be taken with a pinch of salt.

It seems organisers have taken the figures for initial entries as gospel -- or, if we're being cynical, to make it appear the largest ever in terms of numbers.

Bermuda, for example, are listed as having a total of 109 competitors, 78 male and 31 female. The actual number is 38 and most of those are not arriving until later this week.

But, for the record, Mexico and Cuba have the highest complements, with 553 and 541 athletes registered respectively. Mexico have 30 swimmers alone while Cuba, not surprisingly, have topped the medals table at the last six Games.

Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have all brought more than 400, while at the other end of the scale are St Kitts and Nevis with a paltry 12.

El Salvador lead the way in sexual equality, being the only team to bring more women than men. The difference is marginal, though, at 64 to 56.

*** WITH so many of Bermuda's athletes arriving late, it was no surprise that their parade at the opening ceremony should be a little diminished. But it was disappointing to see only four souls representing the Island at the ceremony on Saturday night -- Chef de Mission Joan Taplin, swimming coach Dawna Ferguson and road race cyclists Jason Krupp and Mike Lee.

Unfortunately, swimmers Tamika Williams and Craig Roberts and time trial cyclists MacInnis Looby and Kris Hedges, were tucked up in bed in preparation for their early starts the following morning.

However, Bermuda's turnout was not the poorest -- Grenada managed just three -- and anyway, according to Ferguson, size didn't matter.

"The capacity crowd cheered every team equally,'' she revealed. "It was great.'' *** ANORAK alert. The 18th CAC Games are being commemorated by a special issue of postal stamps. The stamps depict a number of the sports including fencing, boxing, athletics, tennis, swimming, gymnastics and basketball. A whole set will set you back about 1500 bolivares -- that's about three dollars. Don't all rush now.

*** VENEZUELA are certainly making the most of these Games. A total of 16 of the 31 sports will be featured in 100 hours of television coverage. It is estimated that the coverage will be received by two million homes nationwide and an audience of 25 million internationally. The papers have huge sections devoted to the competition and it's hard to walk around without seeing someone wearing a Juegos de Sol -- Games of the Sun -- T-shirt. Such is the interest among the media in the region that yesterday several networks were featuring stories on the huge journalistic presence itself. Unfortunately, the organisers seem to have underestimated demand -- there are often up to 100 journalists competing for the use of 18 computer terminals and two cellular phones.

So much so that as your correspondent typed these words, a volunteer passed along the line of terminals placing a printed card on each. "Por favor sea breve en uso del computador'', it read -- loosely translated as Please don't take long at using the computer.

*** ONE sport fell by the wayside -- or should that be plunged into deep water -- on Sunday when the diving competition was cancelled.

CAC Games regulations state that individual disciplines must have a minimum of five countries participating. Although seven expressed an initial interest, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic made late withdrawals leaving Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela high and dry.

The hosts, in particular, were upset. "We had been training very hard,'' said the president of the Sport Aquatic Federation here, Lisa Devonish.

Also under threat, apparently, is the synchronised swimming.

*** WITH the 18th CAC Games barely a day old, the Dominican Republic stole the hosts' thunder, by holding a press conference to announce they wanted to hold the 19th. Juan Marichal, the Republic's sports minister, said there were three main points to their candidacy.

First, he said, nobody else had discussed the headquarters for the next Games in 2003. Second, the Government had taken the necessary steps for the outcome of the project and thirdly, the sports complexes in the country had begun complete redesigns.

But of more significance for Bermuda, especially with the work on the National Stadium due for completion early in the next Millennium, were his closing comments.

"For the Dominican Republic,'' he said, "the most important thing is to show that the smaller nations can participate in great events like this.''