There are a lot of elements that go into the price of a flight, from staff costs to government fees to landing gate charges at airports. One big variable—and the ones most airlines use to justify all kinds of add-ons and extras—is the price of fuel. Well how much does it really cost to carry each passenger a thousand miles through the air?

Spirit Air is doing its best to figure that out and share it with its customers. It has published a handy dandy chart showing how much it costs them in fuel to go a certain range of distance. You can see the full breakdown at this link, but here are a few examples:

• A short hop of 400 to 599 miles costs them $21.67 at current fuel rates
• Going 800 to 999 miles is a shade over $30
• Their longest hauls of 2000+ miles costs $78 per passenger in fuel

So to put that in real terms, for Ft. Lauderdale to Cancun, fuel is only around $22. Flying all the way to Lima from there, fuel is more than $78 per passenger. All these rates assume an 80% load factor, so if the flight is jammed full the actual cost per person would be a bit less. I’m not sure how cargo is figured in. And what if my seatmate weighs twice as much as I do? Should those who can’t fit in a regular airline seat multiply by two?

Think about this next time you see a $300 “fuel surcharge” on your legacy airline flight to Europe. Where’s that money really going? Why isn’t it just included in the price of the ticket?

When you see these fuel prices though, it makes Spirit’s cheap fares look even better, especially if you’re part of that $9 fare club. If you can snag one of those rates, you are flying for less than the cost of the fuel, never mind all the other costs the airline bears. So smile when you pay that checked baggage fee or a swipe your credit card for a cup of coffee in the air. Chances are those fees might not even get you back to even.

If you just want to get from point A to point B and have plenty of cash left over for spending after arrival, Spirit Air serves many Latin American destinations besides Cancun and Lima. They’ll get you to Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and four locations in Colombia.

More on airlines serving Latin America. Thanks to SmarterTravel for the original post on this.

When I was at the Luxury Travel Expo last month I had the pleasure of hearing a short presentation from Kim MacQuarrie, a Peru travel expert and author of the book Last Days of the Incas. A few lucky souls will get to spend far more time with him this year actually traveling through Peru: he is leading a tour with Geographic Expeditions that is centered on this history of the Incas.

We now have a lively and informative interview with Kim MacQuarrie posted in our interviews section. He talks about the research that went into his book, the upcoming tours, Incan architecture, and his favorite hotel in the country. As someone who lived with a recently-contacted tribe of indigenous Amazonians and has since covered many parts of Peru that few people ever visit, he knows this fascinating country inside-out.

“One tends to think of Peru in terms of Cuzco, the Incas, and Machu Picchu. But of course, there is much, much more. Around 60% of Peru is tropical rainforest, and large portions of that are virtually unexplored regions. In fact, there are still a handful of uncontacted tribes that roam there.

The long strip of desert on the coast is as dry as the surface of the Moon, with virtually no rainfall whatsoever. The ruins of thousands of years of ancient civilizations are buried there—pyramids, monuments, fortresses, tombs. Pretty incredible, really. In fact, so many pyramids and tombs have been discovered in Peru in the last 20-30 years that people more and more are referring to Peru as the “Egypt of the Americas.” One ancient city that was discovered as recently as 2001 is nearly five thousand years old—the oldest city in the Americas. As old as the Step Pyramids in Egypt.”

See our full Last Days of the Incas interview here.

This is a time of year when it’s especially important to unwind, unplug, and enjoy time with your family. Nobody has to tell them this in Latin America, which is one of the things I love.

Happy holidays to you and yours, until we post again…

Photo above is from Miraflores, a suburb of Lima, Peru.

Here’s a photo I snapped at Machu Picchu when I visited. For most of the porters carrying tourists’ belongings, tents, and food on the Inca Trail, this is as close as they ever see to their great wonder that is so close. It’s expensive to get into Machu Picchu, far beyond the income of what these guys make. Plus there’s the transportation issue, including the shuttle bus ride up to the ruins from Aguas Calientes at the bottom.

I found out about a program to rectify this, at least a little, through an organization called Karikuy. They’re trying to drum up donations to help these hard-working men get into the great citadel. See details here at the Karikuy-Haugen Fund.

If you were touched by your trip to Machu Picchu and the thrill of seeing it with your own eyes, any donation you make could help some key locals experience it as well.

Last week we posted reviews of two luxury hotels that opened recently in Peru and Brazil.

The Peru opening’s name makes it sound like it should be in Colombia—Casa Cartegena—but it’s actually in Cusco, just a shuffle away from the reigning Monasterio and the upscale Inkaterra boutique hotel La Casona.

This hotel dispenses with all the Spanish Colonial antiques and religious oil paintings though and presents something Cusco didn’t really have before: a hotel with a sleek contemporary design aesthetic.

Our new Brazil addition is not a new hotel really, but a makeover. Orient-Express took over a hotel near Iguassu/Iguazu Falls a few years ago and then shut the place down to renovate it up to their standards. Hotel das Cataratas is still a work in progress, with the spa, some other public areas, and a third of the rooms left to finish, but it’s open for business and showing off its fresh new face.

Orient-Express operates lots of fine hotels and the Hiram Bingham train in Peru, plus the Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio. We’re sure this new addition to their roster will get plenty of acclaim from guests and the press in the coming year, plus everyone who has been to both sides of the falls says the view is more dramatic on the Brazilian side.