The anti-corruption group Transparency International annually publishes a “corruption perceptions index,” which measures the level of government corruption in each country.

In the latest index, which was released in November, the majority of the 180 countries analyzed scored below five on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).

The highest scorers in the 2009 CPI are New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0.

U.S. The United States was at 7.5, just below the the United Kingdom.

The countries in Latin America scored as follows:

• Chile 6.7
• Uruguay 6.7
• Puerto Rico 5.8
• Costa Rica 5.3
• Cuba 4.4
• Brazil 3.7
• Colombia 3.7
• Peru 3.7
• El Salvador 3.4
• Guatemala 3.4
• Panama 3.4
• Mexico 3.3
• Dominican Republic 3.0
• Argentina 2.9
• Bolivia 2.7
• Honduras 2.5
• Nicaragua 2.5
• Ecuador 2.2
• Paraguay 2.1
• Venezuela 1.9

I was surprised to see how poorly Argentina scored. For one thing, it has the second highest GDP in South America (behind Brazil).

A recent story in the New York Times about North Americans who are purchasing real estate in Nicaragua cited the country’s low CPI score. Referring “to incessant traffic shakedowns and bribery attempts performed on gringos by police patrolling the roads,” the story quoted one of the purchasers as saying “if you drive to Managua, it is very unlikely that you won’t be pulled over.”

How do these government corruption scores match up with your own experiences in these countries?

Looking for a good book or DVD about Latin America? Check out the Travelojos Book/DVD Exchange.

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Got a question or comment? E-mail me at travelojos AT gmail.com

The South America Travel Tips is one of the most informative blogs about traveling to Central and South America. Its post tend to be well written, concise and full of practical information.

In this interview with the blog’s creator–Chris Harydment–he tells us how he acquired his expertise. He also explains why he likes Colombia so much and disputes the notion that it’s a dangerous place to visit. In addition, he tells us which city in Latin America he thinks offers the best experience for tourists.

When I was thinking about starting a blog, I wasn’t sure if I would have enough things to say about Latin America on a weekly basis. But after discovering South America Travel Tips, I began to understand that there is no shortage of interesting material to cover. How did you become such an expert about Latin America?

Providencia Island, Colombia

I spent a year between school and university (volunteer) working and traveling around Central America – my passion for all things Latin came from this year!  After university I went to live in Ecuador for 9 months where I worked as an ecotourism consultant.

Following that I worked for a few years for a Latin America specialist tour operator in UK – I guess that this is where most of my knowledge came from.

I was trained about all the countries in the region and their tourist attractions – so any country I hadn’t visited I was still familiar with and able to design tailormade holidays there.

I then quit my job, went to live in Medellin with my Colombian girlfriend and from their traveled all over the continent and subsequently came up with my two main websites – one about Latin America, the other about Colombia, where I still live.

It seems like more newspaper travel sections and magazines are recommending Colombia. Also, I understand that you live there now. What does Colombia have that makes it such a great place to visit?

Colombia is amazing for a variety of reasons.  People imagine that it’s a dangerous place to visit, but that’s far from the truth – by most stats it’s safer than both Ecuador and Venezuela for example.  The ongoing “bad image” that is slowly changing means the country isn’t over-run with tourists – so those that do visit have a very special experience!

Colombia has everything – wonderful beaches, fascinating metropolitan cities, beautiful colonial towns, archaeological ruins, amazing scenery and a very diverse terrain ranging from deserts to rainforest to snow clad mountain peaks.  No other country in Latin America has the range of tourist attractions that Colombia has. Plus the people are probably the friendliest and most welcoming in all Latin America.

What is your favorite metropolitan area in Latin America and why?

Buenos Aires.  Most big cities in Latin America are rather chaotic affairs and often full of hassle but Buenos Aires is different.  It’s a beautiful and cultured city, with great food and a ton of things to do.

What would you say is one of the best places to visit in Latin America that most people have never heard of?

Providencia Island in Colombia, which is where I live right now.  It’s slap bang in the middle of the Caribbean sea – the worlds third largest barrier reef is found here and the scuba diving is amazing.  The beaches are beautiful and empty of people, the hiking scenery is amazing and the sea has seven different shades of turquoise blue.

Providencia is a very undeveloped and rarely visited paradise – how I imagine all the Caribbean was 50 years ago before the dawn of mass tourism and tasteless mega-resorts.

Last year you did a post on “Best & Worst Latin American Beers (& Their Adverts). Of course most of the ads featured scantily clad Latin American women.  What do you make of Brazil’s move toward banning a beer ad featuring Paris Hilton?

