Emma,

All is well with us.  We're in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.  The weather is fabulous and the town is as cute, if not cuter, than Cuenca.  

Our tour of the Avenue of the Volcanoes was fantastic.  Juan Fernando Duran is an outstanding tour guide.  He is knowledgeable, entertaining and accommodating.  He educated us not only about the geology of Ecuador, but its history, politics and the socio/economic conditions in the country.  He introduced us to indigenous people who still farm the land as they have for centuries.  He also took us to local restaurants where we sampled the "tipico platos" (typical dishes).  When my companion, Kathleen, mentioned it would be fun to take a tour of a rose farm, Juan immediately arranged one for us.  The farm was as interesting as we thought it would be. 

The lodgings you booked us into are top-notch, clean and very comfortable.  The owners of the hacienda, Hato Verde, are warm and welcoming people.  Their home and farm, which are four generations old, are beautiful and our stay there was a joy.  The hotels where we stayed were very attractive.  Their staff are professional and very helpful.  Our only regret regarding the hotels, especially Samari in Banos, was that we were only staying one night at each of them.  It barely gave us time to appreciate the impressive amenities. 

The tour of the volcanoes was everything we expected.  The mountain vistas are breath-taking (literally), the people we encountered are delightful, and the overall experience was rewarding.  We highly recommend it.

Hi Emma

Thank you again. As mentioned, you were lovely to work with and I appreciate everything you've done! I will be sure to pass you along to family and friends! 

Have a nice rest of your weekend! 

Hello Emma and Maria

Everything was perfect, thank you so much. Every recommendation was outstanding. The hotel in Santa Cruz was terrific, the day excursion with Finch Bay was terrific and Sacha Lodge was the best. Maria, you picked up seamlessly where Emma left off. I am so impressed with the impeccable service you both provided and again, the great recommendations. I'll be sure to write public reviews. Thank you both so, so much!! 

Kindest regards.

Hello Emma,

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond.

The Avenue of the Volcanoes tour was terrific - we really enjoyed it. We especially liked the guides we had - both of them. It's hard to imagine nicer or more helpful people. Please tell Juan Fernando Duran that I am really enjoying the book he recommended, The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf, and remind him to look at the books 1491 and 1493 by Charles C. Mann, and Crises by Jared Diamond. (Clearly, we had a lot of good talks while driving south.) We didn't have as much time to get to know the second Juan, but we also liked him a lot.

We were a little disappointed in the Devil's Nose train ride. That has nothing to do with your tour, it's just that the train ride itself is less thrilling than it seemed on the web. The other parts of the tour were great!

Thank you for providing a very good tour.

Emma,

Some feedback on trip with you:

Juan was great!  His scope made it possible to see many birds up close.  He loves birds and Maquipucuna.  Arsenio, at the lodge, was wonderful, as well.  A great combo! He’s a native, so more expert than Juan, but Juan is an eager learner.  We loved Maquipucuna - the isolation, the food, the birds, the staff!

The one suggestion - tell people to bring their own hairdryers, as that was a bit of a problem at Maqui and at San Francisco.  SF had only 1, and Maqui had them only in some rooms attached to the wall, so could not be shared.  

We thank you for your flexibility and efficiency.  Everything worked like clockwork, as planned, and I know how hard that must be to execute, given the locations.

We hope to return - and maybe stay overnight at Santa Lucia, such a beautiful place and nice owners.  It is exciting to see ecotourism working to preserve wild places that we love!

Hi Nena,

I just wanted to thank you for organizing a wonderful trip for us!  Every detail was perfect and we couldn't have enjoyed our trip more. We loved every guide and person that we interacted with.  We will be sure to recommend your company to our family and friends!  Thank you again for such a wonderful experience.

Dear Male,

Please find enclosed our feedback! Our trip was unique. We really enjoyed your services and the whole journey. Everything was more than perfect!!!!!!!! Fausto was the best guide we ever had during our tours worldwide!! We loved all tours and also the hotels were fine. 

We really can recommend your company to travel agencies in Austria – we informed already two agencies we know quite well.

Emma and everyone at Original Ecuador,

What a wonderful time I had with Andres!!!! Not only is Andres a very good guide but sensitive and extremely bright. He picked the best hike for me today. The experience was a dream come true.

Thank you!

Hi Emma,

Thanks for your message, back in Santiago, but with a bad cold I picked up in the cloud forest ☹

Walking tour was great, Andres was great company for the four days and we appreciated his driving and guiding. We loved the Hacienda La Cienega, amazing building with an interesting history. 

We didn’t love Mama Hilda unfortunately. It was ok, but just a bit rough around the edges. Food was nice and the grounds were pleasant, but the room was a bit cramped and bed was quite “cozy”. 

