forever,

Yours is an interesting perspective. Very different from mine, but you know what, I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

In '95 we had an AA package tour booked for the very end of November and AA cancelled the whole trip because the island, in their words, wasn't open to visitors yet. We ended up last minute booking a stay in Aruba instead.

We returned the following April and were appalled by what we saw. We are not people who need to be catered to and one of our favorite 'other' pastimes is tent camping, if you get my drift.

But there was debris of every nature, from boards and corrugated to boats of every size and description laying on the sides of roads and some still over-turned in the water. There was a lot of small debris still in the seawater and imbedded in the sand, and you almost had to wear water shoes, the only time in 44 years we've ever had to do this. The majority of island friends I've spoken or corresponded with are telling me this storm damage, by all their accounts, is light years worse than Luis'.

My perspective is to give them time to regroup, clear their heads over what's happened to them and to their island and then to clear the roads and beaches, rebuild their homes, and get back on their feet at whatever their occupations.

Thus, my personal support, at least for the time being, will be in the form of donations and prayers and moral support for a while. The island friends I'm speaking with are not as optimistic as yours so I guess they must live in very different parts of the island.

We each have to do what we're comfortable with but I really doubt they'll be able to restart as quickly as you're suggesting. But again, I truly hope you're right and I'm wrong. Time will tell..... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />