Thousands of sparkling new hotel rooms are glittering in Colombia, including high-end brands such as InterContinental, Hilton, Sofitel, Sonesta, Ibis and Wyndham. With its geographical location, favorable climate, and easy access to the United States, Europe, and the rest of Latin America, Colombia is a destination ready for discovery.

“In recent years, Colombia has achieved international recognition as a tourism destination and also as an attractive place for tourism investment,” said Maria Claudia Lacouture, President of Proexport Colombia. “Between 2009 and 2011, the country opened more than 1,600 new hotel rooms with the most prestigious international chains, thus emphasizing confidence in Colombia and the hotel industry.”

From luxury hotels that operate in exquisitely restored historic convents, to cozy, versatile boutique hotels, and state-of-the-art hotels in modern neighborhoods, Colombia is a mecca for Latin American hotel development. Here is a glimpse of the hottest hotel news in Colombia’s cosmopolitan cities of Cartagena, Bogota, Cali and Medellin:

Cartagena

With the perfect combination of colonial charm and modern architecture, Cartagena is a destination full of new hotel openings and developments. Due to its qualified labor and well-trained professional staff, the city warmly invites incentive groups to its hotels and tourist infrastructure that accommodate every taste and budget.

Hotel News:

Chain hotels such as the Sonesta Seaway 935 , Estelar Cartagena de Indias Marbella , and Estelar Playa Manzanillo , and more have made their appearance in opening big hotels reaching over 1,000 room capacities in 2011.

Sonesta Collection announced the opening of its fourth hotel in Colombia, the 114-room Sonesta Hotel Cartagena , joining its sister properties in Bogota, Barranquilla and Valledupar. Not to be missed is the much anticipated Las Americas Hotel that debuted last month.

Other top hotels in operation include the fabulous Sofitel Cartagena Santa Clara , and the renovation of the Cartagena Hilton .

Top hotels continue to open and develop in Cartagena, as the city looks forward to the InterContinental , which is set to open in 2013 with over 282 rooms. Further ahead in 2013, the Sheraton Cartagena is slated to join its sister property in Bogota

Other upcoming properties in Cartagena include MELIA, IBEROSTAR and Marriott in 2014 with 278 rooms.

Bogota

Deemed as the “City with a Heart”, Colombia’s cosmopolitan and capital city, Bogota, is a popular destination for both business and leisure travelers alike. According to Travel Agent Central, it is forecasted that by 2014 there will be 2,253 new rooms in Bogota, up from 1,616 new rooms in 2009.

Hotel News:

Opened this past March, the much acclaimed Sonesta Bogota is the third Sonesta hotel in Colombia. The city is also celebrating the opening of Bogota’s luxurious JW Marriott , and the much acclaimed Ibis Bogota Hotel .

Slated to open this October, the 245-room Bogota Hilton features excellent facilities that are ideal for leisure and business guests, and is perfectly situated in the Bogota’s North District, the perfect location for visiting the majestic city.

Other hotels slated to open soon include Aloft Bogota Airport Hotel in November, Wyndham Bogota in December, and NH Parque de la 93 hotel later this year.

Hotels in the planning/development stages include a Hyatt property and a Wyndham Hotel Group property in Bogota.

Cali

Known as “The Salsa Capital of Colombia”, Cali is the third largest city in the Colombia. Visitors fall in love the city’s seductive energy and passion-filled streets.

Hotel News:

Debuting in late 2010, the fabulous Hotel Spiwak Chipichape opened as Cali’s first 5-star property. The hotel is in the heart of Cali’s developing business and commercial district.

Celebrating openings this year include top hotel chains such as the distinctive. InterContinental , Four Points by Sheraton , and Mercure Cali Casa del Alférez Hotel .

Future hotel developments include Marriot and Ibis properties scheduled to open in 2013.

Medellin

As the second largest city in Colombia, the city of “Eternal Spring”- Medellin- is known for its friendless and warmth. As a city with a great gastronomic, commercial and tourist offer, it provides countless opportunities for leisure vacations and business.

Hotel News:

Four Points by Sheraton debuted this year, along with the always fabulous InterContinental , that overlooks the entire city from its lush location in “El Poblado”.

Wyndham Hotel Group announced the opening for the Medellin TRYP; this is the first TRYP by Wyndham property in Colombia. The hotel’s 140 spacious guest rooms include junior suites and TRYP by Wyndham’s signature family rooms.

Announced future hotel developments in Medellin included MELIA Hotels & Resorts an Ibis property, and Marriot.

Also worth highlighting is the opening of the tremendous Sonesta property in Barranquilla, Sonesta Hotel Barranquilla . Containing 126 guest rooms with first class amenities and a full service business center, the hotel is located 450 miles north of Bogota overlooking the Caribbean Sea.

