WHY BUY TRAVEL MEDICAL INSURANCE COVERAGE?

After 47 years of travel, we've learned that even if you are healthy when you begin your trip, unanticipated circumstances can cause sickness and injuries requiring medical treatment.

Some examples? During a fascinating Sahara tour, our group visited a Berber camp. After a roast lamb dinner, we sat on sand dunes to listen to traditional music.

A sideways glance revealed a yellow scorpion with its tail and venomous stinger raised. We abruptly jumped away and stood for the rest of the performance, watching the sand as closely as the entertainers.

An internet search later described the symptoms of the deathstalker scorpion's sting — increased heart rate and blood pressure, excruciating pain, convulsions and coma requiring medical attention. Gulp.

Creepy crawlies

In Sri Lanka, a mosquito net draped around our rainforest hotel bed offered protection from malaria. After closing the net around us for the night, we glanced up and gasped. Dangling above us was a large, hairy spider. We couldn't get out of bed fast enough.

After we called reception, an employee arrived. His eyes widened as he looked at the spider. "One bite" he said, as he slit his finger across his neck. He whacked the critter with a broom, after knocking it to the floor. We slept fitfully for the rest of the night.

Months later, we were surprised to see a New Mexico park ranger holding a similar-looking spider. "The venom of North American tarantulas is not as toxic as that of Asian and African species," he told us, "but they have barbed hairs that can irritate your skin or damage your eyes and nasal passages."

Menacing monkeys

Injuries can happen when you least expect them. Visitors to India's Hindu temples frequently buy marigold garlands as offerings. We purchased two garlands. After the vendor placed them around our necks, we strolled through the peaceful grounds, watching the worshipers and the monkeys that congregated at the temple.

Suddenly, two large monkeys approached us on their hind feet, fangs bared. Thoughts of needing rabies shots from monkey bites raced through our minds as they backed us against a wall. Reaching out with sharp claws, they snatched the garlands from our necks. Sitting down, they carefully dismantled the garlands, munching the marigolds. Whew!

Territorial swans

Not all close calls happen in exotic locations. In the Netherlands, we photographed farmers removing tulip blossoms to encourage the bulbs to grow. When we approached a pile of red tulip flowers, a large male swan started chasing us, flapping his wings and snapping his beak.

As we backed away quickly — nearly tripping in our retreat — we realized that the bird was defending his nesting mate and her eggs behind the flowers. We later learned that bites from aggressive swans can cause serious infections.

Tummy troubles

In Costa Rica, our tour group visited a park where visitors took turns holding docile, green iguanas. The guide neglected to tell us that iguanas carry Salmonella on their scaly skin.

Being fastidious about cleanliness, we washed our hands before lunch. Members of our group who didn't clean their hands suffered the consequences. One person required antibiotics and IV fluids for dehydration.

Sometimes, even taking precautions doesn't prevent illness. During India's Pushkar Camel Fair, hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors travel to Rajasthan's desert to see this combined pilgrimage and livestock-trading festival.

We stayed in a tented hotel with a restaurant. Although we drank only bottled water and avoided ice cubes, we came down with bad cases of "Delhi belly."

Later, we discovered that due to water shortages staff "washed" the dishes by rubbing them with sand — undoubtedly contaminated by dung from countless camels. The condition resolved when we returned to our Jaipur hotel the following day.

Treacherous roads

On driving tours, we always took off-the-beaten-track scenic routes rather than expressways.

Sometimes, we had warnings of potential catastrophes such as the falling rocks sign in Norway, minutes before a landslide of boulders tumbled onto the road in front of us.

At other times, we had no hint of impending disaster. One morning, we awoke in our Nicaragua seaside resort cottage to discover water surrounding our bed. While we slept, an undersea earthquake had triggered a small tsunami.

We debated whether we should risk potential injuries by wading to higher ground or climbing up on the roof if the water rose higher. When we called the front desk, staff assured us that the water would retreat. (It did.)

Near drownings

Good luck spared us from other medical emergencies. Picturesque icebergs dotted our route as we cruised along Greenland's western coast.

Thinking about the Titanic, we asked the captain about the safety of cruising amid so many chunks of ice. "Don't worry," he said. "Today's ships have more precise equipment to detect icebergs than the Titanic did, more than a century ago."

After we disembarked in Greenland, the ship continued to Antarctica, where it hit an iceberg and sank. Passengers and crew fortunately avoided drowning and hypothermia after they abandoned ship and were rescued from lifeboats by another vessel.

On other trips, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. During a Turkish cave tour, we photographed beautifully illuminated stalactites reflected in deep pools on both sides of our path. Suddenly, the lights went out. We couldn't see our hands in front of our faces.

Electrical blackouts in the region could last for hours or days. No one had a flashlight. (This happened before cell phones existed.) Luckily, our guide had a book of matches in his pocket.

Clinging to each other, we followed him along the path until each match burned to his fingertips. Just as the flame from his last match vanished, we reached the entrance. After observing the sweat dripping from our guide's face and his trembling hands we realized that our escape could've had disastrous consequences.

Close calls

We also narrowly avoided harm in more popular tourist destinations. As we photographed Honolulu, Hawaii on a helicopter tour, the door popped open. Our pilot worried that the open door would break off and hit the tail rotor. We grabbed the handle and held it close to the helicopter while the pilot made a quick retreat to the airport to secure the door.

On Hawaii's Big Island, a pair of runaway horses nearly resulted in broken bones. After skirting a rainforest and fording a river during a horseback tour, our wrangler Smitty warned us: "Horses love to scratch their backs in the sand. Don't let them roll over when you reach the beach because you could be injured."

Just as he predicted, our horses started to roll over on the beach. As we pulled up on the reins, the horses weren't happy. Pinning their ears back, they galloped off to the forest, forcing us do seated limbo dances to avoid being knocked off by low-hanging branches. Fortunately, Smitty rushed to us and quickly halted the horses.

Skydiving insurance exclusions

While guided horseback riding trips aren't usually dangerous, other adventure activities such as rock climbing, bungee jumping and paragliding are riskier.

In Tennessee, when we had the opportunity to go tandem skydiving with Leon, an experienced skydiver, our journalistic response was: "What a great story!"

Because Leon wanted to ensure that we had the courage to jump out of the plane's open door, he asked us to first jump off a cliff in a tethered hang glider. As we stepped off the precipice, the sensation of flying — rather than falling — motivated us to do the 5,500-foot skydive.

The cold air that ruffled our clothing as we free-fell 1,500 feet at 200 mph warmed after Leon pulled the cord for the 4,000-foot parachute descent. Our bird's eye view of the approaching landscape was exhilarating.

Read the insurance policy!

The euphoria that we felt after landing was later replaced with dismay when we noticed that hang gliding and skydiving were excluded from our insurance. From that moment on, we carefully reviewed the policy before every trip.

Will fear of injuries or illness ever stop us from travelling? Not a chance. None of our near mishaps resulted in insurance claims. But considering the alternative outcomes, we always ensure our peace of mind by booking coverage for medical emergencies.

We don't leave home without it.

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