It makes no sense whatsoever!

Chris’ blog offers South America travel tips. He also has a website about traveling to Colombia.

Photo by Luis Barreto (Via Flickr)

One of my 2010 blogolutions is to take a trip to Latin America this year. Last year, I traveled with my family to Mexico. We spent about 10 days in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta.

We all had a wonderful time, but my wife and kids have had their fill of Latin America for the time being. Our sights are set for a family vacation in Arizona this spring.

That leaves me with one week in May to spend on a solo adventure south of the border. In whichever country I visit, I’d like to take a Spanish language immersion course and stay in someone’s home.

It’s about time for me to pull the trigger on this trip and purchase the plane tickets. But first, I wanted to share some of the options I’ve been considering and get some feedback from you.

Here are top choices so far:

• Xela, Guatemala: Formally known as Quetzaltenango, this is a university town surrounded by the mountains and volcanoes of the Sierra Madres. Xela (pronounced “Shay-la”) has a number of language schools that cater foreigners who wish to learn Spanish. Guatemala is considered by many to be the hub of Mayan culture. I like the idea of staying in Xela instead of Antigua because it seems less touristy. One of the biggest things Guatemala has going for it is how inexpensive it is. Round trip airfare from Washington, D.C. to Guatemala City is about $32o. The Spanish language schools I’ve looked at cost about $170 a week, for five hours of lessons and room and board.
• Medellin, Colombia: Colombia is receiving so much great press lately, it’s probably a good idea to visit the country before everyone else does. Airfare is about $360, but it looks like the Spanish school and accommodations are generally more expensive than Guatemala. But I’ve heard so many great things about Colombia, it might be worth the extra price.
• Mexico City: I mostly want to go there to cross it off my list. But I’ve already been to Mexico a couple of times and would like to add some other countries to my portfolio. Also, I suspect that the DF might be the most expensive option.

Where should I go?

The handsome baby boomer-aged couple smokes a joint behind the bushes outside a graduation party. When they return in their altered state to the gathering awkward moments and hilarity ensues. 

This was a scene in the movie It’s Complicated, starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. It seems harmless enough. The pot, we are told, is a friend’s “medical marijuana.”

A few years ago, I would have thought nothing of it. In some ways it seems only fitting to watch the baby boomers who got stoned in the Big Chill light up in another movie depicting them as they approach their twilight years.

Since the late 1960s marijuana has been portrayed as a harmless drug or even a rite of passage.

We’re Not in Woodstock Anymore. But the drug-cartel violence that has killed thousands of people in Mexico over the past couple of years, shows that we’re not in Woodstock anymore. The fact is that marijuana is the high-volume seller or “Budweiser” of the illegal drug trade.

I’ve written before legalizing drugs such as marijuana in the U.S. would substantially reduce the incentive to sell it on the black market. But this seems unlikely to happen.

Barring that, the U.S. government ought to try this approach proposed by writer Stephanie Elizondo Griest:

The US Drug Enforcement Administration needs to launch a publicity campaign equating the consumption of illegal drugs to the slaughtering of Mexicans. Smoking pot needs to be considered as morally degenerate as wearing fur coats made of baby seals. Either that, or we need to legalize drugs. Now.

Also reducing the coolness factor of illegal drugs is the unholy alliance between the criminal groups that sell them and terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda. Last month, Colombia Reports‘ Adriaan Alsema noted that:

Interdiction efforts have made it more difficult to send cocaine straight from Colombia and other Andean producer nations to the United States and Europe.

As a result, criminal organizations including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are accessing European markets via Africa. They are doing this with the help of al Qaeda and other groups branded “terrorists” by Washington, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

During my teenage years in the 1980s I was admonished to “just say no” to illegal drugs. I always found the slogan somewhat trite because of its “take my word for it” approach.

But now, with the benefit of ample evidence of all the hardships these illicit substances are causing, the reasons for avoiding them are less complicated than ever.

Photo by joseloya (Via Creative Commons)

Award-winning journalist Maureen Orth has lived a fascinating life. One of the first women hired by Newsweek, she’s interviewed pop stars such as Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen.

She is currently a special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, where the topics she covers range from Obama’s White House to the “Craigslist murder.”

Her family life is interesting too. Her husband of nearly 25 years was the late political analyst and talk-show host Tim Russert. Her son, Luke Russert, is a correspondent with NBC news.

