South America

by Nancy Tardy; Las Vegas, NV

14 days / 13 nights or 18 days / 17 nights. Highlights: From Quito, ECUADOR, fly to Baltra Island and board the Tip Top IV / blue-footed boobies, frigate birds on North Seymour / snorkel, kayak in Darwin Bay off Tower Island / fur seals on Santiago / marine iguanas on Isabela / Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz / albatross, Nazca boobies on Española. Land / cruise, $5,500-$6,300. Single supp. (3-night hotel portion only), $300. Galápagos Travel (Aptos, CA; 800 / 969-9014).

8-day / 7-night tour of GUATEMALA. Highlights: Guatemala City / market in Chichicastenango / market in Solola / boat trip on Lake Atitlán; visit a lakeshore village / colonial-style Antigua / temples, pyramids in the Mayan city of Tikal. From Miami, from $1,690 double, $1,618 triple or $2,257 single. Tara Tours (Miami, FL; 800 / 327-0080, www.taratours.com).

A US citizen living in Argentina asked how many times additional pages can be added to an existing passport (July ’12, pg. 15). These “visa page inserts” each number 24 pages.

The US Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual, Volume 7 (1310 Appendix V), states, “The Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) recommends adding no more than two sets of visa page inserts to a passport for the reason that the added thickness may result in damage to the binding of the book during its validity.”

Eager to explore Guatemala, my wife, Gail, and I chose Caravan Tours (Chicago, IL; 800/227-2826) for our trip, Jan. 2-11, 2012.

Since mid 2011, the number of visitors at Machu Picchu has been capped at 2,500 per day, and Peru requires tickets to be purchased in advance. While tour operators will handle that for their clients, independent travelers need to make their own arrangements.

Visitors to Rapa Nui often assume that there are two types of moais: the hundreds of “giant heads” and, numbering fewer, the much smaller statues with bodies and red topknots. In ongoing digs, all the head statues excavated have been found to have bodies beneath them (up to 10 meters tall), some with petroglyphs. Visitors may observe excavations by the Easter Island Statue Project.

CORRECTION — The item about the death of Lonesome George in the Galápagos islands incorrectly stated that he died on Pinta (Aug. ’12, pg. 15).

George was the last of the Pinta Island subspecies of giant land tortoise; however, he was removed from Pinta in 1972. He died on Santa Cruz Island at the Charles Darwin Research Center.
I was on Santa Cruz and had planned to walk to the center to see him on June 25, but he died the day before. I did get to see his two girlfriends.

We asked you to write about a restaurant, shop or other business housed in a historic, unique, spectacular or interesting building (outside of the US) that can be entered without paying an admission fee. We weren’t looking for a place like the Hard Rock Café that just has pictures and antiques everywhere; if it is a café, however, the architecture should be as much the experience as the meal. Or it can be a working library in a castle. Or a butcher shop in a cathedral.

The highlight of a 6-week, customized tour of Brazil that my husband, Maurice, and I took, January-March 2011, was the four days we spent in the Lençois Maranhenses region, Feb. 1-4 (July ’12, pg. 29).