Travelers' Intercom

A year ago I posted in the “Person to Person” section a request for altitude sickness remedies because I was taking a group of people to Peru in June ’07; I own a yoga studio, and we lead an international yoga retreat every year. I experienced problems the first time I was in Cusco several years ago, so I wanted to avoid that. I received many helpful replies, and this is my report on the remedies as tested out in our group of 28, plus a remedy I discovered by chance.

Even though I had decided to take Diamox and, in fact, carried a prescription of it with me, I ended up not using it...

The claim is that on the Galápagos Islands you will see animals that are found nowhere else on Earth: marine iguanas, giant tortoises and thousands of birds, including red-billed tropicbirds, pink flamingos, storm petrels and penguins, not to mention whales, fish by the thousands, etc.

All of the articles on these islands say something like, “Savor the strangeness of the creatures on these desolate volcanic isles much as Charles Darwin did two centuries ago.”

A limited number of people is allowed onto the islands so that the animals will not be disturbed and will remain in...

During a 14-day “Celtic Kingdoms” cruise on Holland America Line’s Prinsendam, on Aug. 31, 2007, I took a day-long shore excursion from Belfast to Giant’s Causeway.

Before the trip, I had read in a guidebook that the walk down to the causeway took 15 minutes but that a shuttle bus made continuous round trips. As I walked out of the rear door of the Visitor Center, a shuttle was returning up the hill and deposited people nearby, so I hopped on. At the bottom there was a group waiting to get on.

My shore excursion book called it “Causeway Coaster Minibus,” and I saw at least...