The only South American site to be inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List during the 29th Session of the World Heritage Committee is the Humberstone & Santa Laura Saltpeter Works.

This info first came to my attention via a link on OpenDemocracy.

Shawn Gerald Blore is a freelance foreign correspondent based in Rio. His new blog shows a lot of potential and could be of interest to those wandering through Latin America. In his own words, his blog

will attempt to provide a fairly honest inside look at the business of being a freelance foreign correspondent. Exciting chases under fire with beautiful kalishnakov-toting guerilla leaders will, of course, crop up regularly here. But in addition I plan to write - with as much honesty as possible - about the business side of foreign corresponding; that is, how do you make a living writing about exciting chases under fire with beautiful kalishnakov-toting guerilla leaders, when news consumers in first world markets would much rather read about food, traffic, weather, sports or just about anything else?

Pulitzer prize winner Andres Oppenheimer, a native of Argentina, writes excellent columns on Latin America several times a week for the Miami Herald. Today’s column is titled “Tourism is Latin America’s unminded treasure”. (Free registration required).

While tourism in Latin America is growing, Oppenheimer examines the question why tourism in this region still lags behind other regions. For example, why does Poland get three times the number of visitors as Brazil? Why does South Africa get twice the number of visitors as Argentina?

“While tourism is one of the world’s biggest income-earning industries, many countries in the region still see it as something frivolous and not as worthy of government attention as, say, manufacturing.”, writes Oppenheimer. “Latin America is sitting on a gold mine. Given a greater push, the region could double or triple its tourism numbers — and substantially increase its foreign income.”