The rise of top hotel chains in Colombia has been a major achievement of Proexport. The organization’s hard work has allowed the increase of tourism development in Colombia.

Photo by Nelson Alcantara

Why this particular time frame? For starters, it’s peak time for Peruvian Amazon wildlife with fireworks of sound and color from five species of macaws and 15 species of parrots and parakeets that congregate by the hundreds at the world’s largest avian clay licks located deep in the coveted Reserved Zones of Tambopata and Manu Biosphere.

A Wild Planet Adventures exclusive offers the best chance to view wild jaguars in their natural setting as participants kayak downriver silently at the first sign of dawn, looking for elusive cats along the riverbanks. Exceptionally high numbers of jaguars and tapirs have been seen as they visit the river to drink in the stillness of the morning.

“The Amazon Basin running down the eastern flank of Peru is the #1 region in the world for biodiversity,” explains Wild Planet Adventures’ director, Josh Cohen.

Cohen underscored that the Amazon’s huge tracks of primary virgin rainforest and secondary forest and their resulting biodiversities provide a higher chance of encountering rare wildlife than in Costa Rica. These include, for example, jaguars, Emperor tamarins (with moustaches), rare macaws, tapirs and eagles, among a known 200 species of mammals, 13 species of primates, and 1,000 species of birds.

Wild Planet Adventures offers two itinerary options in Peru, both of which also include visits to Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Sacred Valley. The 13 day itinerary is priced from $4,698 per person, double occupancy; the nine day itinerary begins at $2,998 per person, double. See: http://www.wildplanetadventures.com/content/view/9/28/

For travelers who wish to maximize their time in the region, Wild Planet Adventures recommends combining a Peru trip with an exploration of the nearby Galapagos Islands. In Ecuador’s Galapagos, August through October constitute several months of the garúa or dry season when harems of Galapagos sea lions are engaged in on-land birthing as colonies of bachelors cope nearby; in the highlands, 600-pound giant tortoises nest and lay eggs.

Cooler, dryer air and lower water temperatures prevail in these months creating ideal conditions for sea life and snorkeling. Manta ray congregate for plankton that arrives on colder currents, Galapagos penguins are friskier than usual while hammerhead sharks school in greater numbers. Most species of sea birds are active at their nesting sites providing prime viewing.

“The Galapagos is the world’s premier wildlife viewing destination, not because of the biodiversity there, which is actually quite small, but rather because of how close you can get to the wildlife,” said Cohen.

Eight day / seven night small ship cruises depart weekly, year round and can easily be combined with a Peru itinerary. For more information visit:

http://www.wildplanetadventures.com/content/view/10/29/

About Wild Planet Adventures

The expert wildlife guides of Wild Planet Adventures go the extra mile to explore remote wildlife habitat and study wildlife patterns in destinations not often accessible to the general public. Thanks to the company’s comprehensive itineraries that balance diverse and complex ecosystems and habitats, guests enjoy wildlife and game viewing that is carefully aligned with animals’ daily and nocturnal migrations.

Following a philosophy that interacting with nature has the power to transform lives, tours are conducted in Africa, Baja, Belize, Costa Rica, Galapagos, India, Laos, Panama, Peru and Thailand. Wild Planet Adventures is recognized by top publications in the travel industry for its itineraries that combine intimate encounters with nature with local culture.

For a complimentary 2011 catalog call toll-free 1.800.990.4376, or e-mail trips@wildplanetadventures.com. To review current trips, schedules and itineraries log onto: http://www.wildplanetadventures.com/.

Recent Media Awards and Kudos:

2010 – World’s 50 Best Tours / Trips of a Lifetime: National Geographic Traveler, for India

2009 – World’s 50 Best Tours / Trips of a Lifetime: National Geographic Traveler, for Thailand

2009 – Best New Trips: National Geographic Adventure, for India

2008 – Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth: National Geographic Adventure

2008 – World’s 50 Best Tours / Trips of a Lifetime: National Geographic Traveler for Panama-Coiba Island Diving

Argentina is ‘Caliente’

According to Justin Laycob, owner of Southern Explorations, bookings for Argentina tours have almost doubled since the previous year. This trend can be attributed to the fact that Argentina is closer to the U.S (with no time changes) and it’s a great value for people who want a European feel without a European price tag. Also, Argentina has some extremely popular wines and the possibilities for outdoor adventure activities like world-class hiking, glacier exploration, and exploring Argentina’s stunning lakes and landscapes are endless.

“Argentina has really been surprising our guests. They have been blown away by the astounding diversity of activities that are available in the country, from the culinary delights to outdoor adventures and the fascinating cultures,” says Laycob. “Argentina is a large location geographically, but our guests have still been packing in a lot activities within a short time. All of them have been pleasantly surprised at how smoothly and quickly they have been able to visit so many areas of Argentina.”

