September 27, 2017 Departure

GlennG

Hi everyone,

Just wondering who else will be traveling in this group. We are arriving 2 nights early and staying an extra night in Bolivia.

Look forward to chatting with everyone over the next 6 months!

Glenn

Shirls

Hi Glenn,
My husband n I r on this trip with u. This if the first that I've checked the form so sorry for the long delay in responding. Found the form very helpful when we went to Africa.
Will start to watch the weather for down there in about a month.
We r from south central Pennsylvania and both turning 70 later this year.
Shirley

GlennG

Hi Shirley!

Nice to finally communicate with another person our our tour. We live in northern NJ and so looking forward to this trip.

Are you arriving early into Lima? We had originally planned to stay an extra day in Bolivia but due to work, will be flying home when the tour ends. We will start our trip out of Newark on the 24th.

Have not really followed the weather closely for our trip yet either. I have started to look into tour companies for our free time in Lima before the Tauck Tour starts.

This trip will be here before we know it!
Glenn

Shirls

Good Morning Glenn,
We r not extending the trip at all. I picked up the Tauck information booklet yesterday so will read it as soon as husband Bill is done with it. We fly out on the 27th. It will be nice not to have a lot of time zone differences.
shirley

jmorehart1

Hello Glenn and fellow travelers for the Sept. 27 trip. My husband Bill and I will be traveling with the group. We are from New Jersey and excited to hear there will be others from our area in our group. We will be arriving at 5:35 am on the morning of the 27th. Yikes! (We made our air reservations through Tauck so we had no other choice.) Sounds like it will be a busy but great experience. Looking forward to meeting everyone. Not sure yet what we will do with the day since we are arriving so early. Any suggestions?

Judi

Lisa from Phila

Hello,

I am actually going on the Sept. 5th trip. Do any of you know if we need immunizations?

Lisa

British

It's almost too late for any immunization you may need, look on the CDC website for information, which is what Tauck suggests.

jmorehart1

Lisa, There is an organization called Passport Health that has all the information about required vaccines and has appointments to administer them. We have several in NJ so I'm sure you must have one in Philly.

Passport Health
732-345-0029 / 800-741-0504 Good Luck!

British

There is Passport Health in Philly, but it is an expensive way to do this. Some pharmacies offer a similar service and it is much cheaper. Some you have to make an appointment, some you may just have to walk in. Have a detailed copy of your itinerary including a map of where you are going and a current record of past immunizations. Remember that shots like Hep B is a series of three over several months and many adults have not had this though it is a routine shot for babies in the US now. It's a good idea to think about shots for travel many months in advance.

Lisa from Phila

Thanks everyone. I have an appointment this week at a Travel Clinic for immunizations - specifically Hep A, Typhoid and Malaria. I called around, and it appears as though most places are out of the Yellow Fever vaccination. The CDC web site says this this is recommended, but I don't believe it is required. Any thoughts on the Yellow Fever vaccination?

Lisa

British

That's great Lisa. Yellow fever, if you can find it, get it, and get it under your belt for future travel also. it's handy being up to date with shots, we just booked a last minute Africa trip today, so all we have to worry about is getting our Malaria pills.

MCD

I took this trip in May. I had already had the Hep A vaccine for a China trip so didn't need it for this one. My travel clinic doctor said that I didn't really need the yellow fever vaccine because it was recommended for people who would be traveling farther inland (and, as I recall, for people who were younger than my 68 years), but I decided to get it anyway, since it was kind of borderline and I anticipate more travels in the next few years when I might need that vaccine.

I did get the pills to counteract altitude sickness and was glad that I did. ( I have a friend who is in great shape who traveled there last year and was seriously ill with altitude sickness.) Taking the advice of others who posted in this and other Peru forums, I avoided alcohol (till wine with dinner the last night), drank the coca tea, and kept hydrated. I did not have any altitude sickness problems, though some others on the tour did. Our tour director, Wendy Gonzales, was great -- and made sure that the people who did not feel well were taken care of.

It's a great trip, but exhausting. Have fun!

GlennG

Good Morning everyone!

Judith, we are from Madison in northern NJ. Nice to know there will be others from out state on our tour. I've been looking at Trip Advisor that has info on several 1/2 tours. Also, I understand that a very large outdoor market is within walking distance of our hotel. That would be nice to get some souvenirs/gifts off the list.

I recently went to my primary doctor who confirmed that the yellow fever vaccine was not required nor necessary for out trip. If we were traveling further inland then it would have been necessary.

I did fill my prescription for altitude sickness (Diamox). I look forward to trying the local remedy of cocoa leaves tea but feel safer to have something stronger with me to avoid feeling ill at all.

