We’ve been posting a lot of new hotel reviews lately so I’ve been highlighting those, but time to catch up on some notable travel-related news from Latin America.

It looks like the Yellowstone Club World ownership club is crashing down and splitting up. We’re not sure yet what’s happening to the Tamarindo resort we’ve reviewed on the west coast of Mexico, but if anything it will be more open to outsiders and not less. Personally, it seems safer to own a smaller house outright than own a share in a vacation club with palatial resorts, but it doesn’t seem like the buyers are down to their last dollar anyway…

Are we ready for an environmentally conscious wine? Are we ready to give up the traditional bottle? The company putting out this green Malbec from Argentina hopes so. (Green as in eco-friendly, not Vinho Verde!) I’m skeptical that people will drink wine from a glorified milk carton, but you do have to admit it cuts down a lot of wasteful shipping weight.

When Super Bowl winning quarterback Eli Manning was ready for a wedding and honeymoon, he didn’t go to Disneyland. He got married at One & Only Palmilla in Los Cabos.

Speaking of celebrities and green travel, Leonardo DiCaprio looks to be moving forward with development of the private island he bought in Belize.

International Living reports that 16 new marinas are in the works for Costa Rica. The skeptic in us says half will never get built, but three are already slated to open in 2009. Some will not open without a fight, however, as not everyone is thrilled about the pace of new development, especially for Puerto Viejo in the Limón province of the Caribbean. Plus it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the yacht business if the recession and fuel cost rises continue…

We just posted a review of the new luxury hotel on Easter Island: Explora Posada de Mike Rapu. It’s also known as Explora en Rapa Nui, which makes more sense. My guess is that most people will just end up calling it Explora Easter Island. (Or “that hotel on Easter Island that doesn’t suck.”)

This is from the same people who opened the Explora hotels in Chile (and the architect also involved in Remota—Germán del Sol) and lead tours in Patagonia. These hotels have set the Chilean standard for mixing local elements with a strong sense of design. Our reviewer says, “It’s stylish but at the same time rough and ready, with thick stone pillars of volcanic rock and unpolished, unpainted wood.”

This remote island has a reputation for terrible food, so it’s encouraging to hear that the cuisine here is top-notch. Rates are priced accordingly, with everything wrapped into an all-inclusive package. But why not splurge? This probably is a true “once-in-a-lifetime experience.” Who goes to Easter Island twice?

Unfortunately, Explora hasn’t caught on to the whole global warming and conservation story. There’s a whole lot of waste and not much care about it, again showing us that too many executives think luxury travelers don’t give a damn about the planet. Hopefully those that do will speak up and things will improve on this fragile Rapa Nui island–already wrecked once by short-sighted inhabitants.

Here’s an interesting article on cruises to Antarctica called “Bragging Rights.” The author, Marie Javins, went on a (relatively) bargain-priced cruise to the icy continent from Ushuaia, Argentina, and notes that most of the time was spent in transit. Upon arriving at disembarkation points, she was sharing her “pristine view” with 100 other tourists at a time.

As the recent sinking of an Antarctica cruise ship illustrates, these are inhospitable waters that are not really so conducive to tourism anyway. Do we really need over 37,000 people a year heading down there just so they can say they’ve been? I’ve never understood the appeal of bragging about how many countries you’ve been to anyway (especially since that seems to be a favorite pastime of cruisers who make lots of one-day port stops).

If you must to to Antarctica, please do it right. Treat it as a major event and spend accordingly to go with one of the very best operators. Groups should be small, the ship should be top-notch, and the tour company should voluntarily follow the guidelines of the IAATO. This is a fragile area: let’s not let it turn out like the Galapagos!

This could be the beginning of the end for the formerly uncrowded Honduran island of Roatan. As the Wall Street Journal reported in The Next Place in the Sun, the island could soon turn into just another tacky Caribbean cruise port.

Royal Caribbean just inked a deal to build a $30 million extension to the island’s cruise terminal, while Carnival is spending $50 million on its own port of call, which it says can handle as many as 7,000 passengers daily when it opens in 2009.

This scares some residents, but others are cackling with joy at the thought of getting some bucks off these short-stay stopovers, despite all the damage to the reefs and the island’s character. To me it’s just depressing to see yet another island with a lot going for it succumbing to the pressure to open up to mammoth ships. Mass tourism wins again.

Apparently this is all driven by the average Joe and Jane tiring of ports like Cozumel, which is “packed with 15 ships on busy days.” John Tercek, vice president of commercial development for Royal Caribbean is quoted in the article saying, “People like to brag at a cocktail party, I’ve been to some place you haven’t.” As if stopping in a cruise ship port for a few hours is “being somewhere.” Good god.

As for me, I’m going to try to make it down there in ‘08, while I can tour the island and kick back on the beach without seeing a massive floating hotel right by the shore. I may be adding a new hotel or two to our current listing, Anthony’s Key Resort (pictured here).

Well, the hype will hopefully die down now that the contest is over to name the new Seven Wonders of the World. Three of them are in Latin America:

Chichen Itza in Mexico

Machu Picchu in Peru

Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, Brazil

I detect a bit of ballot-stuffing on the last one, but any contest like this is bound to be hotly contested no matter how the votes come in. I like Wendy Perrin’s post on the subject, noting that you’d have to be living under a rock to not know these places are worth a stop. Many would argue that they are already getting way too many visitors as it is, putting a major strain on what made them great to start with.

Frankly though, I’m glad that Chichen Itza made the cut instead of Tikal. We don’t need more tour buses heading to the latter, filled with obese people who can’t make the 20-minute trek through the jungle to get to the start of the pyramids. Difficulty can be a good thing when it comes to preservation.