Exploring the Galapagos…by Land

Galapagos land-based tours are becoming increasingly popular with travelers right now. Travelers just don’t want to be stuck on a boat anymore; they want to be on foot, exploring this famous destination in a more “front row seat” kind of way. Also, tourism seems to be transforming the job market in the local communities there, especially with the emergence of the land-based tours because travelers are on land for longer periods of time. This is quite different from the hop-on and off tourists that previously visited for brief periods of time. The land-based Galapagos tours are also attractive to active travelers who want to stretch their legs and get a good workout while exploring a once in a lifetime destination.

Venturing Outdoors in Brazil

Brazil has been in the world spotlight for quite a while. It’s always been known for exciting Carnival, the economy is booming, and with the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics taking place in 2016, the country is gearing up for a boost in tourism. But what makes Brazil even more enticing is the potential for outdoor adventure travel. Adventure travelers in Brazil have plentiful choices for unique itineraries like combining the classic sights and sounds of Rio with adventures like an easy climb up to famous Corcavado Mountain coupled with panoramic sightseeing during a ride down the mountain’s gondola. Also, surfing, yoga, mountain biking and hiking in the Southern Brazil’s “New Rio” –Florianopolis—would be a dream trip for adventure vacationers. Of course, enjoying the distinct culinary delights in Brazil along with the cultures in the various regions add plenty of appeal to Brazil as an adventure vacation destination.

Southern Explorations offers dozens of different ways to explore the mountains, islands, jungles and beaches of Argentina, Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, and other destinations in South America. To find out more, visit www.southernexplorations.com

“The positioning of great events in the 2011 calendar will turn the City of Buenos Aires into an attraction centre for national and international tourism in the context of the appointment of Buenos Aires as Book Capital 2011. The porteño summer starts with the intense program of Aires Buenos Aires cultura para respirar ( Aires Buenos Aires culture to breath) which summoned in its last edition 2010 more than 350,000 persons from the city and abroad”, said Hernán Lombardi, President of Buenos Aires Tourism Office and Minister of Culture of the City.

Brazilian market shows the most impressive growth during 2010. From January to November almost 800,000 Brazilian tourists visited the City of Buenos Aires. Their share as regards the total amount of international tourists in the City is of 34%.

Compared to the same period in 2009, the growth of visits of Brazilian tourists to the City of Buenos Aires was of 86.36% and compared to 2008, of 34.30%.

The Brazilian cities that will bring more tourists to Buenos Aires are Sao Pablo, Río de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. In the last weeks the most important journalistic Media of those cities showed in several pages recommendations to spend New Year’s Eve in Buenos Aires like the magazine Veja that in their front page headed with “Shopping in Buenos Aires” followed by an extensive interview of 12 pages, or the Touristic Supplement of Folha de Sao Paulo with 6 pages and a front page article.

In the city of Belo Horizonte the newspaper Estado de Minas also recommended the City of Buenos Aires as a touristic destination to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Likewise, a journalistic team of tv programme Sem Malas of O Globo channel made an especial production that will be released shortly.

Furthermore, Brazilian Editing House Abril, that launched in September the guide Quatro Rodas in the City of Buenos Aires 2011, announced that is the most successful product in sales of the editing group. It is the first time Quatro Rodas publishes a guide that is not a Brazilian destination.

The total number of international arrivals to Ezeiza and Aeroparque during November 2010 was of 2697. Brazil was the country that registered the highest number of fights: 905, followed by Uruguay and Chile. The cities of Sao Pablo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte were those who registered more flight frequency with 477, 169 and 91 flights respectively. Flight reservations to Buenos Aires in those cities of Brazil to spend New Year’s Eve here reach the highest levels.

Favoured by the money exchange, purchases are still one of the favourite activities for Brazilian tourists in the City. The growth of Brazilian purchases through “tax free shopping” during the January/November period of 2010/2009 represented a strong improvement of 122% followed by Uruguay with 43% and Chile with 36%.

The volume of purchases of tourists is influenced by the level of competitiveness of prices of Buenos Aires, related to which an improvement of 1.58% was observed during October 2010, compared to the same period in 2009. For the Uruguayan market the improvement was of 2.75% and for the Chilean one of 7.04%.

(eTN) – Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos last week in New York at the UN General Assembly promoted the vital role that the resources of Latin America can play in achieving many of the global goals that the United Nations has set, from providing food to fighting climate change.

“In these times, when the world demands food, water, biofuels, and natural lungs for the earth such as the tropical forests, Latin America has millions of hectares ready for cultivation, without affecting ecological balance, and all the willingness, all the willingness, to become a supplier of all the goods that humanity needs for its own survival,” he told the General Assembly on the second day of its annual session.

