Yes indeed, that’s what we just got named in the Avis A-list Blog Awards: Best Luxury Travel Blog.

Thanks to all of you who saw the note we put on here a few weeks ago and voted for us. We appreciate it!

So who came out on top in the other categories? Here are a few of them:

EarthXplorer for best photography blog.

WanderingTrader for best business travel blog (with lots of posts on Brazil)

Perceptive Travel Blog for best group travel blog

TheVacationGals for best in family travel

FrannyWanny for best culinary blog

We promise we won’t let it go to our heads and will keep bringing you news from the luxury travel scene in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Stay tuned by grabbing the RSS feed or following us on Facebook or Twitter. Or see the home page of the website to sign up for the monthly newsletter.

This month we got nominated in the Avis A-list bloggers awards for Best Luxury Travel Blog.

We are flattered, of course. Who knows if we have a prayer of winning, but if you could be so kind as to give us your vote, much appreciated.

Follow this link to visit the Luxury Blog category page, click the button beside Luxury Latin America, and enter your e-mail address.

That’s it! It runs through September, closing out on October 1, 2012.

Thanks for that, and for being one of our readers. Happy trails!

....Kaana Boutique Resort pool villa in Belize

It’s hard to tell from tourism visitor numbers how many luxury travelers are headed to various places in Latin America. The overall numbers include shoestring travelers and billionaires, business travelers and honeymooners.

So it’s always kind of fun to look at our stats and see which countries are getting searched on the most. You can see them below.

Keep in mind this is always a bit flawed in several ways. Our audience is 2/3 U.S. and Canadian, so getting to Belize is a lot easier than getting to Buenos Aires. Also, search engine rankings are fickle, especially for content sites like ours not spending ad money with Google, so results can vary over the course of the year. Nevertheless, here goes.

Belize Luxury Hotels – This page is consistently at or near the top, throughout the year, with readers checking out reviews of resorts like Ka’ana, Turtle Inn, and Cayo Espanto to find their perfect spot in the sun.

Luxury Hotels – For those figuring out where they want to go and where to stay.

Luxury Destinations in Latin America – Ditto, with links to each country.

View from Finesterre Suites pool in Panama City

Panama Luxury Hotels – The long shot moves up the ranks as more upscale places to stay keep opening. What recession?

Costa Rica Luxury Hotels – Beat out by Panama this month, but usually near the top.

Luxury Tours – Detailed features stories on tours run by upscale adventure companies, wine tour leaders, and more.

Upscale Travel in Mexico – Resorts, tours, and a plethora of vacation/retirement real estate stories.

Upscale Travel in Ecuador – Quito, haciendas, and the Galapagos

Real Estate in Latin America – More for your money and better weather on top.

This will undoubtedly change as the year goes on from shifts in travel patterns and vacation schedules. Right now Colombia is moving up ahead of Travel Mart Latin America and my recent trip to Nicaragua brought a boost to Jicaro Eco Lodge and Aqua Wellness Resort.

I’ll be in Chile in November doing a tour with Explora, so more to come from the other end of the hemisphere…

You can easily go find another luxury travel blog that covers the world, or covers Europe, or the U.S., but this one is part of the only site focused on luxury travel in Mexico, Central America, and South America. We don’t veer off into the Caribbean (though Cuba and the D.R. are certainly Latino) and we don’t try to act like there’s a robust luxury infrastructure where there’s not (like in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Venezuela.)

So if you want to see detailed reviews of the best of the best in terms of 5-star hotels, luxury resorts, high-end adventure tours, and spectacular vacation/retirement real estate in mainland Latin America, this is the place. The place.

Everything we review stays archived on the Luxury Latin America webzine and twice a week we give the scoop on what’s new in this luxury travel blog. Click on that RSS button to your left to get the feed each time in your reader.

Once a month we run down what you missed with our e-mail newsletter. Sign up for that and you’ll get it all in one place.

You can follow Luxury Latin America on Twitter or go like us on Facebook.

Of course we’re glad to hear from you. If you have a gripe, a suggestion, or want to figure out how to partner up with us on something, contact me (Timothy) or our ad director via the info on this contact page. Don’t worry, we don’t make you fill out a form…

After putting it off for too long, Luxury Latin America now has a Facebook page. You can go like us here.

Our media company has already had them for other sites in the network and the clicks that come from there are underwhelming to put it mildly. But there’s no denying that it’s where many of you spend half your online time, so we want to come to you in a way you want to hear from us. So from now on you’ll find updates on what we’re covering, where we’re going, and what’s new in Latin America travel.

We’ll be able to put up more photos there too now and then. Right now you can see a bunch I took in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, where I was attending the Adventure Travel Summit.

Next week I’ll be reporting from the Luxury Travel Expo in Las Vegas. Stay tuned! You can also subscribe to this blog by RSS, subscribe to our monthly e-mail newsletter, or follow us on Twitter.