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 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

This week we posted our review of Tcherassi, the much-talked-about Cartagena boutique hotel designed by Colombian fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi.

There are plenty of nice boutique hotels in Cartagena and we’ve got reviews of a few notable ones in our listings of Colombia luxury hotels. According to our reviewer Nicholas Gill, however, this one truly stands out from the pack.

“The seven rooms range from 400 to 1200 square feet and each is a little bit different—and named after a different exotic fabric from Tcherassi’s collections. Each room makes use of the original stone walls, still exposed, plus high ceilings, wood floors, beamed ceilings, walk out balconies, free Wi-fi, LCD TVs, and iPod docking stations. The top room in the hotel is Gazar, a three level 1,200-square-foot penthouse suite with a private rooftop pool and sun deck, plus an indoor/outdoor shower and soaking tub.”

If you’re looking for the hot hotel of the moment when you visit Colombia, or you just like to stay in places where the designer’s touch is clear throughout, see our detailed review of Tcherassi Hotel and Spa.

Whenever a city goes from relative obscurity to being “the hot place to visit” in the space of a decade or less, new boutique hotels pop up like mushrooms. The trouble with that, as I’ve seen personally in Buenos Aires and San Miguel de Allende, is that what looks great on a website often doesn’t turn out to be so great when you’re inside the doors. Then the staff disappears all day long and you’re on your own until sundown. So the challenge for us at Luxury Latin America is not adding new hotel reviews: it’s deciding which ones really deserve to be included.

Often I’ll put my faith in a writer who knows the city well, someone who is covering it for a guidebook or one of the high-end travel magazines. Like Nicholas Gill, who often covers the scene in Peru and Colombia for us. He says Hotel Boutique Anandá in Cartagena is one of the special ones.

Besides an obsessive attention to the design details and museum-quality artifacts throughout, Anandá is a better value than many of its competitors in town, with larger rooms and suites that don’t require much of a premium. With a nice rooftop pool and patio, plus an attractive courtyard restaurant, this is a good choice for a romantic stay in the historic Colombian city of Cartagena. See our full review of Hotel Anandá.

Other luxury hotels in Colombia.

We’re busy editing new hotel reviews for Colombia and Peru, but meanwhile here’s some worthy Latin American travel reading material from around the web.

It’s hard to put together a decent round-up of the entire giant country of Mexico. This piece from The Independent newspaper in the UK does a pretty good job of it though. Traveller’s Guide to Mexico: 2010

BlackBook has a great piece up on the revitalization of Medellin, the city that has moved from murder capital of the world to a pleasant city with outdoor cafes in the space of two decades. Here’s my favorite quote: “At one point, Escobar was spending $2500 per month on rubber bands to hold cash together.”

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal included a whole special section on Brazil. If you need a primer on the government and the economy there, dive in. For travelers, the best part is chef Paulo Barroso’s picks for the 10 best restaurants in Sao Paulo.

I just hired the writer of the Latin Flyer blog to review newcomer Estancia Vik in Uruguay for us. See his picks here for 7 interesting hotels in Uruguay. (His rundown includes one we do have reviewed, Mantra Resort and Spa.)