happening. Honduras This Week is the local English language paper and it has a good website. Otherwise log into the BBC or just pull up Google or Yahoo news for Honduras.

Belize carrier Maya Air just announced two flights a day between Belize City and Cancun, Mexico, beginning on July 8. This news couldn’t come at a better time for me since I was not looking forward to taking a bus from Belize City all the way up to Cancun at the end of my Belize trip this summer with my family. I’m sure many other travelers are breathing a huge sigh of relief as well and gladly opening up their wallet to pay the $189 advance one-way fare.

This will also make it much easier on Europeans, who have many flights to Cancun but not so many to Belize. A trip to Belize from Europe usually involves a stopover in U.S. airport, which is no fun for anyone these days.

Following this link for Maya Air’s flight schedule and rates.

Thanks to the folks at Turneffe Flats island fishing resort in Belize for this tidbit from their newsletter.

I took a break from posting updates from my May trip to Los Cabos, Mexico in May, but here are some highlights and photos from another spectacular resort there: Esperanza. This is an Auberge resort, so combine a French name for inn with a Spanish name for hope and you don’t have to hope to get a good room at the inn.

There are a lot of terrific spas to sample in Los Cabos if that’s your thing, and this one ranks at the top in lots of polls, even as the best spa in Latin America from Travel & Leisure. It incorporates the natural elements of the area—water, light, and the sea—in a restful environment and uses an array of local products for the treatments themselves. (Think desert clay, mango, papaya, sea salt, and grated coconut.) There’s a grotto, a steam cave, cascading waterfalls, and a shady open-air lounge.

All I know is that the masseuse that gave me a rubdown got out all the kinks I had built up from being hunched over a computer keyboard way too much.

Esperanza resort itself is a 57-suite hotel, but with a 60-villa owners section as well, which explains why it looks bigger than you would think. This is the place to go for dramatic views instead of a sprawling beach in front of your room: it’s perched on a cliff overlooking waves crashing against the rocks of “Whale Point.” You are right over this point while dining in the main restaurant. Here’s the catch of the day. Hungry?

Everything looks fresh and new at Esperanza since the spa and suites got a major upgrade at the end of 2007. If you want to really spash out, there’s a 2000-square-foot penthouse with close-to-perfect views. Naturally, it comes with its own elevator, private butler service, and a hidden hot tub and lounge chair on the deck. (Hint: you might want to send the butler away if you’re going to use those au natural.) It goes for $6 grand a night, but with occupancy falling off the nearby cliffs lately, I’m sure you can get them to at least throw in a few spa treatments in the his-and-hers massage area…

We just posted two tour stories from one of my favorite regions in South America: the spectacular area of northern Argentina around Salta and Cafayate.

Paul and Lorie Bennett lined their trip up through Grapevine Wine Tours, a company I had the pleasure of working with when I toured some of the top wineries in Mendoza.

They first take us outside the fun Colonial city of Salta to the sparsely populated surrounding areas such as the Salinas Grandes salt desert, Jujay, Purmamarca and Humahuaca Gorge. This dry, dramatic part of Argentina is nothing like the rest of the country. See the whole story here: Touring the Salta Countryside in Northern Argentina.

The other story is on the wineries in and surrounding the picture-perfect town of Cafayate. This wine region is overshadowed by its more famous brother to the south, Mendoza, but I like Cafayate much better myself since it’s not so spread out. You can get to many of the local wineries on a rented bicycle. Or if you go on a tour as the Bennetts did (very helpful since many of the tours are in Spanish ordinarily), then you can get from your hotel to most any vineyard in less than 15 minutes, with no traffic to worry about. This is a gentle, laid-back city meant for strolling and biking and the wine snobs are few and far between. Drink, eat, and enjoy. Divine wine along Cafayate’s Ruta de Vino.

Subscribe to this blog!

If you are planning a trip to the jungles of Peru in the near future, you may want to check up on the news. One of our correspondents was slated to visit the Peruvian Amazon to review Inkaterra’s jungle lodge there, but we’ve postponed the visit due to clashes in the region. Many of the roads are blocked and some of the clashes have turned deadly.

In theory you can still fly in, but should you? Besides the safety factor, there’s a moral issue at play here. Here are some sobering stats from a Reuters article: “The total area being granted to multinational companies covers more than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon, according to a study by scientists at Duke University. At least 58 of the 64 areas are on lands titled to indigenous peoples, it said.”

It’s a complicated issue (and the terms of a free trade agreement with the U.S. are partly to blame), but it’s hard not to see the indigeneous peoples’ point when they say their land is being grabbed and the environment spoiled for the sake of oil and gas drilling. We’ve seen this movie before, especially in Brazil, and it never has a happy ending. Once the rainforest is cleared, it’s gone forever. Here’s some scientific investigation of where this is all headed.

Keep an eye on the news if you’re heading to Peru. This should stay confined to the Amazon regions, but if all indigeneous people start to rally to the cause, the unrest could spread.

Links gleaned from the recent newsletter of South American Explorers, a publication geared to travelers of modest means, but a great source of info for what’s really happening on the ground.