For this post, Maureen told me about her true passion: a school she helped establish and continues to support in Colombia. Through her life-long efforts, it has become one of the most technologically advanced educational programs in the country and a model for future initiatives.

Maureen first came to Colombia when she was assigned to Medellin as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s.  Medellin was so tranquil then, she said, the people were entrepreneurial and there seemed to be a substantial middle class.

It was during this time that some campesinos from a rural community asked her to help build a school. A year later, with the help of the Coffee Growers Association and others, the school was built. They named it “Escuela Marina Orth.”

Turn for the Worse. But when Maureen returned to the U.S., life in Colombia took a turn for the worse. So much violence and kidnappings spread throughout the country that the U.S. State Department still warns against traveling there.

For Maureen, it was not only the grim statistics that marked this awful period, but tragedies that befell dear friends.  “My Colombian novio of long ago, who had become a Senator, was murdered in 1989 when he refused to give in to a self-styled militia leader who wanted a piece of his land,” Maureen said in a story she had written about her experience entitled “Twice in My Life.”

Sowing, Reaping. It wasn’t until she returned to Colombia in 1995 that she realized how much the seed she had planted in the mid-1960s had grown and flourished. The 35-student schoolhouse she helped establish in the 1960s was at this point serving 120 children in grades one through five. The community took the opportunity of her visit to honor her for her contributions.

Maureen eloquently sums up her feelings of pride in both the school she helped establish and her Peace Corps experience this way:

I realized that at least once in my life, when I was young, enthusiastic and just doing my job, I actually accomplished something that my country and my family could be proud of. And twice in my life, the Peace Corps and the people of Colombia had given me more than I could have ever imagined. [from "Twice in My Life."]

The security situation has improved in Colombia and the sense of foreboding that outsiders felt about the country has largely been replaced with optimism.

Maureen continues to work to improve the school, which now has over 350 students in kindergarten through high school.

Volunteers, Financial Assistance. To reach this point Maureen called upon many of her contacts from her days in the Peace Corps.

She also laid the groundwork for securing additional financial assistance by establishing the nonprofit Marina Orth Foundation in 2004.

Eventually, the school was designated as the first bilingual and high-tech school in Colombia. The designation is part of the Colombia Department of Education’s initiative to teach English and technical skills to students throughout the country.

Maureen has won support for the school from the state and local government in Colombia and the private sector. A big break came in 2008 when Chevron donated 200 laptop computers to the school and Motorola stepped in to ensure that the students and faculty could connect to the Internet.

Next Wave of Volunteers. Also working to the school’s benefit is the resurgence of volunteerism in the U.S. Maureen expanded her pool of volunteers to include several of her son’s college-aged friends.

It’s volunteer experiences like this that she believes will help to continue to change Colombia’s image. “When my son’s friends and their family members traveled in Colombia they’ve had no problems whatsoever,” she said.

What they found, Maureen added, was uncommonly friendly people and one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world.

In this guest post, Lauren Quinn –the creator of Lonely Girl Travels –shares her experience traveling alone in Colombia at a time when most tourists were afraid to go there.

Lauren was one of Lonely Planet’s Featured Bloggers for 2010. Besides being an intrepid traveler who has also made sola visits to places such as  Venezuela and Morocco, Lauren is an engaging and emotionally honest writer. But there’s more to her work than captivating prose. Lauren’s recent series on Cuba is full of practical tips for independent travelers.

By Lauren Quinn

The luggage carousel groaned under the humming neon lights. A squat man struggled with a cardboard box held together with rope; a blond woman in a cowboy hat intermittently yelled at her two sons in Spanish, and spoke English into her cell phone. Outside the glass, beyond the line of sullen-faced security guards, the Bogota morning sat grey and heavy.

An anxious fist squeezed my stomach. I’d arrived. And I was sola.

I’d done my research, booked my hostel, reassured my mother. Friends, travelers and chat-room denizens had told me that Colombia was definitely the place to cash in my rewards flight. But the reality of traveling alone in the notorious Latin American came cascading down as I watched my flight’s luggage topple and spin around the lonesome carousel. I was there. And there was no turning back.

Maiden Voyage. It was a ballsy move. I was a 5’10” tattooed gringa. It was my first solo trip; I’d left the US for the first time only one year prior. I wasn’t exactly the ideal candidate for backpacking solo around a country rife with machismo, infamous for paramilitaries, guerilla warfare and cocaine.

It was all waiting, outside those glass doors. I hoisted my backpack over my shoulder, passed through the security checkpoint, and went to a booth to arrange a ride in an official taxi. I looked longingly at the bilingual woman in the cowboy hat, cursing myself for having slept through high school Spanish classes.

