“The first time I saw Ol’ Tom, I thought heese gonna eat me,” said a woman on Jewel Cay.

“Ol’ Tom?” I asked.

“Dats what we call da whale sharks here on da cays,” she explained. “We wuz lookin for da Bonita ad we saw lotsa birds flyon’ about. Den we seen all deese bubbles and a great big shadow, bigger dan da boat come up beside us.”

At the 2nd floor restaurant in the Hotel Basico in Playa del Carmen, called Marisqueria, which is basically a mock food cart serving up Mexican street foods with a contemporary touch alongside tequila cocktails overlooking a much less authentic Quinta Avenida, I first came across the aguachile. The aquachile (agua=water, chile=chile pepper) is, for the most part, a type of spicy cebiche using either shrimp or scallops. Best served cold or room temperature, the dish pairs sliced green Serrano chilies and limejuice, and, much like a ceviche, the shrimp or scallops are soaked in the mixture.

Wildlife, I sometimes find, comes in spurts. You can spend hours holding your binoculars and not seeing a single sparrow, then your thoughts wander or you scratch your head and suddenly one animal after another begins to appear. This was the case on the Burro Burro River, a couple of kilometers from Surama Ecolodge, on the edge of the Rupununi Savannah and bordering the Iwokrama Rainforest, where I was staying.

A fascinating voyage by sea from Colombia to Panama is one of the best ways to leave (or enter) the South American continent.

I tend to travel home with lots of bottles. Rum, pisco, Cachaça, wine, etc. When I’m in Mendoza in particular, I tend to be stretching the limit of my legally allowed alcohol allowance. Also, considering if you are not buying from Duty Free and if you have a connecting flight in the United States, wine cannot be transported in your hand luggage. It has to be packed. Although I’ve never had a bottle brake in transit, I know it is coming.

In 2005, Gaston Acurio had just opened his second restaurant in Lima, Peru. It was called La Mar. It was a modern rendition of a typical Limeño lunch only cevicheria, like Sonia, a closed door Chorrillos haunt that Acurio had helped rediscover with his television show, Aventuras Culinaria.

Though I don’t need extra incentives to eat Latin American Food, I do wish I was dining at the latin fusion restaurant Nuela a couple of nights ago, and not just because of their arroz con pato.

Defining ‘Latin America’ can be a difficult process for those who don’t fully know what it consists of. Generally speaking, most of South America is included within Latin America (aside from Guyana and Suriname.) In addition to South America, most of Central America and the Caribbean are included as well as Mexico. What defines Latin America is that all of the countries speak a derivative of the Romance languages (Spanish, Italian and some French.)