The news out of Latin America is seldom boring. There’s always something going on in this vast region worth talking about. Here are some of the more unusual or noteworthy tidbits from the recent news.

Toilet paper shortage in Venezuela
It’s one thing to hear about the effects of socialism on a country’s economy, quite another when price controls and inefficiency materialize in a concrete way. In this case it’s a big toilet paper shortage going on in Venezuela. They may be used to running out of milk, butter, cooking oil, and other staples, but one 70-year-old shopper said, “Even at my age I’ve never seen this.”

Yet another reason for them to head to Panama or Colombia I suppose. Plenty of TP in those places.

Former Guatemala leader convicted of genocide
Guatemala made history this month when it convicted a former president of genocide, the first time a head of state has been convicted of such in his own country. Rios Montt ruled brutally for 17 months during the civil war of the early 1980s. His troops attached Maya Ixil villages with full force, at least 1,771 deaths directly attributed to him at the trial. He got 80 years, so he’ll die in prison. This is on top of four soldiers getting convictions of more than 6,000 years in total a few years ago.

Goodbye to one of Argentina’s worst
In a related story, Argentina’s Disappearer-in-Chief just died at 87. Jorge Rafael Videla is said to be responsible for at some 20,000 deaths in the late 1970s and it was reportedly his idea to take the children from mothers, have then killed, and let the babies be raised by military families. Don’t rest in peace…

Belize road crew bulldozes Maya pyramid for road fill
In a story that prompted outrage in and outside of Belize, a road crew looking for fill materials took heavy equipment to an unexcavated pyramid in Belize that dated back several thousand years. They destroyed the structure and it gets worse: the company’s owner is (was?) a legislative candidate.

Brazil goes halfway to same-sex marriage
A supreme court ruling in Brazil effectively legalizes gay marriage in Latin America’s biggest country. While it could still potentially be overturned by legislation, this ends some confusion and brings Brazil closer to the policies of its neighbors Argentina and Uruguay.

Having a new pope come from Argentina should be good news when it comes to numbers. Canada and the USA combined have 86 million Catholics. South America has 339 million.

Tired of hearing Argentina’s politicians’ sabre-rattling about the Falkland Islands, the locals went to the polls to vote in a referendum. Only 3 out of 1,513 voted not to continue under British rule. Turnout was 92%.

Wholesale coffee prices have tumbled and it’s creating major headaches in Colombia. Though you haven’t seen it trickle down to your local Starbucks, prices are down 50% in two years.

United Airlines just began weekly year-round service between Washington-Dulles International Airport and both Guatemala City, Guatemala, and San Jose, Costa Rica. The airline also will begin weekly year-round service between its Chicago O’Hare hub and San Jose the same day. Check prices on international airline finder Vayama.com.

If you want to assign blame for Mexico’s border region violence to someone, U.S. gun dealers would be a good place to start. A new study found last month that some 250,000 guns a year are heading south from border states, spurred by lax gun sale laws. There are more than three gun dealers for every mile of the 1,969 mile border.

Chile is now leading the world in astronomy, at least in terms of equipment superiority. Scientists have completed the world’s largest radio telescope array, bigger than all existing ones added together, in the Atacama Desert region. The resolution of what it can see is 10X that of the Hubble telescope.

The Association of Brazilian Supermarkets announced that it would not sell beef from cattle raised on cleared rainforest land. Critics say it will be hard to enforce since no government agency is monitoring origin, but it’s hopefully a start in turning the tide of clearing rainforest land for farming. Cattle farming is the biggest driver of deforestation.

There’s a new strain of dengue fever hitting Brazil, with more than 200,000 people being infected just in the first two months of this year. There’s no immunity in place in the population for this new strain, so anyone traveling to areas with mosquitoes in Brazil needs to be super-diligent with the DEET and clothing using BugsAway or Insect Shield.

Bolivia can keep growing coca leaves for workers to chew. The country got a special dispensation from the UN to legalize unrefined coca within its borders only.

Is there a definitive answer on which hotels and resorts are viewed as the best in Mexico, Central America, and South America?

