The Huffington Post has announced that Machu Picchu is the winner of its “Number One Place to See Before You Die” poll. The contest was the brainchild of Huffington Post Travel staff, who perused the latest edition of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and chose the world’s top 16 can’t-miss sites. They then asked their readers to vote on sites including the Galapagos Islands, the Sahara Desert, and Moscow’s Red Square. The final round pitted Machu Picchu against Egypt’s Great Pyramids, with Machu Picchu chosen the “unanimous” winner.

After 14 years and a string of ad campaigns, McDonald’s has closed its 8 Bolivian restaurants because of inadequate profits. The restaurants were in the cities of Cochabamba, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and La Paz.  In a global restructuring plan, the fast food chain also announced it would be closing restaurants in seven countries with poor profit margins.  With more than 33,000 stores worldwide, it doesn’t seem like 8 less stores would make much of a difference to the world’s largest food vendor. Bolivia is now the only Latin American country with no McDonalds restaurants. Could this cause other nations in Latin American to turn away from McDonald’s?  A documentary titled “Why did McDonald’s Bolivia go Bankrupt” asked nutritionists, cooks, vendors, and sociologists what they all believe led to the demise. One of the more popular comments shed light on the fact that McDonalds doesn’t make the type of food that Bolivians consider to be good or high quality. In Bolivia, a good meal is prepared with love, dedication, and proper cooking time, all things that are not exactly known to be present in fast food cooking.  It is believed that because Bolivia has such a solid stance against the aspirations of American entities, this also led to the high level of distaste among Bolivians.  Do you think this could lead to shutdowns in other countries the company is trying to expand into, or is this just an anomaly?

The intimate boutique hotel, The Sugar Mill, in the British Virgin Islands has been named in Travel and Leisure magazines 16th annual World’s Best Awards readers’ survey as one of the 500 best hotels in the world. Readers rated properties on five critera: accommodations/ambience, treatment, service, food and value.  Travel and Leisure describes the Sugar Mill Hotel this way: “Owned by longtime food and travel writers Jefferson and Jinx Morgan since 1982, the Sugar Mill Hotel is one of Tortola’s best hotels. Built in 1640 as an oxen-powered rum distillery, the historic cottage colony has all the thoughtful touches of a traditional Caribbean inn—island-inspired watercolors hand-painted by Jinx herself, lush tropical gardens, and 23 ocean-view rooms with balconies and kitchenettes—plus plenty more that most hotels don’t have. Namely, an über-romantic restaurant, housed in a candlelit stone building where rum was once boiled, and a small private beach known for some of the best snorkeling and surfing on Tortola.”