Letters: The beauty, excitement and risks of a tour in Africa

Thank you for Amanda Jones’ article “Face Time With Animals” (Oct. 11). We recently returned from a visit to Greystoke Mahale in June. The camp is everything she reports.

Greystoke’s location is just perfect, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika with beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The trekking for chimpanzees was exciting (and at times a bit exhausting).

What the article didn’t mention was one other attraction — the camp’s resident great white pelican, “Big Bird.” Big Bird is an “accident,” a bird that arrived after a storm. He was too young to return to his flock and was adopted by the camp staff.

More puppy than pelican, he has the run of the camp, often getting into trouble with the directors. Friendly and gregarious, he greets each guest personally.

Every afternoon we returned from fishing on the lake, after some wonderful swims, and fed him.

His presence added a special thrill to this beautiful, secluded location.

Jim Staunton

Huntington Beach

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Just returned from Tanzania, I was disturbed by the article about a teen and her mother’s visit to Africa.

I was saddened that such unauthentic trips are offered. The most distressing is that the teen was placed in a dangerous situation. As the article stated, meerkats are prey. Africa is a dangerous place and should be regarded as such by guides.

Having animals interact with people is not healthy for humans or the wild animals. Surely, there are better ways to keep a teen from too much screen time.

Visit Africa, but travel with guides whose first job is to keep you safe and where the animals go about their lives with as little interference as possible.

Teri Foster

Oxnard

A few bumps during Italy tour

We recently booked a 14-day Mediterranean cruise with a stop in Rome. We tried to book the Vatican land tour not realizing the stop was on a Sunday. The tour operator advised we could attend Mass at St. Peter’s and probably see the pope on his balcony, but the Sistine Chapel and museum are closed on Sundays.

I had difficulty changing my cruise to another date but finally got the change, and Rome became the Wednesday port of entry. Why would any cruise line schedule a Sunday in Rome, the holiest port in the world, if their guests could not visit the Vatican?

I learned from a religious tour operator that the Vatican Museum is open on Sunday, a day reserved only for Italian citizens who find it difficult six days a week to compete with cruise ship guests seeking tickets to the Vatican.

Tom Whittington

Westlake Village

Last year a friend and I took a trip to Italy. We flew into Milan, rented a car, visited various towns large and small, and returned the car two weeks later. Months after our return, we received a notice that we had been photographed twice in eight minutes in Rome stopping or driving in a “restricted” area where we had been looking for the drop-off point for our vehicle. We apparently committed a similar infraction somewhere in Vicenza. We were never approached by a policeman and tried our best to abide by all the posted traffic regulations, but let’s face it: When in a foreign country with unfamiliar signage, it’s difficult to find one’s way around without at least stopping to look at a map.

The assessment for these citations is close to $800.

In an effort to protect tourists who have unintentionally violated a traffic code, hotels are now “fixing” these tickets for their guests if they were on their way to their establishments. It is now time for rental car companies to follow suit and refuse to provide driver information to municipalities that levy huge fines for minor infractions that threatened no one.

Until this or something equally protective is done, I fear that an increasing number of potential travelers will either be choosing different modes of transportation or destinations other than Italy.

Ruth Carr

Seattle