Sort of. I’ve said before that there’s a lot of hanky-panky that goes on with “best of” readers polls in magazines. Ballot stuffing is a part of the job when you’ve got a vested interest in who wins and people who are on the clock are much more likely to go through those hour-long surveys. Plus some readers are voting for places they’ve never set foot in, on reputation alone.

But if the two biggest travel magazines get the same results on some hotels, AND they’re featured here in Luxury Latin America, well that starts to look like a real trend. Three hits and you’re solid. Here are the hotels that came out on top in this year’s Conde Nast Travel Best in the World survey, Travel & Leisure’s 500 Best survey, and our picks here (follow the links to detailed reviews).

Mexico Top Resorts and Hotels

La Casa que Canta – Zihuatanejo

Four Seasons Mexico – Mexico City

One & Only Palmilla – San Jose del Cabo

Las Ventanas al Paraiso – San Jose del Cabo

Capella Pedregal – Cabo San Lucas

Esperanza – Cabo San Lucas

Ritz-Carlton Cancun

Banyan Tree Mayakoba – Riviera Maya

Fairmont Mayakoba – Riviera Maya

Grand Velas Riviera Maya

Four Seasons Punta Mita – Riviera Nayarit

St. Regis Punta Mita – Riviera Nayarit

Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit

Central America Top Resorts and Hotels

Lodge at Chaa Creek – Belize

Hotel Casa Santo Domingo – Antigua, Guatemala

Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica – Papagayo Peninsula

Top Hotels and Resorts South America

Llao Llao Hotel & Resort – Bariloche, Argentina

Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Alvear Palace Hotel – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Four Seasons Buenos Aires

Park Hyatt Mendoza – Argentina

Ritz-Carlton Santiago – Chile

Hotel Monasterio – Cusco, Peru

JW Marriott Hotel Lima – Peru

Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel – Peru

Obviously it pays to have a well-known brand name and the hotels that have been around for a decade or more have a clear edge. The big surprise for me is how few matches you see for Chile (where the most impressive resorts have been opening) and for Central America overall. Conde Nast had loads from Costa Rica, but T&L hardly any. Expect that to change in the coming years as more readers get out and about in this region.

I’ve sung the praises—to whomever would listen—about another fine rum from Guatemala that’s better known than Botran, but apparently they’re doing something right in that country as this one is excellent too. Is Guatemala big enough to support two rum distilleries? Actually no: both this brand and Ron Zacapa are part of the generic sounding Industrias de Licoreas de Guatemala.

The Botran family has been making rum since 1939, but I have to confess I’d never seen this label outside of Guatemala until I visited Miami last month and saw it on several billboards and bus stop ads. Since they’re obviously putting some resources into getting the word out in the U.S., I bought a bottle in a downtown liquor store to see if it was worth talking about.

Indeed it is. Situated somewhere between the liquid caramel of Centenario rum from Costa Rica and the heavy bite of Flor de Cana from Nicaragua, Ron Botran Añejo Reserva offers a nice blend of smoothness and complexity that makes it fine to drink neat but not overpowering if you use it in a (good) cocktail. It hits all the right notes you’d expect from a fine Central American rum: toasted caramel, vanilla, spice, and a long, pleasant finish. Those with a refined palate might taste almonds and some tropical fruit overtones. With a warm copper color and a medium body feel in the mouth, this is a rum you could sip for hours.

Guatemalan rum is aged in the highlands, not at sea level like most Caribbean brands, so it can benefit from longer aging (and not taste like a stack of firewood or a pair of boots).

The distillery owns its own sugar cane fields, which can’t hurt in terms of quality, plus they typically blend barrels aged 5 to 14 years together rather than separating those into different products. From what I can taste, this is a good strategy. Think of this then as the blended version of Ron Zacapa, which is sold based on age in the barrels.

I saved the best part for last: Ron Botran Añejo Reserva retails for $25 or so (my bottle was $19) in the U.S., making this one of the greatest bargains you’ll find in the rum section or your liquor store—if they have it. It looks more expensive than this with its relief shield in glass on the front and the cork top, plus it certainly tastes more expensive than many others in this range from the Caribbean. A great find.

