December 2010

I’m a volunteer for Travelers Aid (202/546-1127, www.travelersaid.org). This charitable organization, founded in 1914, has information desks and helps travelers at 36 sites in the US, mainly in airports but also at bus and train stations.

I’m one of 300 volunteers at Washington Dulles International Airport. (All staff are volunteers; program managers are paid.) We have three information desks in the main terminal manned daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. plus volunteers behind podiums in the other concourses and at two locations inside Customs and Immigration.

My wife, Dorothy, and I traveled through the Western Pacific in September ’10, visiting Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Fiji, Guam, Chuuk and Palau. Many of our flights were on Air Pacific, and while in flight the airplane cabins were sprayed with insecticide.

The spray was nontoxic, BUT it caused the lenses of our lightweight plastic eyeglasses to craze and fog! We had to have the lenses replaced.

Also of note — the departure tax for Palau has been raised to $35 per person.

PHIL MORRIS

Honolulu, HI

Often away from the US for many weeks, I have found a method to pay my Chase Continental Visa card bill.

Regarding “Hands Tied as Credit Limit Exceeded” (Sept. ’10, pg. 26), about a cruise passenger at sea unable to communicate with his credit card company, several years ago we converted all of our credit card bills (AmEx and two Visa cards) as well as other recurring charges, including utility bills, to auto-pay, by which each bill is automatically deducted from our checking account(s) on the due date.

My husband, Nelson, and I traveled to France in June ’09 and to England and France in July-August ’10. Each time, we took cash to Washington Dulles airport and, before our flight, found a Travelex counter and got a Cash Passport prepaid debit card in euros. Each had a magnetic stripe but no chip.

What I particularly liked is that these prepaid cards were not linked to any bank account, and if one were lost, stolen or compromised, Travelex would put an immediate stop on it and issue us a new card.

We traveled in Argentina, March 24-April 7, 2010, spending a few days each in Mendoza, Puerto Iguazú and Buenos Aires.

The book “Circles in the Sky” and the website www.ferris-wheel.org relate the history of George Ferris and Ferris wheels. Included is a short section on 32 of them around the world that people can ride (on the website, click on “Map of Wheels”).

The 164-page book, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (800/548-2723, www.asce.org), costs $35 (if purchased from their website, shipping is free).

by Judi Purcell, Pensacola Beach, FL

REPORT FROM MEXICO…

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 418th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine, the one you help write. The news writes this page, however, and this month it includes a number of warnings.