Multiple countries have elected their new leaders over the past few weeks and we've got two familiar faces, one new one. 

Cristina Kirchner, the wife of former (and now deceased) president Nestor Kirchner, sailed to an easy reelection victory in Argentina. There are plenty of clouds on the horizon, with many saying the economy has been propped up with import duty tricks and unorthodox accounting. Plus inflation is very high. But life is certainly more stable than it was ten years ago, so onward!

Also getting reelected, despite it being against the Nicaragua constitution for him to even run, was Daniel Ortega, the old Sandanista fighter. Handouts from buddy Chavez helped ensure a victory with the poor, but biz leaders also grudgingly admit things haven't gone downhill like many expected. The poorest country in mainland Latin America is getting less poor.  

The people of Guatemala are sick of the violence in their country (worse than Mexico or the U.S., with far fewer convictions). So they elected a former military leader who trained at the notorious School of the Americas. He pledges to use an "iron fist" to get things under control. 

Meanwhile, Bolivia restored full diplomatic relations with the U.S., after halting them three years ago. (Did anybody notice, besides coke smugglers?) 

We've added several new hotel reviews in the past few weeks, across several destinations. 

One of our Argentina writers updated our Faena Hotel + Universe review there and then hopped the ferry over to Uruguay. We've just posted reviews of Fasano Las Piedras and Posada del Faro, both along the coast but offering very different experiences. See the  luxury hotels in Uruguay   section of our site. 

While in Chiapas I checked out the top luxury hotel in town and we have a review of it up now: San Juan de Dios   in San Cristobal. 

In less than a week we'll have a piece on buying real estate in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Watch the blog for when it posts or come back to our luxury real estate in Latin America  section. 

Coming Soon

The best way to keep up with new items as they go up is to subscribe to the RSS feed of our blog . There I also toss in notable travel news from Latin America, reviews of airlines active there, and the occasional relevant wine or spirits review. You can also follow us on Twitter at LuxLatinamerica. Next month we're bowing to the pressure and putting up a Facebook page. Stay tuned.

In the next few months we've got a flurry of new material coming from correspondents heading out on tours, real estate inpections, and hotel inspections in Uruguay, Costa Rica, and the coast of Brazil. Unfortunately our plans to cover new hotels and do a tour story for mainland Ecuador got scrapped, but we're putting new plans together for travels in the new year, so stay tuned for updates.

We'll continue to seek out and bring you the best of the best for upscale travel in Mexico, Central America, and South America. 

See you in December!
 

(P.S. - If you're a potential advertiser that we put off before because a big adventure tour company was occupying the prime spaces you wanted, note that they've put things on hold for the moment. Those spots are up for grabs, first come first served.)