Windshield wipers swatted back and forth as the cab glided through the somber morning. I took in the sights: suited men bustling down sidewalks, school kids waiting for buses, shopkeepers hosing down sidewalks, women carrying checkered-bag bundles. It didn’t look too dissimilar to any other city. I relaxed a little.

Beyond the Comfort Zone. I ended up learning a lot on that first solo trip. I learned self-reliance: how to get myself out of jams and communicate with a toddler’s vocabulary. I learned how to push myself beyond my comfort zone, to trek six days through the jungle and force myself to talk to strangers when I got lonely. I learned that asshole guys cover the world ‘round, and sometimes you just have to break down and cry.

But most of all, I learned that the world’s not something to be afraid of. Wide eyes and shocked mouths will tell you all the reasons you should stay home, where everything is safe and expected—especially when you’re a solo female.

Dangers abound and risks shouldn’t be taken lightly; men will sleaze on you, touts will harass you, pickpockets will pickpocket. But there’s too much beauty in the world to let any of that hold you back. It can wear you down at times, but it’s part of what it means to be female. And traveling, for me, is part of what it means to be alive.

Bogota became more human as we drove its streets that morning. When the cab pulled up beside the brightly painted “hostel” sign, I stepped out, ready for the adventure.

Follow Lauren on Twitter at @travelerlauren

Do you have any solo/sola travel experiences in Latin America?

“The only risk is wanting to stay,” Colombia’s new slogan says.

David Lee—creator of the blogs Medellin Living and Go Backpacking— tells us why the country’s sights and people make the slogan ring true. (Follow Dave on Twitter at @rtwdave).

THE TRIP: 5 1/2 months living in Medellin, Colombia, plus 2 weeks in Bogota, Cartagena, and Barranquilla for Carnival.

WHO: David Lee

WHY: I’d heard from a few backpackers that Colombia was safe for travel, and was curious to visit a country most people still consider too dangerous for tourism.

WHEN: January 19, 2009 to July 18, 2009

GETTING THERE WAS: Easy.  I flew on Iberia from Madrid to Bogota.

I WAS REALLY SURPRISED WHEN: After my first week in Medellin, I knew I wanted to live there.

I REALIZED THAT I WOULD LOVE IT WHEN: I took the shuttle from Medellin’s airport down the mountain roads and into the beautiful valley on a sunny Monday afternoon.  As we drove through the center of
the city, there were lots of people going about their daily business, and I was immediately excited by all the activity.

THE BEST PLACE I STAYED WAS: Casa Kiwi Hostel in the Poblado area of Medellin.  Paul, the American owner, is super friendly, as was his staff.  I stayed there despite the noise from renovations which have
since been completed.  It is located a few minutes walk from Parque Lleras, the main nightlife district in the city.

THE COOLEST ATTRACTION WAS: Going out salsa dancing with my Colombian friends.  We’d go to various clubs – big and small, and the women were always encouraging of a foreign guy trying to learn how to dance.
During my last weekend in Medellin, I even attended the country’s Salsa Congress.

IF I HAD TO DO IT AGAIN I WOULD HAVE: Moved into an apartment sooner. While I enjoyed Casa Kiwi Hostel, there was a lot of partying, and my quality of living was much better once I started renting a room in a university student’s apartment.

THE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE I HAVE ABOUT VISITING COLOMBIA IS: To take advantage of the strong Couchsurfing community.  I spent my first week in the country as the guest of a university student in Bogota, and
later made many Colombian friends in Medellin through the social network.  Most Colombians are very proud of their country and what it has to offer, so it can be a lot of fun to spend time with them.

Paraiso Travel, a movie about a Colombian couple’s illegal passage to the U.S., was released on DVD earlier this month. It’s also available to watch instantly on Netflix. The film set box office records in Colombia and won awards at multiple film festivals in the U.S.

I would rank the movie somewhere between Maria Full of Grace and Sin Nombre. Like Maria Full of Grace, Paraiso demonstrates the high price that immigrating to the U.S. exacts on those who choose to do it illegally. Unlike Sin Nombre, the movie avoids being gratuitously violent.

Even so, like many other movies before it, Paraiso Travel shows how illegal immigrants are subjected to a gauntlet of fraud, physical abuse, and squalid working conditions.

