An evocative memory of simpler times

How times have changed [“On the Riviera Maya, Lost in a Land of Nod,” Feb. 15].

In 1978, after spending two weeks on Isla Mujeres, a small island off the coast near Cancun, my wife and I decided to take a bus to Belize. Soon after being dropped off near Tulum, we saw a crude sign reading palapas, pointing through the brush to the sea. We couldn’t resist and soon were the proud renters of a palapa on the beach, where we hung our hammocks for less than $1 a night.

We stay in Marriotts now, but I have to admit that I often yearn for that palapa on the beach.

Jack Rogers

Long Beach

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It is time to cross off Mexico as a destination. The treatment of our soccer team by the Mexican soccer fans showed a country amazingly hostile to its neighbor. One-and-a-half years ago, Mexican President Vicente Fox was a no-show at Bush’s ranch, which was not only impolite but unstately. Let’s stop supporting them.

Susan Rynas

Duarte