“More than 925 million people living in hunger and malnutrition in the world are an urgent challenge. Latin America can and wants to be part of the solution. Ours is the richest region in biodiversity of the planet,” he said citing Brazil as the most mega-diverse country in the world and Colombia as that with the highest biodiversity per square kilometer.

“Just in the Amazon region, we can find 20 percent of the global supply of freshwater and 50 percent of the planet’s biodiversity… Latin America as a whole must be a decisive region in saving the planet.”

He called for a new climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, to ensure the commitment of all, starting with the big industrial powers, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“With the appropriate economic compensations, we have an enormous capacity to reduce deforestation and for growing new forests, changing not only the history of the region but of the world as a whole,” he said. “This is Latin America’s decade.”

Turning to drug trafficking which once wracked his country, Mr. Santos said Colombia was more than willing to cooperate with States that require it, as it is already doing with countries in Central America and the Caribbean, Mexico and Afghanistan, but he pleaded for a coherent global strategy, noting that some countries were considering legalizing some drugs.

“We note with concern the contradictions of some countries that, on the one hand, demand a frontal fight against drug trafficking and, on the other, legalize consumption or study the possibility of legalizing the production and trade of certain drugs,” he said.

“How can someone tell to a person living in rural areas of my country that he or she will be prosecuted and punished for growing crops for drug production, while in other places of the world this activity becomes legal?”

The epic journey will travel under and around 20,000-foot peaks in the Andes and up the Pacific Coast through Chile enroute through Bolivia to Machu Picchu and then on to the finish line in Lima, Peru.

Cyclists will average 35 to 50 miles per day on rough dirt and gravel roads and up to 100+ miles on good paved roads. One stretch includes an entire day of climbing followed by a wild two hour descent from an altitude of 12,000 feet to sea level.

The per person cost for the full tour is €5,900. The journey can also be experienced as five distinct shorter segments with pricing starting at €800.

Vuelta SudAmericana is one of Tour d’Afrique’s five epic tours that include Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul, Tour d’Afrique from Cairo to Cape Town, Silk Route from Istanbul to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Amber Route from St. Petersburg to Venice, and Indian Adventure from Agra to Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India.

“Our participants come from all over the world but share one thing: a passion for cycling,” said Henry Gold, Tour d’Afrique’s founder and director. “Traveling by bike allows you to immerse yourself in a foreign culture, to smell strange and wonderful foods cooking as you roll through a village, to share a home-made beer in a country inn, to feel the temperature drop as you relentlessly climb to the top of a mountain pass, and to observe how the culture and vegetation changes across landscapes. Such experiences create the Zen of long-distance cycle touring. “

Gold had this to say about the Vuelta Sudamericana, “From Darwin’s exploration of the Galapagos to Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries, the wonders of South America have changed the lives of travelers throughout time. The goal of this tour is not to travel the most efficient line between the opposite ends of a continent, but to explore it by bike. Participants will ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, and climb up and down … and up and down the Andes. En route, we will visit some of South America’s most renowned sites, including Mount Aconcagua, the Atacama Desert, the Nazca Lines, Lake Titicaca and Machu Picchu.”

About Tour d’Afrique

Tour d’Afrique Ltd, (http://www.tourdafrique.com/) is named for its 2003 flagship cycling tour that annually traverses the African continent from Cairo to Cape Town (7,500 miles in four months). Directly and indirectly Tour d’Afrique benefits third world countries by organizing and staging transcontinental bicycle tours and races lasting 10 days to four months, today traversing all or part of four continents and over 30 countries.

Tour d’Afrique’s mission is to create cycling events that appeal to amateurs and professionals alike. Participants range from ages 18 to 80 and the common thread is a spirit of high adventure and a desire for truly transformational travel experiences.

The company’s new DreamTour (http://www.tourdafrique.com/dreamtours) web 2.0 concept encourages individuals to submit their own trip of a lifetime that will then be open and crowd-sourced to other riders who may want to join in. A Tour d’Afrique Foundation (http://www.tourdafrique.com/foundation) promotes giving back to the communities touched by the tours and raises consciousness about the many benefits of bicycles as a means of sustainable transportation.

For tour dates, prices and more information visit: http://www.tourdafrique.com/, call +1-416-364-8255 or email the team at info@tourdafrique.com

Major outcomes of the first official visit of the UNWTO Secretary-General to Uruguay include the development of a report on the exemplary case of tourism in Uruguay and strengthening cooperation on key issues such as the use of alternative energies in the hotel sector and on accessible tourism.

“The tourism sector in the country is a success story. Results are particularly impressive given the growth registered during theses challenging times,” said Mr. Rifai.

“Tourism generated US$1.4 billion in export earnings in Uruguay last year,” highlighted the Minister of Tourism and Sports of Uruguay, Héctor Lescano. “Tourism is a major generator of jobs and development for local communities,” he added.

