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Kayak trip next for Antarctic explorers

MINNEAPOLIS -- Explorers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen are preparing for an adventure closer to home.

The two women are getting ready for a six-week kayaking adventure through four Great Lakes, starting in mid-May.

They plan to paddle from Lake Superior's North Shore to the St. Lawrence Seaway beyond Lake Ontario in upstate New York, traveling briefly with young campers and Girl Scouts who followed by computer their trip last year across Antarctica.

Last year, Bancroft and Arnesen, who is from Norway, traveled alone for 97 days across Antarctica, pulling 250-pound sleds 1,700 miles across mountain glaciers and a vast polar plateau. They paid for their expedition by selling corporate sponsorships to companies searching to reach a mostly female audience.

Jamaican hotels report increase in occupancy

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica -- The number of tourists visiting many Jamaican hotels is rising, resort managers say, suggesting business is rebounding four months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Major hotels in the northern resort areas of Montego Bay and Ocho Rios say they are nearly booked up through mid-January and the rest are at least 55 percent booked.

After the September terrorist attacks in the United States shook confidence in air travel, occupancy fell as low as 15 percent in some Jamaican hotels.

Jamaica's high tourism season begins in December and runs through March. Around this time of year, hotel occupancy rarely dips below 85 percent.

--From wire reports