Hotels and Lodging

On a tour of Peru in September ’08, the itinerary had us spending two nights in Cusco at the Samay Hotel (Av. San Martin 206, Cusco, Peru), then one night in Machu Picchu, then two more nights in Cusco. Although the accommodations at the Samay were good, we never got a decent night’s sleep due to noise from street traffic, trains and barking dogs as well as slamming doors, both staff and guests talking, etc. Earplugs helped only minimally.

What would I have done differently? (See Oct. ’08, pg. 2.)

From MUNICH, Germany, Dec. 12, 2008. . .

by Philip Wagenaar, second of four parts

Bolivia was the only South American country my wife, Virginia, and I hadn’t visited, so we contacted Cecilia at Sol International (Kodak, TN; 800/765-5657, http://solintl.com) and she arranged an 8-day/7-night trip for us for March 6-13, 2008.

In contrast to the rather organized (for a third-world country) north, with its hotels, Christian churches and towns, southern Ethiopia is rural and tribal and has few amenities for Westerners. In the south, the majority of the people are Muslims or animists. Distinctly different from the north, it is a very African place.

When my granddaughter Melody, just 16, begged us to take her to England, I wanted her to experience the England I loved most. My husband, John, and I and our son Huntley traveled with Melody from June 29 to July 14, 2008.

My wife, Barbara, and I returned from a 10-day trip to Beijing in October ’08. Our first trip to China was on a tour in 1985, and we wanted to visit highlights that we had not seen 23 years before. A very effective and inexpensive method to accomplish this presented itself at our accommodation, Traders Hotel.