Re: Western Pacific Odyssey
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýThanks Keith ¨C It was more of a Heritage issue on board the boat as we were all blatantly lied to regarding the landing permissions that Heritage were supposed to have in advance and actually didn¡¯t have at all. We subsequently found out that they just assumed we could land in the Caroline Islands and the Japanese Islands, neither of which had opened up after Covid for people landing directly from boats. The Covid case on board then became a perfect excuse but they never had the permissions to land in the first place! ? And we don¡¯t generally go on group tours either - we always use local guides unless it involves a boat like the Galapagos, Amazon, Antarctica or this one when you have no choice. Otherwise we always bird on our own with a guide and driver - that gives us the flexibility to change the itinerary if we want to ¨C birding in any group where people are talking or having difficulty getting on a bird is super-frustrating, especially if you¡¯re forest birding and we learnt long ago not to do it! ? Thanks again. ? Derek ? ? From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of pat.mary.taylor
Sent: June 13, 2023 5:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [vanbcbirds] Western Pacific Odyssey ? Hi ? Seems to me there were too many fingers in the pie. If Heritage had arranged the tour it would likely have fared better. Too bad that both companies have to pay the price of dissatisfied customers. The itinerary was fantastic and let¡¯s hope that it can continue with more expertise. The two concerns that stand out as displeasing to me are the meeting arrangements to begin the trip and not having at least 7-8 guides to split the group into reasonable sizes. I can¡¯t imagine trying to find a secretive ground species (like a pitta) with even 10 people¡¡¡but that¡¯s why I don¡¯t take tours. ? Keith Taylor Victoria BC
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Derek Matthews