The meeting with President Mujica was another key opportunity to continue positioning tourism higher in the global agenda, a strategic objective for UNWTO in its aim to mainstream tourism. The visit to Uruguay follows meetings held by the Secretary-General with the presidents of the Dominican Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, and Tajikistan. Mr. Rifai presented President Mujica the UNWTO Roadmap for Recovery, a strategic document aimed at raising awareness among decision makers of the contribution of tourism to job creation, economic growth, and development.

Mr. Rifai’s visit came a day before the annual meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Americas and the UNWTO executive council (June 6-8, Puerto Iguazú, Argentina).

RELEVANT LINKS:

UNWTO Roadmap for Recovery: www.unwto.org/pdf/roadmap_EN.pdf

UNWTO News Issue 2/2010: www.unwto.org/media/mag/en/pdf/UNWTONews_2010_2.pdf

Watch new UNWTO video – Mainstreaming Tourism in the Global Agenda: www.unwto.org/videogallery/index.php?ruta=trifai

PHOTO: President of Uruguay, HE José Mujica / Image via rfi.fr

“The value may be what starts people looking at Latin America as a destination,” says Andy Alpine, Co-Publisher of Specialty Travel Index and SpecialtyTravel.com. “But what makes them return again and again are the warm climates and warmer hospitality—and the amazing breadth of experiences that can be found here. If you want the iconic, there’s Macchu Picchu. If you’re looking for trendy and urban, there’s Rio, and if you’re looking for a jungle wildlife experience there is Costa Rica.”

Here are just a few of the Latin American adventures that travelers and travel agents can discover in SpecialtyTravel.com and Specialty Travel Index’s extensive travel database.

Jesus lizards, and howler monkeys and iguanas, oh my!

Costa Rica is the poster child for eco-tourism. It has beaches, volcanoes, and rain forests; howler, spider, and white-faced monkeys; sloth’s and coatis, caimans and crocodiles, green tortoises, green iguanas and lizards that walk on water. It has more than hundreds species of birds: including toucans, whistling ducks, roseate spoonbills, hummingbirds, parrots, kingfishers, the rare green macaw and the rarer quetzal. .And Caravan has designed a tour that gives you the chance to see all these things (and more), with what Arthur Frommer called “brilliant, affordable pricing.” Caravan

Ice, sea, and sky at the bottom of the earth

When the National Geographic Channel decided to cruise one of the world’s most pristine regions at the southernmost tip of the world, they chose the Mare Australis, an expedition cruise ship that travels around the island of Tierra del Fuego, through the legendary Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, and Cape Horn. These 3- and 4-night small ship cruises offer enough zodiac launch excursions among penguins, sea lions, and glaciers to fill a week’s worth of National Geographic Channel programming, or a lifetime of stories. Cruceros Australis

Womb of the World

Like many sacred Incan places, Lake Titicaca (considered by the Incans to be the womb of the world) is full of mystery. Jacques Cousteau found giant frogs there. A scientific expedition speculated that there is a city on the floor of this huge lake (estimated to be 120 miles long, 50 miles wide, and several hundred feet deep). At 12,500 feet, it’s the highest navigatable lake in the world, and the modern hydrofoil tours that Crillon Tours operate on the lake contrast nicely with the enigmatic and ancient ruins of Sun and Moon Islands. With 50 years in business in the Lake Titicaca region, Crillon may not be able to explain Lake Titicaca’s mysteries, but they can show them to you. Crillon Tours

Cruise the Galapagos on a private yacht

The yacht Eric carries only 20 passengers, and gives you an up-close and personal look at this amazing archipelago, six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador. Swim with sea lions; laugh at the unusual antics of the blue footed boobies, kayak among sea turtles, and stroll through colonies of iguanas. The Galapagos is a trip of a lifetime, and the Eric (and it’s sister yachts, the Letty and the Flamingo) are an ideal way to experience it. Tara Tours

Sip and swirl your way through Chile and Argentina

Fine Chilean wines, like Carmenére, Malbec, and Tannats, have been discovered by wine lovers; Chilean wine regions like Santiago de Chile and Argentina’s Mendoza are even more recent discoveries for wine loving travelers. 4 * & 5* South America Tours has wine tour that lets oenophiles explore the great wine regions of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. 4* & 5* South America Tours

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

The parade of the Samba Schools—the centerpiece of the Rio Carnival—is the greatest show on earth. It’s thousands of people performing a fantastic street opera, with themes, scenery, leading figures and personalities, music, orchestra, soloists, choruses and costumes. The Rio Carnival is one of the most colorful, most exciting madhouses in the world (followed closely by New Years in Rio), and the Brazilian-American staff of Wildlife Vacations can arrange lodging, breakfast, city tours, and tickets to the parade of the Samba Schools—but your costume is up to you. Wildlife Vacations

