One thing magazine editors love to do is highlight some concept that’s been around for years and act like it’s a new trend they just discovered. Thus this May article in National Geographic Traveler about wine lodges in Mendoza, Argentina: Bodegas Open Their Doors.

After years of studying Spanish, I have found this word “bodega” to mean a lot of different things. When I lived in New York City, it meant a little corner food store run by Cubans or Puerto Ricans. In Colombia it’s a pantry. In other countries it’s a bar. The original meaning has something to do with storing barrels in a cellar though, so in Argentina this has led to the word being applied to most any winery. (Not a “guesthouse” as that article says.)

So this article is about places around Mendoza’s wine region where you can stay at the winery itself, or at least among the vines growing outside. Readers of Luxury Latin America know this is nothing new as we’ve featured detailed reviews of the two best wine lodges for years: Cavas Wine Lodge and Club Tapiz (the latter pictured here). Both can give you the opportunity to be smack up against the grape vines and you can set up tasting tours, pruning workshops, winery tours, or grape picking depending on the time of year.

We also have details on another one with only two rooms in this Boutique Hotels of Argentina story.

Whichever place you choose, you will have great views of the Andes range, you’ll eat well, and you’ll drink well. In the ones we highlight, you’ll get plenty of pampering as well and at Cavas Wine Lodge you can get all kinds of vinotherapy treatments—if soaking in wine and getting scrubbed with grape seeds is your kind of thing…

Which luxury hotels in Latin America are readers clicking on the most? There’s nothing slightly scientific about this since popularity can be driven by many things: a write-up in a magazine, a hotel being on TV, or a link from another popular website.

Still, it’s interesting to take a look at which hotels are getting the most interest at different times. Here are the top 11 ones popping up the most over the past month. (Because I hate top-10 lists.)

Flor Blanca in Costa Rica

Bristol Buenaventura in Panama

Popa Paradise in Panama

Infinity Bay in Honduras (pictured above)

Hotel Koralia in Colombia

Cavas Wine Lodge in Argentina

Four Seasons Punta Mita in Mexico

Turtle Inn in Belize

La Lancha in Guatemala

Garzon in Uruguay

Mansion Alcazar in Ecuador

Quite a diverse list of hotels, resorts, and destinations!

The Colomé Estancia Hotel, in an isolated location four hours from Salta or Cafayate, seems an unlikely place to house a notable museum dedicated to one artist. But the James Turrell Museum there is the real deal, built at the whim of the Swiss owner and vintner Donald Hess.

Last year, the dedicated art collector opened a dedicated 18,000-square-feet building devoted to the California artist’s works, known for their interplay of light and space, in a spectacular setting—mountains in the distance, surrounded by a vineyard. Some of the installations integrate the clear desert sky.

If you’re going to make the trek all the way out to Colomé Estancia, you will be rewarded: admission to the museum is free. But here at Argentina’s oldest winery, in a hotel that’s surprisingly plush for something so far from cities and supply routes, you’ll want to stick around for a while and take it all in.

You can see a slideshow of seven images from the museum at Wallpaper magazine’s site.

The plummeting euro has been all over the news the past few months. In a strange twist of fate, the non-Chavez-leaning countries of Latin America are looking like models of fiscal stability now compared to their colonial cousins in Spain and Portugal.

The euro is at its lowest level in five years against the greenback as the flight to safety continues. So what does that mean for your travels to Latin America?

Not much, actually. As I’ve pointed out on here before, many of the currencies in Central America and South America move in lockstep with the U.S. dollar. In Ecuador and Panama, the dollar is the currency—you don’t even need to change money upon arrival. In others, like Honduras and Belize, there is a very narrow trading range.

The most volatile exchange rates are the ones attached to the most developed roaring economies: Chile and Brazil. Expect a lot of volatility if you’re heading to those commodity-rich nations. Things are a little brighter right now though: the dollar is up 6% in Brazil and 7.1% in Chile since the new year started.

The bad news is, that’s coming off a very strong 2009 for those currencies. The news is worse elsewhere, with the dollar faltering a bit against the currencies of Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. Not by much though—the declines are all under 5%.

Mexico is basically flat for the year, which means around 12.5 to the dollar—still a great exchange rate in historic terms. Argentina is still hovering around 3.9 to the dollar, after being at 3-to-1 before last year. (Unfortunately, they’re making up for it with high inflation and increased visa fees upon arrival.)

Does any of this matter if the changes aren’t dramatic? Not a whole lot for your biggest expenses. If you book a tour with a company marketing to North Americans, they’re pricing things in dollars anyway. Most luxury hotels set their rates in dollars as well in this hemisphere, with Brazil being the main exception. Latin America real estate may or may not be priced in the local currency: it depends on the target market and the location.

Where you really lose or win is when you buy things or services that are priced in local terms. When the dollar is strong, you will pay less for taxis, restaurant meals outside the hotel, and excursions you book with a local company not affiliated with your hotel. Local flights will usually be in the local currency, except for places like Peru and Argentina where they like to play the game called “soak the foreigners.”

Naturally if you’re living somewhere for a while in a vacation home or retirement home, these fluctuations matter more. They then affect your property expenses and labor expenses.

To see historic exchange rates, follow this link to fxtop.com

The annual Travel & Leisure hotel issue is out now, with lots of info on hotel trends and where we’re headed. As usual, the have a top-10 list of hotels for each region, plus some picks for the most notable new hotel openings of the year. I always think these readers’ lists are pretty screwy since only so many people are willing to wade through that long survey—mostly people with plenty of time on their hands instead of a business to run. Plus it’s easy to ballot stuff. But still, since we have reviews of 10 out of the 10, I’m not going to quibble about who should and shouldn’t be on here. These are their top 10 for Central and South America.

Four Seasons Resort Carmelo – Uruguay
Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt – Argentina (pictured above)
Explora Patagonia – Chile
Alvear Palace Hotel – Argentina
Victoria House – Belize
Hotel Monasterio – Peru
Four Seasons Buenos Aires – Argentina
Hotel Oro Verde Guayaquil – Ecuador
Blancaneaux Lodge – Belize
Turtle Inn – Belize

I have a feeling this list will look very different two years from now, with many superior upstart resorts replacing some of the old guard coasting on name recognition. We shall see…