s some of you may have noticed, we have streamlined the monthly Island Buzz to now be quarterly. This will provide a juicier and more newsy Island Buzz for our readers, and continue to augment and update the information provided in all of the Rum & Reggae Guidebooks. We hope you will enjoy this more efficient and thorough improvement.

Hey, the brand new edition of Rum & Reggae’s Caribbean is now available from the Store page for only $19.95 (plus shipping). Also, Rum & Reggae’s new island guides are here! Rum & Reggae’s Jamaica, Rum & Reggae’s Puerto Rico, Rum & Reggae’s Dominican Republic and Rum & Reggae’s Cuba are on sale now. And they are only $7.95 (plus shipping) from our Store page. Click HERE to order and for more info on all of the above.

Speaking of Cuba, it is on the tip of our tongue this season.

Last September, we reported on the increased effort by the U.S. Treasury Department under the Bush administration to penalize American citizens who travel to Cuba. The latest figures are in, and approximately 164,000 Americans visited Cuba in 2001. Most of these individuals were authorized – that is, non-tourists who obtained a license from the Treasury Department – but at least 27,000 were not authorized, entering through Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas or Jamaica, rather than via the scheduled charter flights operating out of Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Hundreds of them came home to a registered letter from the Office of Foreign Assets Control – the same folks responsible for tracking terrorist funds – which accused travelers of violating the Trading With the Enemy Act. Fines average $7,500 (they can go as high as $55,000), but they are also negotiable and one can request an administrative hearing to contest fines. Alas, the department that handles these hearings is so backlogged that a new administration may well be in place by the time all these cases are heard (hint, hint). On February 11, the Senate Appropriations Committee took testimony from individuals who have been fined – Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), called the travel ban “absurd.” If you agree (or if you don't), now is the time to make your voice heard with your senator. As a reminder, it is not illegal for Americans to visit the country – freedom to travel is protected under the constitution – but it is against Treasury Department regulations to spend money while on Cuban soil, effectively preventing Americans from legally exploring the country.

On the flip side, another Cuba issue we think is worth getting hot and bothered about is the Miami Herald report of the year-old dolphin attractions on the islands of Anguilla and Antigua. These tourist attractions allow visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins in a tightly controlled marine enclosure. Typically, most dolphin programs obtain their animals from those bred in captivity, rather than capturing dolphins in the wild. But the Herald says that the animals at the Anguilla-Antigua operations were supplied by Cuba's National Aquarium. Run by Che Guevara's 38-year-old daughter Celia, the aquarium supplies Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins for water parks by capturing them open waters and selling them for sums ranging as high as $70,000. We think dolphin petting zoos are a cruel punishment to such intelligent creatures, and should be limited to those already in captivity. In an ironic twist, because the Anguilla-Antigua attractions are owned by American citizens Graham Simpson and Pam Pike, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control is looking into whether they violated the economic embargo against Cuba when purchasing the dolphins. We know, we know – you can't have it both ways, but we take the side of the dolphins and hope the Anguilla-Antigua operations are shut down.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone is currently in Havana shooting Looking for Fidel, a Spanish-financed documentary on Cuba and its president. Stone is staying at the Hotel Nacional (perhaps the island's best), and on February 15 he was treated to a first-hand glimpse of one of Castro's trademark epic speeches – this one clocked in at four hours and was typically chockfull of anti-U.S. sentiment. Granma, the daily newspaper of Cuba's Communist Party, claims that Stone is a local favorite “ever since Platoon, a film which criticizes the lamentable U.S. military adventure in Vietnam.” We can't help but think that other Stone pictures like Nixon, JFK and Salvador may also have been popular on the island, but we'd love to hear Granma's take on his Natural Born Killers.

Meanwhile, word comes that the latest James Bond picture – the 20th in the series, but as yet untitled – will have at least one sequence shot in Cuba. This marks the first Caribbean location for 007 since Goldeneye, which had a memorable scene set at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Other Bonds to showcase West Indian locales include Live and Let Die (Jamaica), Thunderball (Bahamas) and, of course, the original in the series, Dr. No, which was largely set in Jamaica. Incidentally, if you've ever wanted to find that famous beach used by Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in Dr. No, we can tell you this much: It's located near Ocho Rios, is named Laughing Water, and is a tightly guarded piece of real estate that is strictly off-limits. Bond 20 will be in theaters this winter.

n a different celebrity front, we were saddened by the news of Princess Margaret's passing last month. Her Caribbean connection was the first piece of property given on the island of Mustique, in the Grenadines. Her pal Lord Glenconner – who had purchased the entire island – gifted the Princess with the land at her 1960 marriage to Anthony Armstrong-Jones. The present turned out to be a savvy marketing move, for it put scrubby, undeveloped Mustique on the map. She built a holiday home, Les Jolies Eaux, and celebrities and other notables followed suit. But it was her later cavorting on beaches with aristocratic playboy Roddy Llewellyn (18 years younger), caught on film by ambitious paparazzi, that put Mustique on the front page as a playground for the rich and famous. Princess Margaret is said to have loved Mustique for its privacy (on our first visit to the island we think we spotted her riding a bicycle solo through a coconut grove), but after giving her son, Viscount Linley, the home in 1998 (to avoid death taxes), he turned around and sold it, a move that is thought to have sent her into depression.

Queen Elizabeth has been making the rounds during this Jubilee Year that toasts her 50 years on the throne. Her Caribbean stopover was in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where she inaugurated a museum overlooking Sam Sharpe Square, while Rastafarians looked on from the branches of trees. Interestingly, Jamaica still claims Elizabeth as its Queen (most countries that are part of the Commonwealth no longer salute the Queen as head of state), but this may not be for long. The 14-member Caribbean community is replacing London's Privvy Council with its own supreme court, while Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has proposed a referendum to have island legislators pledge allegiance to their country, instead of the monarchy. The Rastafarians are requesting that the Queen repatriate them to Africa since, as they note, her ancestors supported slavery.

hough medals eluded them, we cheered the presence of West Indians at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Jamaica's four-man bobsled team – immortalized in the irresistible family film Cool Runnings – was joined by nine contenders from the U.S. Virgin Islands, who competed in bobsled, skeleton and luge contests. One of the latter made Olympic history: Luger Anne Abernathy became the oldest woman to compete in the Winter Games at the sprightly age of 48. You go, girl!

Off-season deals for Caribbean hotels are here. Here are just a few: Virgin Gorda's Bitter End Yacht Club has dropped rates through April to $265 per person (double occupancy), and including three meals daily and unlimited use of the facility's boats. If you're a resident of New York, Philadelphia or Miami, Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios will buy your airline tickets if you book a stay of five nights or longer; five-night packages start at $1,785 per person, including breakfast and dinner daily. This 50-year-old resort is a new addition to the R&R guidebook just arriving in bookstores. Incentives to vacation in the Caribbean aren't limited to hotels. American Airlines is discounting the number of miles required for a free ticket to the Caribbean for its AAdvantage members. From April 1 through June 15, the Coach award is priced 25,000 miles, and a Business Class ticket is 55,000 miles, a savings of 5,000 miles off the normal award level. To claim the award, call 800-882-8880 and mention award code AACRB25 (for Coach) or AACRB55 (for Business).

See you this summer!