Travel Alert--Remember to take passports to any of the Caribbean, Central American, Mexican, and Canadian locations. Even children traveling with their parents need passports.

Explore Puerto Rico, the tropical island territory of the United States in the Caribbean, with its exotic highways, lush fauna, white sandy beaches, green valleys, picturesque mountains, and waterfalls. Puerto Rico is a paradise with 78 municipalities ready for its visitors to explore. Although almost four million people live on the island of Puerto Rico, most live in the metropolitan area of San Juan-Carolina-Bayamon, leaving the rest of the island fairly rural. Visitors to Puerto Rico can fly from New York, Miami, and Atlanta-or Europeand S. America, for example, or cruise to Puerto Rico on a luxury liner. All visitors should pack warm weather clothes, a bathing suit or two, hiking boots, camera, and evening clothes for a glorious night on the town, experiencing the music of Puerto Rico-like none other in the world.

Although there are coastal lowlands, over 60% of Puerto Rico is mountainous. The island with its remarkable bio-diversity has everything from rain forests, caves, rivers, reservoirs (called lakes) and deserts. There are guided tours of the caves for the avid spelunkers as well as amateur cavers. Because of the rain forests, there are many species of birds and plants-some plants are found nowhere else but Puerto Rico. Consequently, visitors need to bring binoculars and bird or plant guidebooks for birding and planting vacations. Because breadfruit and coconut palms grow in Puerto Rico, its cuisine has a special Caribbean flare mixing Pan-African, French, and Spanish cultures in a tropical blend. There also are papaya, avocado, mango, passion fruit, and plantain to tease the taste buds along with local rums, dark and light, for mixing into fabulous tropical drinks after a long day sunning at the beach, shopping at the stores, or hiking through the mountains.

With an average annual temperature of 82 degrees Fahrenheit or 28 Celsius, Puerto Rico is an exotic vacation spot for people who are tired of the northern climates-especially in December, January, and February.

Tourists can find lodging to fit just about any pocketbook. Many of the hotels have casinos for the visitors who enjoy gaming to relax. Some casinos have specific dress codes.

While vacationing in Puerto Rico, some visitors enjoy chartering sailboats to visit other islands in the Antilles. Fishing charters also are fun for adventurers.

Other travel suggestions:

• Visitors to Puerto Rico often enjoy visiting the other nearby islands such as Bermuda only a short flight from Miami. Other places in the Caribbean to explore are Aruba, St. Kits, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and more.
• Vacationers, who prefer mainland Central America to the Caribbean islands, can find great vacations in Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama.
• The vacation destinations in the Caribbean are accessible through most of the major international airlines and by cruise ships. Major cruise ships leave from Miami and New Orleans.