Trekking to the Lost City of the Incas

Beautiful and haunting, Macchu Picchu is one of the “new” Seven Wonders of the World. After a guided tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas and a rafting adventure on the Urubamba River, Latin America Escapes leads adventuresome travelers on a four day trek up the Incan Trail ( limited numbers of hikers are allowed on the trail any given time, so it is now virtually impossible to hike the trail unguided). Porters carry the gear, while the hikers slip in and out of the clouds and gape at the deep, unspoiled valleys and the remnants of Incan civilization that are scattered along this trail. Hikers enter Macchu Picchu the way the Incans themselves did—and experience that will be remembered forever.

Latin America Escapes

Corcovado: Wild, Beautiful, Remote

National Geographic called Corcovado National Park “the most biologically intense place on earth”. It’s the crown jewel of Costa Rica’s park system—wild, huge, and pristine—100,000 acres with no roads on the Osa Peninsula, housing jungle wildlife including scarlet macaws, four species of monkeys, coati, tapirs, sloths ocelots, and hundreds of other jungle critters. The Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp is the closest lodging to the park—a unique luxury tent camp right on the beach. It’s remote—guests must walk 45 minutes up the beach to reach the camp (while their luggage is brought by horse cart), but if you’re coming to Corcovado, the remoteness is part of the appeal. The Cocovado Lodge Tent Camp is just one of the unusual lodgings in Costa Rica run by Costa Rica Expeditions. Costa Rica Expeditions

Surf Ciudad

The average wave size is shoulder to head-high range. The water temperature ranges from 72 to 84 degrees. And the surf spots (mostly point breaks, both lefts and right) cover from inside the Bay of Bandares north to San Blas. Translation: it’s not a bad place to surf (or to learn to surf). Costa Azul Resort has white sands, beautiful ocean views, and a respite from Puerto Vallarta’s tourist crowds (it is 30 miles north of Puerto Vallarta). Translation: it’s the best kept surf secret south of the border. Costa Azul Adventure Resort

Specialty Travel Index is easy to use, on the web site www.specialtytravel.com with the “Find Your Adventure” search mechanism indexing tours by both interest/activity (Yacht Charter, Wine Tours,) and destination (Costa Rica, France) and in the magazine using similar choices.

ARGENTINA

Aerolineas Argentinas will continue flying to Chapelco

Aerolineas Argentinas will not cancel its flights to Chapelco. At the beginning, there will be two weekly flights and the fixed schedule will be recovered from the fleet recomposition and the pilot training to the new equipment of the airline.

URUGUAY
New airport in Montevideo will be operative in November
Soon, the new Carrasco International Airport will be operative; this airport will have an area of 45,000 sq.m, and it will have cafeterias, VIP rooms, and two premises of McDonald’s, as well as a well-known company in the main restaurant. The new infrastructure, which was invested in US$165 million, must operate at 100 percent for November 15 in order to serve three million passengers per year.

Cruise season begins on November 30
The cruise season will begin on November 30 with the arrival of the Dutch cruise “Veendam” from Holland America Line to Montevideo.

CHILE
Pluna will fly to Punta Arenas
Pluna stated that it hopes to begin its flights between Santiago and Punta Arenas in December, and it confirmed that the agreements already exist to operate in the country. When operations begin, it will consider the idea of expanding its service to other cities.

Norwegian Cruise Line will cancel its flights to Valparaiso
Norwegian Cruise Line will replace its scales in Valparaiso due to high prices paid in Chilean terminals added because of the world economic crisis and the impossibility to operate its own casinos in ships and because of the lack of a guiding organization of the industry in Chile. Its withdrawal means that for the next season less than 24,000 tourists will arrive.

More hotels planned
The hotel projects, which are inaugurated or to begin its building work in the second semester of the year, add up to investments of US$768 million. It is estimated that there are 18 new hotels planned, most of them of four- and five-star hotels placed basically in Santiago and Valparaiso.

Explora with new web
After two years of development, proofs, and implementations, the new Chilean website of Explora is ready. Among the novelties, there is a possibility of booking and checking the availability of the rooms in real time. Also, the website offers some details of geography, history, fleet, and fauna of each region where the hotels are placed. Also it offers architecture and design data of the hotels. http://www.explora.com/

Metropolitan Touring opens an office and begins operations
The official launch of Metropolitan Touring Chile was on September 24 in Puerto Varas during the carrying out of the TravelMart LatinAmerica. During the last two years, Metropolitan Touring has fortified its skills and abilities beyond Ecuador. This process involved the opening of new offices in exclusive zones of Latin America.

