COMMENT: Polynesian communities will be hopelessly under-represented in the New Zealand Olympic team in Brazil. Dylan Cleaver explains why.

Amid shortages and after 50 years of living in retail darkness due, the light has snapped on for many Cubans.

Two new cave paintings have been discovered near the Machu Picchu ruins in Peru.

COMMENT: With less than a month to go until Rio, serious concerns have been raised about the safety of tourists and teams arriving in the city.

Lima's huge shantytowns are not the standard fare of tourists, but for some, they're precisely why they come.

Rio is polluted, dangerous and often downright overwhelming. Alexis Carey recommends you don't miss it.

With the Olympics only a month away, the spotlight is on Brazil as it prepares for half a million tourists from around the world to arrive.

While Uruguay doesn't have big-ticket tourist attractions like Iguazu Falls and Christ the Redeemer, it definitely deserves to be a tourist destination in its own right.

Auckland Zoo needs your help to name two new arrivals - a pair of male capybara pups.

It's millions of years old, weighs in at an estimated 10 million tonnes, is more than 200m high and has a curious history.

Latin America is Uber's fastest-growing region.

They are the bucket-list destinations tourists are loving to death. Some of these sites have been shut down, while for others the risk lingers.

There's a 10 per cent chance of sunshine in Colombia's Chingaza National Park.

A vast roll call of exotic critters entertain Nicholas Jones in the world's biggest wetland

South America Giant tortoises, grunts, or blue-footed boobys - Lydia Jenkin doesn't quite know which Galapagos curiosity to look at first

A look at what it's like living in the murder capital of the world, where roughly 24 people are killed everyday.

Chile's capital is an unsung city. Unjustly, says Paul Clements, who took a bicycle tour of its liveliest localities.

Stadiums, including the Aquatics Stadium and Future Arena are in the finishing stages, and the tottering remains of a favela, or slum, are being torn down.

There's an awful lot of wildlife in Brazil. Most of it lives in the Amazon rainforest, home to one in 10 of all the plant and animal species in the world.

Magali Silva says small countries need to enter mega-regional agreements to thrive, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Travel insurance sales for trips to Latin America have surged, a top provider says.

Brazil's economy will contract more than previously forecast and is heading for the deepest recession since 1901.

Air New Zealand wants to move New Zealand into the top ten destinations for Argentine tourists.

Air New Zealand has signed a deal with an Argentine Government tourism body and both will now work together to promote tourism and trade.

Air NZ's first South American route has been years in the planning, reports Grant Bradley.

Pamela Wade finds Peru a country of wonders - from the natural to the man-made, the ancient to the everyday.