Euro 0.68 - Argentina 3.05 - Bolivia 7.04 - Brasil 1.64 - Chile 519.32 - Colombia 1,882.11 - México 9.98 - Paraguay 3.930 - Perú 2.90 - Uruguay 19.00 - Venezuela 2.14

Riotur will begin operating a bus for tourists in Rio de Janeiro with routes which pass through the main points of the city. Authorizations for companies interested in offering this service will be delivered before the end of the year so that by next year the service will be operational. The passages will have a fixed price, valid for one or more days.

The DOT of the United States authorized Delta Air Lines and American Airlines to operate new flights to Brasil. American will fly the Miami-Salvador-Recife route daily, as well as four weekly frequencies to Belo Horizonte. Both flights will begin in November. Delta has a daily flight between Manaus-Atlanta and another between Recife, Fortaleza and Atlanta four times per week beginning in December.

At the end of September, Regional Paraguaya Lineas Aereas will begin flying from Asuncion and Ciudad del Este to Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia and Chile. According to its officials, routes to the United States and Europe would also be included. Furthermore, the entity is considering the possibility of beginning flights to Miami via Lima in the middle of next year, and to Madrid at the end of 2009.

The INC Cusco director denied stories propagated by some local press who claimed that two shifts had been established for entry into the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu. He explained that the citadel’s visiting hours are from 6:00 am to 4:00 pm from Monday to Sunday, thus mitigating the congestion which used to occur in the past.

Discovery of pre-Hispanic tombs with textiles in a good state of conservation

Approximately 15 tombs with human remains from a pre-Hispanic burial were discovered in a burial cave in the sanctuary, accompanied by textiles in a good state of conservation and remains of ceramics. The discovery is important because the humidity and passage of time deteriorate the funerary wrappings or clothing of the buried dead, thus making the finding of preserved textiles unusual.

Colombia may join Panama and Venezuela with the construction of a 2,200 km two lane road. The project, which will be carried out along the Caribbean coast between Palo de Letras and Paraguachon, could take between 12 and 15 years and will be given the name “Highway of the Americas” (Autopista de las Américas). The megaproject, presented in the Colombian city of Barranquilla by Carlos Ramirez, the manager and director of the Santa Marta Paraguachon concession, ,will move ahead if given the “green light” on behalf of the government, “to create the country’s largest concessionary company in Latin America’s most ambitious road project.”

Aero Republic signed an interline agreement with Alitalia enabling it to offer more travel alternatives between Colombia and the main Italian cities via Caracas, a destination serviced daily by the two airlines. The Italian company operates a daily flight on the Roma-Caracas route and Aero Republic operates one daily flight from Bogota and another from Medellin to Caracas.

Spirit Airlines will begin operations on the Rionegro-Fort Lauderdale route. With this flight it will complete three ports of destination in the country to the city in the state of Florida in the United States.

Sectur presented the new on-line reservation and marketing on-line service through the website: www.visitmexico.com, a new alternative for the purchase and realization of trips through the internet. The website will be the platform for an Comprehensive Tourist Website that aims to bring together all the local tourism offers, including large corporations as well as small and medium enterprises equally from all the states, offering them access to the global market.

JetBlue plans to launch its first Inter-Caribbean service with daily direct flights between San Juan and Santo Domingo as of December 2008. It will also offer improved service between the Caribbean and the United States for the winter holiday season with direct flights between Santo Domingo and Boston; these also being subject to the government’s approval. At the same time, it will add more flights to the existing routes from San Juan to Boston and from Puerto Plata, Santiago and Santo Domingo to New York.

An exotic destination for all kinds of tourism, the city of Santa Marta possesses numerous charms, thanks to its incomparable tourist, historic, and ecologic sites, a splendid, modern hotel infrastructure, an animated night life, and a soaring economy driven by one of the country’s most important seaports. Santa Marta has it all. Santa Marta, its bay and surroundings are full of indescribable magic. To begin with, the oldest city in South America holds an unrivalled architectural heritage that evokes the times of the banana bonanza. Its legendary railroad connects the city with the magical universe of Macondo and the vallenato traditions of Francisco el Hombre. Read more…