The Boston Globe published today a photo essay of the happiest places on earth. According to the Globe, researchers at the University of Leicester in the UK recently published the first world map of happiness. [Ed. Note: The Guanabee headquarters are not highlighted. WTF?] The Globe writes: “Using data from the emerging science of happiness, they created a color-coded atlas of bliss, a topography of the human spirit, from Algeria to Zimbabwe.” And by “science” we’re sure they mean “random dude with Google Maps and MS Paint”. Apparently, Russia and Africa are grim as fuck. But you know what’s happier than Disney World after a hit of E? Puerto Rico! The Boston Globe breaks down this curiously gleeful place:

Puerto Rico ranks high in happiness surveys, as do many Latin American nations, despite their relative poverty and often unstable governments. ”The Latino bonus” is what some researchers call this phenomenon. Actually, it’s not so mysterious after all. Latinos derive much happiness from their close-knit families and, certainly in the case of Puerto Rico, a fiesta attitude. Puerto Rico has many more holidays than the mainland United States and knows how to enjoy them.

That’s so true. All Puerto Ricans girls carry glitter under their fiesta-themed acrylics. Also, between kidnappings and guerrillas, we Latinos sure know how to throw a party. With our close-knit families, natch. And since we party so much, we need to have plenty of days off. You know, to take our siestas.

Nine Happy Places [The Boston Globe]