March 2009

I disagree with the statement made by the author of the article “Peru — Exploring Machu Picchu and Beyond” in the January ’09 issue. He stated, on page 24, “… most Peruvians speak little English, even those in the tourist industry.”

My wife and I visited Peru and Bolivia as part of a group in 2006. We stayed in modestly priced hotels and essentially were on our own for most meals. I can speak and read some Spanish but by no means am fluent, and my wife speaks very little Spanish.

In her letter on India, Martha Spring asked how other ITN readers “respond to poverty on their travels” (Dec. ’08, pg. 58).

I read with interest the reader’s account of being required to pay money to agents on a train traveling from Chisinau, Moldova, to Kiev, Ukraine (Dec. ’08, pg. 11).

We are happy to pass along that we completed our 60th anniversary yearlong celebration in fine style as planned. Alma’s fall in Majorca in April, reported in my letter in the September ’08 issue (“Insurance Came Through — Fast,” pg. 18), gave us four months of concern as she fought back successfully to walk again.

This is a postscript to my letter “Pros and Cons of Tour Group Audio Systems” (Sept. ’08, pg. 15), with clarifications.

During my four weeks in Vietnam and one week in Cambodia, Nov. 28-Dec. 10, 2008, I was very pleased with a product I had purchased prior to leaving, the SteriPEN® Traveler (Hydro-Photon, Inc., Box 675, Blue Hill, ME 04614; 888/783-7473, www.steripen.com).

Throughout the trip, I did not buy any bottled water and instead drank tap water or ordered just “a glass of water” with each meal, in each case sterilizing it with the SteriPEN® before drinking.

• Founded in 1990 by Leonard Bernstein, the Pacific Music Festival is a celebration of classical music held annually in Sapporo, Japan. For two of the last three years, I’ve attended the festival’s Picnic Concert, held the last Sunday of July in Sapporo Art Park.

My husband, Ray, and I took the “Ultimate Australia” tour with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/493-6824, www.oattravel.com). In selecting this tour, we had been interested only in small-group itineraries that would take us to, at a minimum, Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, Uluru (Ayers Rock), the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney.

by Donna DeGaetani, Los Angeles, CA