Last week I attended a conference called TravelMart Latin America, which was held in the beautiful city of Cartagena, Colombia. This is an annual meet-up of travel suppliers, tour companies, airlines, hotel companies, and destination tourism offices. It’s most for the buying and selling of travel services, the making of business alliances, but I attended as a journalist to see what’s new and different.

The most striking thing was that although there were some signs of trouble here and there, most of these destinations have done rather well during the recession. Travel to the Galapagos is down some and Costa Rica saw a bit of a drop from their primary U.S. market the past two years, but in general it was the middle mass market that took a hit, not the luxury end of things. The consensus now is that 2012 is shaping up as a great year and business has picked up across the board.

Hotel News

One sure sign this region has plenty of confidence is the number of new hotels going up. Follow this link for a rundown of new hotels in Latin America in all price ranges, but on the luxury side some high-profile openings are on the way. A Wald0rf-Astoria is opening in Panama City, with a new Hilton almost right next to it. This is following the Westin Playa Bonita that opened earlier this year. Starwood just announced a deal to open a W hotel there a few years down the line.

There hasn’t been much to talk about in Buenos Aires for a while, but that will change when the owners of Alvear Palace open the Alvear Art Hotel in 2013.

Next country over, in Chile, is where more of the action is these days. We recently reviewed the new Singular in Patagonia and are working on adding a review of Tierra Patagonia as well. (Sister hotel of the highly acclaimed Tierra Atacama.) We’ve also got a writer checking out new boutique hotel Lastaria in Santiago. After that we’ll be looking into a new boutique hotel in Valparaiso, Rufugio way out on Chiloe, and a few others in Patagonia.

Then there’s Peru, where an all-out building craze shows no signs up letting up. New chain hotels are coming to Lima and Mountain Lodges of Peru is opening a new place in Cusco, but we’re most excited about the opening of Hotel B in the hopping Barranco neighborhood early next year. Also, the long-promised renovation of Palacio del Inka hotel in Cusco is in motion now. It will be part of the Starwood Luxury Collection.

Most of the recent openings in Uruguay have been near the coast, but we’re excited to see a Sofitel Montevideo on the way in November.

Next month I’m off to Ecuador and will be reviewing two high-profile openings: Mashpi Lodge on a nature reserve and Casa Gangotena in Quito.

I got to check out a few boutique hotels in Cartagena, Colombia that make up the Evoca group. The photo here is from hotel LM. Outside the old city though, chain hotels are doubling down: new ones are coming from Hyatt, Intercontinental, and others. W Bogota is under construction now in the capital.

Four new resorts and lodges are on the way in Belize, so we’ll be keeping an eye on them to see which ones are upscale enough for our readers.

I’ve also got to update some hotel reviews to show expansions from the likes of Tabacon in Costa Rica and Mansion del Angel in Ecuador, as well as changes like Casitas del Colca moving from Orient-Express to Sonesta.

New suite at Tabacon

Travel and Tours

Did you know you can visit Antarctica by air, avoiding the dreaded Drake Passage? There’s a company called Antarctica XXI that does an “air cruise” leaving from Punta Arenas and landing at the edge of the continent. Then you get on a ship and go from place to place.

Mountain Lodges of Peru is opening one of their lodges along the Lares Trek in the Sacred Valley. This will allow people to have a base from which to hike to villages or to combine it with camping—the way it’s done now.

Copa Air, which is now part of the Star Alliance, is continuing to add new routes from their hub in Panama City. New ones are Las Vegas, Liberia (Costa Rica), Recife (Brazil), and Iquitos (Peru).

Quito’s new airport is now scheduled to open in February, 2013. The most positive development there is that there’s going to be a park-n-ride kind of service where you can catch a shuttle bus from central Quito.

As for new and interesting tours, I liked a Guatemalan glamping tour from Viaventure where you dine with candlelight in the isolated Mayan ruins of Uaxactún and sleep there (in real beds) in the evening. I learned about an array of interesting trip in Uruguay run by the Lares Group and several companies are running 4X4 self-driving trips in Patagonia that are a nice cross between independent travel and an organized tour.

SA Luxury Expeditions is doing some neat things in Peru, from Lima tours that dine in historic homes in the center to a “Potato Passion” tour and a Lake Titicaca islands tour with a home stay.