BRAZIL
Rio de Janeiro will extend its hotel offer
The chain Windsor will inaugurate five new projects with a total of 1,830 new rooms in the next years. It will build two hotels in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. Other three establishments will be opened in Copacabana in 2011.

Sao Paulo will have air connection with Trelew, Argentina
Aerolineas Argentinas and nine operators associated to Braztoa are carrying out a project to join Brazil (Guarulhos) and Paragonia (Trelew). It is planned that the flights will begin in July 2010.

Whale observation season began in Bahia
The whale observation season is open in Bahia; these whales arrive from the Antarctic in a period of three months to reproduce. The main places of observation are Praia do Forte, Abrolhos, Itacare, and Morro de Sao Paulo.

PERU
Night visits to Machu Picchu planned
The Ministry of Tourism planned night visits to Machu Picchu to begin from December of this year or at the latest in April 2010. The target is to extend the visiting hours to the citadel and to avoid that these could be only between 0900 and 1600 hours.

LAN PERU inaugurates flights to Cancun via Mexico DF
LAN PERU will begin its new international route to Cancun via Mexico DF with a direct return flight. From November, these will be direct. The inaugural flight will be on October 7 in a Boeing 767.

TACA will fly directly to Mexico DF and to Cancun via Salvador
TACA Airlines informed that from November 1, it will increase its connection with Mexico by 100 percent with three new direct flights per week to join Lima and Mexico DF. Also, it begins a new connection to Cancun from Lima via Salvador three times a week, too.

TACA will fly from its Lima hub to Porto Alegre
Since December 1, TACA will join Lima and Puerto Alegre in Brazil with a direct flight and with three weekly frequencies expanding in this way the connectivity and its flight offer between Peru and Brazil. Currently, the airline joins Lima with Sao Paulo on two different schedules twelve times per week and to Rio de Janeiro with 4 weekly flights, all of them direct.

Museo Santuarios Andinos will have more rooms
Museo Santuarios Andinos, which has the Mummy Juanita, will have three new rooms in order to show the visitors some unknown pieces found in pre-Inca tombs. The new environments will house mummies and its offerings found in the tombs of the volcanoes Sara Sara, Misti, and Pichu Pichu, apus where the Research Center of Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria carried out some studies since 1979.

ECUADOR
Aerogal will fly to New York from December 7
From December 7, Aerogal will fly daily from Cuenca to New York with scale in Guayaquil using a Boeing 767-300 with capacity for 205 passengers.

COLOMBIA
Aerorepublica and Air France will offer Thru Check In
The Thru Check-In service will allow users of the two airlines to make light of its luggage from the city of origin in Colombia or in any place of the world to its final destination without transporting the luggage from one airline to another.

Aires will fly to New York and to Fort Lauderdale
Aires will have six new routes to New York and to Fort Lauderdale, United States. There will be three frequencies weekly from departure and return via Pereira-Cartagena-Fort Lauderdale, which will operate in November.

Source: travelupdate.com.pe

Families in the small farming town of San Pedro, near the city of Colonia, turned to that alternative to overcome the severe economic crisis of 2002, which threatened to wipe their farms off the map.

The area is home to many small-scale farmers, mainly the descendants of Italian and Swiss immigrants who settled in the mid-19th century on what was once a large British-owned estate, forging solid community ties based on hard work and respect for nature.

The families depended exclusively on small-scale agriculture for their livelihood, until the mid-1990s, when they began to feel the impact of the concentration of wealth that was sharply accentuated at around that time, widening the social gap, according to the study “Uruguay 1998-2002: Income Distribution During the Crisis”, by Marisa Bucheli and Magdalena Furtado.

Then came the 2002 economic and financial collapse in Uruguay, which followed the late 2001 debacle in neighbouring Argentina, forcing many small farmers in the area to choose between joining the growing number of families swelling the slums surrounding the capital, Montevideo, and other large cities, or coming up with innovative new sources of income.

Determined to weather the storm, the families in San Pedro chose the latter option.

The women in the community, in particular, began to come together for training and courses in English, computers, basket-making and herb-growing, while taking courses from doctors and psychologists.

In late 1999, the Instituto Plan Agropecuario (Agricultural Plan Institute), a mixed public-private institution, “selected a group of women from the San Pedro Farming Cooperative (Casspe) and other cooperatives around the country, to carry out the ‘Participative Microplanning’ project, aimed at stimulating local initiative,” Maria del Carmen Agesta, a teacher and activist from San Pedro, told IPS.

“A strong team spirit began to be forged, with lively exchanges of opinions and proposals,” said Agesta, who added that the dialogue gave rise to the idea of organising local enterprises to fight the loss of jobs and the drop in income, and to stem the growing number of young people joining the exodus from the countryside to the cities.

