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.

There’s no shortage of beautiful landscapes in the Coffee Triangle of Colombia, but few of them get as many oooh and aaahs as the gorgeous Cocora Valley, near the attractive town of Salento.

The secret seems to be getting out on Salento. There were far more tourists wandering around the shops and cafes when I was there in February than there were when I visited a few years back. Colombia’s tourism numbers keep rising as more and more tourists return from the country raving about how great it was. The safety situation is dramatically better than it was in the dark past and the infrastructure is good overall.

When we got to the Cocora Valley 11 kms away, we practically had the place to ourselves though.

The trip up there is half the fun. You get into an old Jeep Willy with benches in the back and barrel out of hilly Salento into the land of the wax palm trees. The best way to do is standing up and holding on to the roof bar so you get a full panoramic view. First you see the misty mountains from afar as the Jeep winds around the turns. As you get closer you see the super-high palm trees studding the green mountains like toothpicks with palm leaves on top.

This is a stunning landscape to admire at more then 2,000 meters and you can see it by walking further in the hills from the parking area or booking a horseback riding trip with a guide from the stables on site.

Most visitors who come up here visit one of the restaurants though. The thing to order is locally farmed fresh-water trout fried up with or without breading and garlic. It comes with fried plantains and different sauces. Order a beer or get the mulled juice, sugar, and spices drink caneloza with or without rum.

There’s no need to make reservations or book a tour for this experience. Just show up in the Salento town square, hire a jeep, and head into the hills.

See more on this Cocora Valley trip in either of these feature stories: Exploring the Coffee Triangle of Colombia and Touring the Best of Colombia.

We’ve long had a review of Chilean tour company Explora’s Salto Chico Lodge in the Torres del Paine national park, also listed sometimes as Explora Patagonia. It’s got one of the most fantastic mountain views in the world and is on the doorstep of one of the planet’s greatest hiking destinations.

You can cover a lot more ground on horseback than by foot, however, and Explora has formally launched a new equestrian tour program. One of our contributors was fortunate enough to be one of the first to experience it. Here’s one half day in a four-day program:

Before lunch my fate is an 11-mile ride. We begin by crossing the deep Chinas River, climbing up and down hillsides and passing the Laguna Jara Cruce.

Our destination is the remote Estancia 2 de Enero, a farm belonging to the owner of Explora. We stop here for mate (a typical herbal tea favored by gauchos on both the Argentinian and Chilean sides of the border) before cantering back along the high ridges following the scent of lunch. Guanacos (Patagonian llamas) disperse as we pass, some jumping over a fence in perfect line.

The rides cross pampas to icebergs and glaciers, alpine lakes and rivers, with expert guides customizing the itinerary depending on the skill and experience of the riders. As with the equestrian excursions the company runs in the Atacama desert, guests are assured of getting the best equipment and healthy horses used to carrying strangers.

See our full feature story (with gorgeous photos) on touring Patagonia by horseback with Explora.