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Greetings again Friends and Fellow-Patriots,

Thanks again for the many kind notes of concern I have received over the past week from several of you. Rest assured that I am safe back here on the shores of freedom in Irie Jamaica (”Ah, no problem, mon…”). [By the way, Irie means "great" not "higher than Bob Marley" as most of us would have thought!] Both Havana and Jamaica have been eerily desolate of the majority of tourists in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy. An emptry Jamaica kind of blows because many of the businesses are closed without tourists. I expect more people will be traveling within Europe due to the ease and convenience of ground travel so I look forward to interacting with more people in London this weekend.

Regarding the Terrorist Attacks I have been overwhelmed with emotion several times over the past week, mostly when watching CNN (both Spanish and English versions) and the mournful vigils and patriotic reactions of the people in New York, the rest of the US and around the world. It took me several days to understand the magnitude because TVs are scarce in Havana (for all but the super expensive rooms). On the first day I saw the picture on CNN of a plane, but the sound was turned down and the video was short, only showing the single crash, then later videos of what I now know was the second plane but at the time I thought was a separate angle of the 1st. On the second day I saw the video of the first tower collapsing, but initially thought it was only the top portion above the initial impact and only later did I see the whole tower collapse. It wasn’t until the 3rd day that I realized there were 2 planes and both towers had collapsed and the true magnitude of the horrible tragedy. I then had to wait in line at the library for 1 hour since that was the only place around with an internet connection (it was government regulated with only tourist access). Finally it wasn’t until I got to Jamaica that I was able to get fully caught up with the International News, so each day it has seemed to me that the tragedy has gottenb worse and worse.

Thanks for the concern to all that have written since the Sept 11 attacks. I am still in Cuba, safe and sound. Ironically this is probably the safest bastion free from terrorism in the entire Western Hemisphere. I have a fairly high confidence that all international airports throughout the world (especially Western Nations) will be on ultra-high security alert for the next several months, so I expect air travel should be relatively safe. Hopefully international service will be restored by next Thursday when I fly from Jamaica to London – via Toronto (is that airport back open yet?). I absolutely refuse to be intimidates into running home scared, but I will keep an eye out for future events around the world.

[For reference, see this List of Mayan Sites.]

Hola Amigos-Amigas,

Life here in the Yucatan the last few days has been interesting, trying, amusing and amazing.

I arrived in Cancun on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2001. Cancun is a very strange place to be a solo traveler and everything is unbelievable expensive even if you are not staying in one of the fancy resorts on the beach. There aren?t lots of other solo travelers here, though I did meet some at a nearby hostel and on some of my outings. The first night I met some trailer trash loser from Stockton, now an Ex-patriot living here who tried to milk me for booze and drug money, until I told him to fuck off and ditched him (I did buy him $2 worth of the cheapest tequila bottle known to man as thanks for helping me find a cheap, but good hotel). That was a somewhat unsettling experience because he had helped me find my room and now he knows where I have been staying! So every time I come back to the room I expect to find him lurking around but so far he has been smart enough (or wasted enough) to stay away. F#*k him.

Greetings Suckers (er…., Working Stiffs),

I’ve been having a blast here in Mexico City. The Teotihuacan pyrimids were awesome, as was the Museum of Anthropology, with major pieces from the various pre-hispanic empires (Teotihuacan, Mexica-Aztec, Toltec, Oaxaca, & Maya). I?ll try to post some digital photos once I find an internet cafe with higher bandwidth. Mexico City is fun – the food is great, the cerveza cold and everything is pretty cheap if you follow the backpacker routes ($30 a day for a mid priced comfort level). The days have all been warm and sunny and it has only rained twice at night (super violent thunder-storms both nights).