I know a luxury travel blog and website will often pretend everything is rosy in the places they cover, but we like to tell it like it is here at Luxury Latin America. So let’s put it out there that if you travel to a hot place to escape the cold or find adventure, you’re probably going to deal with bugs and other creepy crawlies.

I was reminded of this recently on the coast of Panama when I found this now deceased guy in the corner of my suite, right next to the sofa. I’m just happy he made himself so obvious instead of hiding in my shoe.

This is the second time I’ve had such a visit in a nice hotel room, not even counting how many made it into my living space in Mexico. Here’s a shot of one that made my family and I glad we had the mosquito net up in Costa Rica.

Today a scorpion, tomorrow some insect that is as big as my hand. If you go exploring the Amazon, kicking back on a tropical beach, or even just checking into a hotel in the desert of Mexico or northern Chile, you’re seriously outnumbered. Keeping all the animals and insects at bay can only be accomplished by sprayed toxins, innovative design, or an incredibly diligent staff. Most employ a combination of the three. If they’re a true eco-lodge though, forget the chemicals part.

So keep that in mind when you call the front desk about a critter that needs to be dispatched. The staffers are there to help, yes, but please don’t get huffy and act like this should never happen. I’ve heard stories from hotel general managers about guests who checked out early because the geckos were too loud or there was an agoti in their path as they walked to dinner. Sorry, but you’re not in Chicago or Dubai anymore.

We try not to spend much time covering the ins and outs of the hotel industries as the signs on the door change often throughout the world. But two prominent hotels we’ve reviewed in Panama changed from independent properties to Marriott brands recently, so we’ve updated our reviews.

The major one is the Buenaventura Resort on the Pacific coast of Panama, opened with all kinds of hype and pizazz before the owners of the Bristol in Panama City found that booking beach resort rooms at high rates was harder than doing so in the city. So Marriott signed on to manage the place and tap into their international marketing machine. If you’ve got lots of Marriott points, you can now book a beach resort in Panama. See our review of the JW Marriott Golf and Resort.

The other is the former Finisterre Suites in Panama City, which also opened with a bang and then promptly started looking for an international brand to partner up with when the expected bookings didn’t materialize. It’s now the Marriott Executive Apartments Panama, with the old name tacked onto the end.

In general it’s as good as the old one, with a seldom-used spa and poolside bar gone but otherwise looking exactly the same. And again, if you’re a frequent Marriott traveler, now you can cash in some points for a suite.

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.

In the Chiriqui Highlands of Panama, near Boquete, is the country’s highest mountain: Volcan Baru. Yes, it’s a volcano and was once a much higher one. When it blew its top last time, it really blew its top. Much of it went flying through the air, basalt rock landing in far-flung places.

Hopefully it’s done for a while because the lovely little town of Boquete is right under it. As my guide said, “Why should I worry about North Korea? I’m living under the equivalent of a nuclear bomb.”

My 13.4 km (8.4 mile) hike began with the bucolic scene at the top, the highlands’ abundance of flowers in force and Baru in the background. It progressed through primary rainforest, cloudforest, and back to rainforest again, with the vegetation changing regularly along the way. I was planning to take in the flowers, see some crazy vines, and if I managed to find a Quetzal in a tree, a great bonus. On the way in my guide and I came across some birdwatchers with mega-lenses who had come up short.

But apparently my guide John of Boquete Custom Tours was better than their guide. About a third of the way through the hike, he heard one and we stayed put while he called out to it. A few minutes later, the real male Quetzal wanted to defend his territory or get a look around, so he left his hidden perch, flew over us, and then went back to his tree. If I were the type who ticked off boxes on a chart, that box was checked.

Turns out it was just the beginning, however. About an hour later we heard two of them making noise and ended up seeing both—a male and a female. From a distance, of course, and I didn’t have a camera with a lens weighing 20 pounds. Or a tripod. So we’ll have to make due with this photo here.

Later we caught another one, so four for the day. At the end of the hike, in the distance through the binoculars we could see a  3-wattled Bell Bird. That’s almost as rare as the Respendant Quetzal. Apparently I have to visit the Darien to find something rarer in the Americas than these two.

We also caught site of this clear-winged butterfly, which is also quite reclusive it turns out. My lucky day.

Even if all these creatures had not shown up on cue, it was a great day for a walk in the woods. Just one piece of advice: spray DEET on your legs and spray your shoes and socks with something or use perjfjf treated clothing like ExOfficio BugsAway pants or socks with InsectShield treatment. The chiggers in this area (including Boquete) are voracious. You won’t know you’ve been chomped on until a day later…

For more on this area, see the Visit Panama site for the region.

See our detailed reviews of the two best hotels in Boquete in our Luxury Hotels of Panama section.

I mentioned in our monthly newsletter last month that my Avianca flight to Colombia was another reminder just how far the U.S. airlines have fallen in comparison to most of the international carriers.

Avianca made me feel like a passenger again instead of a  number on a spreadsheet to be optimized and squeezed.

This matters because soon Avianca will probably be the name you see the most besides LAN in Latin America. It merged with TACA last year and by the end of May the TACA brands will all change to Avianca. By the end of 2013 the Ecuadorian airline AeroGal will change to Avianca name too.

On the way down to Bogota from Ft. Lauderdale, I was flying in economy but still had a seat-back entertainment system, a real meal, and a glass of wine. The flight attendants smiled instead of just nagging everyone to turn off their Kindle. My business class report will have to wait for another time, but it looked far superior to what I’ve seen on United and American.

Since international and domestic passengers can check two bags without fees, there was plenty of overhead bin space on my first flight and the three that followed. Naturally the plane boarded a lot faster for the domestic ones since there was no economic reason for bringing a rollaboard bag on the plane

We even got drink service on a 45-minute flight from Bogota to Pereira. Nice.

A few fun facts and some history about Avianca:

Avianca is the second oldest airline in the world after the Dutch carrier KLM.

TACA was created in 1931 in Honduras. It grew fast the past couple decades through acquisitions. In 1991 TACA bought all the airlines of Central America that were in financial trouble (Aviateca of Guatemala, SAHSA of Honduras, LACSA of Costa Rica) and merged them into GRUPO TACA.

In 1999 GRUPO TACA created an airline in Peru called TACA Peru

TACA stands for TRANSPORTES AEREOS del CONTINENTE AMERICANO (American Continent Air Transport)

Last year Avianca and TACA joined STAR ALLIANCE, in many ways the best international alliance for frequent fliers.

Avianca and TACA have 4 main connection hubs in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Bogota and Lima and fly to all Central America and South America.

North American gateways (direct or in code shares with partners) include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Washington-Dulles, JFK, Chicago-O’hare, Toronto, and Mexico City.

See more at Avianca.com for more info and flight deals. See SeatGuru’s Avianca section for seat pitch and plan configurations.