No comments about Adventuring Along the Gulf of Mexico.

No comments about Choose Mexico: Live Well on $800 a Month (Choose Mexico for Retirement: Retirement Discoveries for Every Budget).

No comments about Mornings in Mexico and Etruscan Places (The Travel books: Volume 3).

No comments about Into the Hearts of the Amazons: In Search of a Modern Matriarchy.

No comments about Knopf Guide: Louvre (Knopf Guides).

2 comments about Sunshot: Peril and Wonder in the Gran Desierto (The Southwest Center Series).

1. It is officially called El Camino del Diablo-The Devil's Highway. It's also known by a variety of other names best left out of this review. It stretches for some 130 miles of desert from Sonoyta, in Mexico's state of Sonora, to Yuma, Arizona, on the Colorado River. There is precious little permanent water and ground temperatures can, and do, reach 150 degrees and more. It includes parts of two national monuments, a national wildlife refuge, and a gunnery range in Arizona not to mention various intities in Mexico. The are can be explored via foot or four-wheel drive vehicle. It can be done. It's done every year by experts and fools, lots of fools, legal and illegal. Many don't make it. It is a killer. If you are intrigued by scorpions, drug smugglers, sidewinders, bandits, illegal aliens, rattlesnakes, sand storms, unbearable heat, lack of water, a military gunnery range, and a host of other unbelievable challenges this is the trip for you. I don't know of any typical travel or guide book that will prepare you for this trip but this book comes as close as any to providing one with a sense of what to expect and when to go. It is probably the very best book ever published about this special place. The author and photographer have a knack of presenting a highly readable, visually accurate account of the dangers and beauty that await the visitor to a place noted author Charles Bowden says "...we finally get to face ourselves because we are alone with life itself." I have done this trip in a four-wheel drive vehicle and can only say be careful...very careful. This is a must read both for the armchair traveler and boots on the ground type.



2. Of all the books my brother, Bill has written, I most love this one. SUNSTRUCK is about the area of the world on which he is an expert, a remote area of the Sonoran Desert, but more importantly, these are thought-provoking essays on life and living. Even if, like me, you don't usually read essays about the natural world I think you'll appreciate his writing style and world outlook. Bill shares anecdotes about the outdoor life, hiking, those he meets and gets to know in the desert (including la migra and people escaping the border patrol, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep) that make the reader feel as if they are there with Bill at the moment of encounter.
   
   So I hope you'll enjoy a book about a wondrous place in the world that few people visit, and even fewer understand: El Gran Desierto, the Devil's Highway. Yes, this review is written by the author's sister, but don't hold that against me. Given my proclivity to reading fiction, I might not have picked up this book if my brother hadn't written it. I am so glad I had the opportunity to enjoy his vivid use of language and to vicariously experience some of Bill Broyles' adventures in the desert.

1 comments about Sandia Mountains (Hiking & Biking).

1. The Sandia Mountains are among the most beautiful and old geological features in the United States. For those fortunate to live in range or to visit them, they call out to be explored and experienced.
   
   This Visitors Guide provides very accurate and very practical information on how to make those explorations on foot or on mountain bike. Attention is paid to the trails and routes available with experience and difficulty factored in.
   
   The one fault, and it is minor and a matter of taste, is that it misses an opportunity, in my opinion, to expand on the descriptions and perhaps include some photographs to make the book a little more readable and open to those who might seek to read it for more than just trip planning.
   
   In terms of its practical use and accuracy however, it does exactly what is needed.
   
   Worth it for any and all who would walk this beautiful part of the country.

No comments about Arizona, Utah & New Mexico: A Guide to the State & National Parks (Arizona, Utah & New Mexico).

1 comments about Frommer's Portable Cancun (Frommer's Portable).

1. 
   The book does what it intended to do - touches on highlights of Cancun and surrounding areas. So for that purpose it's good. However, note that it does not account for 2005's Hurricane Wilma, so information provided for hotels, beaches, restaurants, snorkeling/scuba is not updated. Many of these were destroyed so call ahead or check online blogs/reviews that are more updated.

5 comments about Cancun & Cozumel Alive (Alive Guides).

1. I couldn't have asked for a more reliable guide to the hotels, restaurants, and sights in Cancun. The information helped make our vacation the best we've ever had -- and saved us money too. Next year, we're taking this book and trying Cozumel!



2. What a joy after reading some of the other guides to Cancun! This book covers almost everything, and is obviously written by someone with an intimate familiarity with the region. It offers helpful hints on each page, rather than just pointing out lists of places to visit (although it does this also). The Mexican to U.S. clothing size conversion chart is particularly helpful. The book dedicates 12 pages to shopping in Cancun, a topic restricted to 3/4 page in the other guidebook I purchased at the same time (and sent back). The coverage of places to stay, places to eat, and what to do is very objective and frank, unlike some of the guides which seem to be produced by the local chamber of commerce. As a lover of travel (and travel guides), I can't say enough about this one - it's as good a guide to a city as I have read.



3. (From Planeta.com Journal) This is a recommended title, by the Conords whose Adventure Guide to the Yucatan is a favorite. Descriptions are lively and the info first-rate.



4. While the theory behind a personalize book by a frequent visitor to Conzumel and Cancun is appealing, this book falls short (at least in its Cancun portion). We recently visited Cancun and found this book to be significantly lacking in detail and many of their comments, concerning resturants and activities, we strongly disagreed with. Stick with a Fodor's book!



5. We had a wonderful vacation usiing this guide book. Unlike another one that starts with "F", the Alive guide is not full of upfront stuff that nobody reads. It gets right to the point in telling what hotels have to offer, the best places to eat (it arranges them by cuisine and gives sample dishes) and devotes many pages to shopping -- in the malls as well as downtown. We got some good bargains as a result. We'll go back again, maybe this time to Cozumel or some of the other places this guide has discovered.