Thus emerged the Rural Tourism Group (Grutur), made up today of the Vivero Yatay – a nursery and park of native plants – the Parque Brisas del Plata campground, the ‘Los Tres Botones’ farm, where visitors can have a ride on a horse or in a cart and eat typical rural meals out under the blue sky, and the Tourn Museum, which includes antique tools and farm machinery manufactured by the Tourns, a family of Italian immigrants.

Also involved in ecotourism in San Pedro, although they are not part of Grutur, are the Villa Celina, a dairy farm that grows organic produce as well, and San Nicols, which offers horseback riding.

To this broad range of rural tourism establishments has been added more recently the possibility of renting cabins in the countryside.

In 2002, Grutur held the “Fiesta del Campo”, a rural fair or festival, in San Pedro to showcase the area’s attractions and products. In 2004 the fair was held in nearby Colonia del Sacramento, the capital of the province of Colonia, under the theme “the countryside is also humanity’s heritage,” a reference to the fact that the colonial city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Returning to our roots

Rural tourism, offered by large ranches as well as small to medium-scale farms like those of San Pedro, took off in Uruguay in 2002 as an alternative to the crisis, and today has become a mainstay of the tourism industry in this South American country of 3.3 million wedged between Argentina and Brazil.

The main draw for tourists in Uruguay, who are primarily from Argentina, but also from Brazil, Chile and elsewhere, are the country’s more than 700 km of wide sandy beaches along the Rio de la Plata and Atlantic Ocean.

Uruguay’s tourism industry currently has a turnover of one billion dollars a year, while it provides 50,000 direct jobs and more than 120,000 indirect jobs, based on an economically sustainable model that is respectful of the environment and local culture.

The Tourism Ministry, in conjunction with the governments of the country’s 19 provinces, is designing a development plan for the 2009-2020 period in which local residents will benefit from tourism through the responsible, balanced use of natural resources.

A key role in the plan will be played by rural tourism, which allows visitors to observe and participate in the work on farms and ranches, take horseback rides through the countryside, and eat nutritious, traditional meals.

Another possibility is bird-watching, said expert Maren Mackinnon Gonzlez, who pointed out that there are 450 different species that can be sighted in their own ecosystems in Uruguay.

At present, there are 80 legally registered farms and ranches in the country involved in ecotourism. The 15 that are located around Colonia mainly draw visitors from the rest of Uruguay as well as Buenos Aires, which is between 45 minutes or three hours away by boat, depending on whether you take the fast ferry or the more economic scenic route.

Wineries, guest ranches and rural bed-and-breakfasts, and even an old quarry that exported gravel and sand to the Argentine capital and now offers rides in an old locomotive form part of the ecotourism scene.

Women’s cooperative

But one of the most interesting initiatives can be found in San Pedro, where an entire community transformed itself by pulling together to get through times of crisis.

In San Pedro, cows can be seen strolling lazily across a dirt road; dogs, horses, chickens and other barnyard animals wander around backyards; and a woman using a wooden spoon is stirring a huge pot of homemade jam on an old woodstove, following a recipe that was handed down from generation to generation.

“Tourists want to live like people in the countryside,” one of the heads of the Uruguayan Association of Rural Tourism (Sutur) told IPS. As visitors driving along highway 21, which zigzags along the country’s west coast, reach the picturesque farms of San Pedro, a saying by Uruguayan poet Lucio Muniz comes to mind: “What a pity it is to not have more eyes.”

Of the visitors here, 60 percent are Uruguayans, 30 percent are from Argentina and the rest come from other neighbouring countries, Europe or North America.

At “Los Tres Botones”, the owner proudly shows off her flower garden and offers homemade desserts, while visitors can watch traditional Uruguayan folk dances performed by a troupe.

At “Villa Celina” tourists can buy 22 different kinds of homemade jams and preserves carrying the trademark “Las Sanpedrinas”, and they are shown two huge keys “that represent the origins of the old English estate,” as Miriam Rigo explained to IPS.

At the farm there are also tours of organic vegetable gardens, chats on paleontological finds that abound in the nearby beaches and gullies of the Rio de la Plata, and visits to the farm’s dairy, where they can watch cows being milked.

“Villa Celina” is, so far, the only rural ecotourism establishment that keeps systematic data on the number of visitors it receives annually. The records from the 2008-2009 southern hemisphere summer show that it was visited by 1,500 tourists, who spent an average of 13 dollars per person.

Nury Pagalday, in the Tourn Museum, shows visitors how the antique farm equipment works and offers a taste of homemade liquors with unusual tastes, such as “yerba mate”, a tea-like herbal infusion traditional to Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil.

Ana Berretta and her husband, both of whom are agronomists, grow native species of flowers and trees in the Yatay nursery. She told IPS that they give educational talks in the park, with its ancient trees and enormous bushes, on how to protect them.

As night closes in, the lights start to come on beyond the fences, while the crickets chirp.