No comments about Grenada: Spice Paradise.

No comments about Party Travel - The Easy Guide To Affordable Traveling!.

1 comments about Footprint Dominican Republic Handbook : The Travel Guide.

1. Cameron's approach beats the other guidebooks in its up to date assessment of the country's politics and history as it relates to each of the regions you plan on visiting. Relevant sidebar info is sprinkled throughout the book to provide the reader with something other than the usual monotonous listings of hotels, restarants, and places to visit--though she knows her stuff here as well. This book is the most currently published of all the other titles out there.

2 comments about Fodor's Pocket Aruba, 3rd Editon (Pocket Guides).

1. This book is short and to the point of helpful information. My family has used it multiple times for vacations to Aruba and it has been helpful for each vacation. The information is accurate and concise in its description of the island.



2. We found Fodor's and Frommer's travel books to possess the best of information on Aruba. My husband Alan stated he didn't feel like a novice coming into this lovely tropical paradise thanks to these guides.
   
   The books were pretty right on when it came to restaurant prices, only a few had varied their charges. One restaurant was a nice surprise as we were expecting to pay twice as much.
   
   To add to the information, besides the buses running to the capital city of Oranjestad, they also have $1.00 taxis and these vans function well when you don't want to wait for the next bus. Oranjestad is a must visit for shopping, eating and touring.
   
   The books also didn't include the native poverty that exists beyond the resorts and touring areas. Few Arubans own a decent hacienda. This was a shock to my husband and me as we were expecting to see average living styles.

3 comments about CUBA: The Special Period.

1. When I ordered this book, I expected a photography book of photographs taken throughout Cuba in the nineties. I did not expect a heavy-handed, one-sided anti-Castro dissertation. The photographs are heavily documented with this sort of commentary. The last chapter in the book does not contain photographs at all - it is a collection of essays, all from members of the Cuba exile community. The photographs themselves are of professional quality (they are certainly better than mine), but the subject matter is extremely limited. The vast majority are of buildings, transportation, and street scenes in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. I expected more variety and a bit more imagination in the choice of subject matter. If you do not want to support the political agenda put forth by this extremely prejudicial account, I do not recommend this book. There are lots of more interesting and truly informative books about Cuba.



2. I have read Marcia Friedman's beautiful book titled "CUBA: The Special Period" from cover to cover and was totally captivated. As an artist, art dealer and art appraiser for over 30 years, I have seen many wonderful books and Marcia Friedman's publication stands out in my mind among the best. The quality of the photography, text and printing make it outstanding.



3. I read Marcia's book and thought that the pictures were great and the essays from Exiles were extremely interesting and enlightening. As an American, never being in Cuba, I felt I was personally taken on an amazing journey. I highly recommend this book to everyone. I especially loved the poetic way in which each picture was linked. It was very well done.

No comments about Once Upon a Time There Was Colombia.

No comments about Hunter Travel Guide Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao Alive (Adventure Guide Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) (Adventure Guide Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao).

1 comments about Eastern Caribbean in Focus: A Guide to the People, Politics and Culture (In Focus Guides).

1. This slim book is a helpful and fact-filled introduction to the history and socio-economic trends in the Caribbean basin. Its focus is on the gentle arc of islands stretching from Anguilla to Trinidad. Sugar, bananas, and oil are among the commodities that have and continue to play a role in the economic life of the region. The author gives us a brief history of the Caribbean's past reliance on the slave trade to support its agricultural economy and the sometimes bloody uprisings prior to its eventual abolition in the nineteenth century. It is the kind of information you will not find in Fodor's or most travel brochures (I write this note standing at a Curacao resort photographing an idealized mural of healthy black servants - the second I have seen today). Of greater interest to the curious North American may be the history of colonial involvement which has left its ethnic mark on the islands' culture along British, French, and Dutch lines. Anglo-Canadians will almost certainly be amused to recall that it was in the Treaty of 1763 that Britain opted to retain Canada - dismissed by Voltaire as a "few acres of snow". In exchange, the delighted French retained a dotted cluster of islands that for all its imagined similarity to paradise is extraordinarily difficult to locate on any map - Guadeloupe. The impact of tourism is tremendous in the Caribbean today and it seems only destined to grow with cheap airfares and travel 'channels' of information breathlessly promoting the regions' splendid climate and recreational amenities. While some voice reservations about the cultural or ecological impact of this recent 'invasion', others might argue that the material benefits imparted to the island economies are real, needed, benign, and re-occurring. Each island's cultural identity is a dynamic asset that can be protected but not totally controlled from change with civic planning and an eye toward promoting the preservation of local traditions. In this way tourism and local identity can evolve together. The cultural impact of tourism, the development of off-shore banking enterprises, an ever-present awareness of the United States (the CNN Effect) get little attention and are generally beyond the scope of this book. The sinister threat of the drug trade moving through the islands is noted (A vacationing Amsterdam physician tells me to read SNEEUW OVER CURACAO, J.van den Heuvel [untranslated]). These are topics that warrant serious attention. Reading Ferguson's introduction is a reasonable place to prepare for that more serious study.

No comments about Portrait of Cuba.

1 comments about San Juan: Memoir of a City (THE AMERICAS).

1. Ably translated into English by Peter Grandbois (Assistant professor of English at California State University, Sacramento) and provided with an informative Foreword by Antonio Skarmeta, "San Juan: Memoir Of A City" by Edgardo Rodriguez Julia is a combination travel guide and memoir of Puerto Rico's capital city. More than just a guidebook for tourists, "San Juan" presents a personalized perspective on the city's history and culture by a gifted author who has created a unique work of literary merit as he describes everything the city has to offer from cockfighting clubs and smoke-filled bars, to cabarets and street traffic. The reader is vividly introduced to a living city conflicted with its colonial past juxtaposed with aspirations for a 'commercial future'. Also available in a hardcover edition (9780299203702, $45.00), "San Juan" is rewarding and highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in this fascinating, complex, colorful, and sometimes contradictory city.