Botswana: Capturing the Chase

Every day was the most awe inspiring thing I’ve ever seen, but the day we took a boat ride through the Okavango Delta with our guide, K.D., was like being in the Garden of Eden! We left Xiegra Camp in the morning and traveled with K.D. toward Chiefs Island, it was about a 3 hour drive. As we got deeper into the delta, the thicker the birds became. There were Kingfishers, Great White Egrets, Herons, Herons, Herons (of all sizes), Pelicans, Whistling Ducks, Spoonbills, and so on. There were thousands of them! In the background were zebras, impalas, hippos, baboons and elephants, among other wild animals. We stopped for lunch and the zebra and giraffe slowly walked away. We sat under a huge tree with these animals and birds in front of us and on all sides. It was a beautiful gourmet lunch the camp had brought in another boat. 

After lunch, we continued up the delta. We were still in awe of the many birds flying in front of us when K.D. yelled “LION RUNNING, IMPALA!” We all looked and right in front of us, a female lion was chasing a herd of impala. One ran into the water not 40 feet from us and the lioness brought it down. She sat on it in the water and then another lioness came sauntering up. Then the king himself came out and he just grabbed it from the 2 females and walked off with the impala in his mouth. He was the first to have lunch behind a bush. The two females just stood and stared at us, then they left. The whole encounter took about 6 minutes! We were stunned!

Back at camp, we shared our photos on our computer with the other guides. They said that some people come on 10-20 safaris to see what we saw. I guess it was just first time luck!

Written by: Peggy Romano, client of Passport Health Colorado

Required vs. Recommended Vaccines

Many people try to look on-line to see what kind of vaccines or prescriptions they will need for their particular destination. However, there is no resource available to find out this information in it’s entirety. There are general guidelines for most countries, but that is not always accurate information for the region within the country you may be traveling to.

For example, someone might look on the CDC website and see that the only vaccine which is required to enter or leave the country is Yellow Fever. However, there are major misconceptions roaming around about this requirement. Most people don’t realize that that Yellow Fever requirement has nothing to do with their personal health. What the country officials are doing is protecting their citizens from you. Many times, this means that there is currently NO Yellow Fever in the country or area, and they want to keep it that way so they require everyone traveling there to have proof of vaccination. This ensures that Yellow Fever will not become a problem.

Another scenario on why a vaccine may be required or highly recommended is if there is an outbreak that results in deaths or reported hospitalizations and treatment from a particular disease.

When thinking of ‘Required vs. Recommended’ vaccines, remember that just because only one vaccine may be required, does NOT mean that it’s the only disease that may be a problem at your destination, if it’s present at all.

Recommended vaccines are a larger list of precautions that help protect you from any and all other diseases that are present in the area. If there are outbreaks, we will discuss those and all other information you may need to have a safe trip and return healthy.

Here at Passport Health, we want to make sure that you are as protected as possible, and that means giving you a complete list of any required and recommended vaccines and prescriptions for your particular trip.