AlanS

GlennG wrote:

Good Morning everyone!

Judith, we are from Madison in northern NJ. Nice to know there will be others from out state on our tour. I've been looking at Trip Advisor that has info on several 1/2 tours. Also, I understand that a very large outdoor market is within walking distance of our hotel. That would be nice to get some souvenirs/gifts off the list.

I recently went to my primary doctor who confirmed that the yellow fever vaccine was not required nor necessary for out trip. If we were traveling further inland then it would have been necessary.

I did fill my prescription for altitude sickness (Diamox). I look forward to trying the local remedy of cocoa leaves tea but feel safer to have something stronger with me to avoid feeling ill at all.

You are probably referring to the INKA market. Many, many- a labyrinth of- stalls- we dropped quite a few Soles there (USD, plastic not accepted?). We were on P&G last year, but stayed in the same hotel, the Belmond Miraflores, in Lima and walked there. It is a fairly straight, level shot on sidewalks from the Larcomar cliffside mall along Ave Jose Larco, but it is a decent hike.

A group of four of us made the trek on foot, then walked back to the seaside cliffs on Ave Malecon Balta to the Parque Amor area to check out the parasailing center, then to the mall for lunch (TGI Fridays : ) ). After lunch we walked back along the cliffside promenade to the hotel. In the afternoon we took a taxi to Parque Amor to parasail (tandem), then walked down to the beach to Rosa Nautica, a restaurant which is on a pier, for dinner while watching the sun set. We took a taxi back to the hotel- according to my Fitbit, the total walking distance was 7 miles. You can check it out on Google maps.

I took Diamox and my wife took Dexamethasone and neither of us were affected by the drugs or altitude.

When the going got tough, the tough went shopping:

jmorehart1

I'm still a little concerned about the yellow fever vaccine. I know some travelers are saying it is recommended but not required. I remember reading somewhere in all the literature we received that proof of certain vaccine will be required at the border going into Bolivia. If unable to provide documentation you may be detained. Does anyone know specifically which vaccine it would be? Earlier travelers may not have needed it but I understand there has been an outbreak which is why there is a shortage and many pharmacies can not get it. Thoughts?

British

If the paperwork is talking about a certain vaccine, then it has to be Yellow fever since there is no vaccine for Malaria. Tauck just is not clear enough about vaccines, they want the customer to be responsible for all health choices, not them. And one thing is for sure, the tour directors will not wait for individuals who fail to have the correct documentation, they make that very clear in their contract with you as a customer.
Under normal circumstances, you cannot get Yellow fever vaccine at any pharmacy, it is just at approved locations.
just checked the latest on the CDC website, if you are traveling from Peru to Bolivia, then you are required to show proof of vaccine, even though there is not risk of YF in all of Peru. If the border control officers are having a bad day, they may ask for proof, even if you say you have not been to the YF part of Peru. We have only ever been asked to show our Yellow fever proof of vaccine once in all our travels, but we're glad we had it when we were.

MCD

As I noted earlier in this thread, I took this trip in May. I had received the yellow fever vaccine "just in case." Maybe we lucked out, but when we crossed the border from Peru to Bolivia, we didn't have to show anything. Our tour director had collected our fees for our Bolivian visa a few days in advance (Do be sure that you get those CRISP US bills, no folds, wrinkles, staple marks) and probably copies of our passports (I don't remember that). We rode from Peru to Bolivia on tricycles (locals pedalled!) through a marketplace, then picked up a bus in Bolivia, the driver of which had to show some paperwork at an immigration/customs checkpoint down the road -- but no one ever checked or made a copy of my immunization record.

jmorehart1

British wrote:

If the paperwork is talking about a certain vaccine, then it has to be Yellow fever since there is no vaccine for Malaria. Tauck just is not clear enough about vaccines, they want the customer to be responsible for all health choices, not them. And one thing is for sure, the tour directors will not wait for individuals who fail to have the correct documentation, they make that very clear in their contract with you as a customer.
Under normal circumstances, you cannot get Yellow fever vaccine at any pharmacy, it is just at approved locations.
just checked the latest on the CDC website, if you are traveling from Peru to Bolivia, then you are required to show proof of vaccine, even though there is not risk of YF in all of Peru. If the border control officers are having a bad day, they may ask for proof, even if you say you have not been to the YF part of Peru. We have only ever been asked to show our Yellow fever proof of vaccine once in all our travels, but we're glad we had it when we were.

Good to know. I believe we will err on the safe side and go ahead and get the vaccine. The only thing that has been holding us back is the exorbitant cost at local travel offices. (Approx. $235 per shot)