"One point about learning "Spanish", the language varies from place to place in Latin America."
I don't think it's just across Latin America... here in Puerto Rico they even tell you that they don't really speak Spanish...they speak a weird Americanized form of it. Some even call it Spanglish. I get a kick out of the signs here...about 1/3rd are all Spanish, another third all English, and the final third a mix of both languages... for example, there's a big store near me that has a huge sign on the front that says, "Builder's Supply"...on both sides or that are words like "plomeria", "sanitorios", "ventana" and "puerta".