The movie manages to show the bright side of immigration too. The male half of the couple–Marlon–is enterprising and industrious in adapting to life in the U.S. But to truly adjust to his new life, he needs to rid himself of his fixation with Reina–the girl who seduces him into leaving Colombia.

One area where Paraiso Travel comes up short is laying the groundwork for why Marlon–who was headed for college–would want to leave his middle class lifestyle in Colombia to clean toilets in the U.S. Reina is a persuasive temptress, but she hardly seems worth the steep price that Marlon ends up paying.

Risking it All. Risking it all to come to the U.S. made more sense in Maria Full of Grace. She was pregnant, out of work, and lived in a cramped apartment with her annoying siblings.

In any case, examining the ordeal that most illegal immigrants go through to build a life for themselves in the U.S. goes a long way toward dispelling the notion that they are the “freeloaders” that some political pundits make them out to be. Many of them have a paid a price that is difficult to imagine.

Here is what Time magazine and the New York Times said about Paraiso Travel.

What did you think of Maria Full of Grace, Paraiso Travel, or Sin Nombre?

Two posts last week (here and here) mentioned some disparaging remarks the author of Lonely Planet’s guide to Colombia made about Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. The author, Jens Porup, made the unflattering characterizations of these countries in a speech in Bogota before Colombia’s minister of tourism and other highly ranked officials.

His comments generated a strong reaction from Travelojos readers.

The most notable of which was from Vivek Wagle, Lonely Planet’s head digital editor. In a comment on last week’s post on Porup’s speech, Wagle said:

I have to say that we’re all disappointed that Jens chose to address the Bogotá tourism industry recently while portraying himself as a representative of Lonely Planet. Jens stopped working with us in June 2009, and Lonely Planet does not support the views he expressed.

As for Peru and the other countries Jen stereotyped, we try our best to be objective and to help people get to the heart of a place. Peru’s main drawcard may be Machu Picchu, but it has MUCH more to offer than pollution and crime. Anyone who has spent time getting to know it would agree. We absolutely do not believe that South American countries can be portrayed in a few flippant, simplistic lines.

I did want to let you know that Jens is in no way speaking for Lonely Planet when he makes such statements.

Counterpoint. Porup countered Wagle’s remarks with this comment:

I used to believe in Lonely Planet. That was why I applied to work for them. I believed that Lonely Planet was about “telling it straight”. That, as an author, I would be allowed, even encouraged, to tell it like it is.

Then I started working for LP, and I realized this was not the case. It may have once been true twenty years ago. Now, all Lonely Planet cares about is making money.

The problem is simple: telling the truth hurts. The BBC (LP’s new owner) is interested in one thing only: maximizing profit. The way to do this is to minimize potential offense to any group, no matter how small.

The result? Guidebooks I don’t want to write, and guidebooks I don’t want to use.

Colombia rocks. Peru sucks. People who’ve been to both places know the truth.

If what Wagle says is true, it was clearly dishonest and inappropriate for Porup to falsely claim to Colombia’s tourism officials that he was representing Lonely Planet. This is so, regardless of how disillusioned Porup might be.

But Porup denies Wagle’s assertions. He says:

When I was invited to speak in Bogota, I clearly indicated to the organizers that 1) I was *not* an employee of Lonely Planet, 2) that I *was* the coordinating author of Lonely Planet Colombia, fifth edition, and 3) I no longer worked for them.

They wanted someone who knew Colombia and could comment on tourism there from a gringo’s perspective. That’s what I gave them.

At no point did I claim to be speaking for Lonely Planet.

Porup made these controversial remarks during a time in which many publishers find themselves grappling with how to deal with writers who are increasingly expressing themselves via social media such as blogs and Twitter.

Some news organizations have begun to prohibit journalists from expressing an opinion on topics relating to the beat they cover. It’s not clear how this policy would be applied to authors of guidebooks.

Publishers’ Objectivity. But Porup’s comment does raise an important question regarding travel publishers’ objectivity about the destinations they cover. Dwelling on some of the realities of traveling in Latin America can’t be good for guidebook sales.

A prime example of a publisher’s tendency to focus on the positive was this news story in USA Today last week about Frommer’s first guide book on Honduras. Nicholas Gill, the book’s author, tells USA Today that Honduras has “a little bit of everything: beaches, active adventures, historical sites, indigenous cultures, wildlife and laidback getaways.”

Oddly, the story makes no mention of the country’s political situation. The U.S. State Department’s Travel Alert for Honduras expired in July and some experts said it was safe to travel there before then. But If I were talking to a friend about visiting the country, I’d definitely say something about the recent events there.