But just nit-picking really, we had a great trip overall

Thanks very much

Hi Emma

Leaving for the Galapagos this morning after a fabulous stay in Ecuador. 

Thank you so much for the great itinerary you put together for me. It all went very smoothly.

Without doubt Napo was the highlight. I enjoyed my time at Maquipucuna but should probably have done that before Napo because that was so amazing.

I will leave your evaluation form here at the Mirolindo and hopefully it will get to you.

Thanks again

Take care

Lynne

PS The biscuits were naughty but very nice!

Hello Emma

We are back at the Wyndham after the Galapagos and wow, what a trip.

The boat was super swish, the guests were enlightening, the animals astounding and when my clan were the only ones up for another snorkel yesterday, the rewards came thick and fast: a turtle was just letting us observe and then a sealion played with us for 30 mins!  

It was incredible and exhausting diving down, twisting and it copied us every time.  It even came up to our faces 15cm away.  When we eventually had to return to shore it kept swimming in front of us and trying to provoke us into playing again.  Utterly magic.  The only fitting thing was that was the only time I did not have a camera!

These are experiences you cannot orchestrate.

Your planning has been just wonderful Emma.  Everything you put together suited us down to a T.  Thank you so much as not only have we discovered Ecuador but we have really re-bonded as a family thanks to this trip.  It has been full of wonder and adventures that were spot on for us.

You are a superstar, thank you.  Where next?!

Hi Emma,

The tour went really well.  Hugo was great fun to travel with and very personable.  Didn’t get to see most of the volcanoes because of rain/clouds, but there was some sun every day and we were on holiday so was much more fun than endless rain in Cordova.  The second half of the Quilotoa Crater walk was really cold and miserable for all of us - Hugo included.  We ditched the last hour of walking as he found a ride for us which took as long as walking would have but it was warm and out of the rain!  Didn’t pressure us to hire the taxi just suggested it as an option - big smile on his face when we said yes - go for it.  (He was super cold also and we couldn’t see a thing).

The one thing we weren’t totally enthused about was the walk the first day.  It was on pavement the whole way, we didn’t find the villages particularly interesting and there was a fair amount of traffic.  I had envisioned more of a walk in the countryside.  We would have preferred a different sort of walk for the first day.

Loved the walk in Cotopaxi even though it was rainy and foggy off and on and we couldn’t see Cotopaxi.  Almost my favorite walk.  Loved the countryside around Quilotoa.  Would have loved another day at Mama Tigua’s with another walk there.  We opted out of the walk down to Baños as we wanted to get back to Quito mid-afternoon.  However even if we had time, I think we would rather have gone on a walk in the vicinity of the accommodation as we loved that valley.

I was working on my Spanish and Hugo was working on his English which was fun.  He was good at going with the flow and adjusting to all the little changes we requested.  I was glad we had a private tour as it was kind of like a family trip.

The lodging was spectacular.  Personal favorite was Las Palmeras.  Though Termas de Papallacta was the most expensive it had the least character of all of the accommodation.  But Guango Lodge would have been miserable on that day as it was pouring rain down there and very dark and dismal.  It was a perfect day to spend the afternoon in the hot springs.  With better weather we would have loved to stay at Guango Lodge and watch hummingbirds.

Loved everything about Ecuador, Mindo, Bellavista, your tour, the Galapagos.  Sorry it is over.

Had a marvellous time. Loved Quito. Specially the hacienda and horseback ride! Thank you!

Emma 

Just a little note to say how much we enjoyed our 2 weeks in Ecuador. Everything that we planned together came off without a hitch. From Jorge meeting us when our flight was late to all the other arrangements we planned together. Our day in Quito with Jorge was great and the ride to Hacienda Zuleto, also nice. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Hacienda, meeting several of the family members and enjoying the food and the activities.

The next part was our trip to the Galapagos, on the La Pinta Yacht, which was wonderful. The only thing we would have done different was stay a couple more days on the boat. The whole experience was outstanding. The guides, the accomadations, and food were fabulous. And, the people we met on board were also great.

We actually ended up on our last excursion to La Selva, in the Amazon, with 4 of the people we met on board. So all in all each part of the trip was interesting and different from each other. We really felt like we saw many differing parts of the country though there is much more to see.

We really appreciate the care you took of us, and would highly recommend you to others, as we have already done. Thanks again for our last night there, we really enjoyed the company, and hope to meet up again in the future. Be well and send our best to Andres. Have a great year, all the best.

Emma,

Thank you for all of the last minute arrangements you made for us to visit the rainforest and secure a driver. You went above and beyond and we had a great time. Jorge was a great driver and guide. He did an exceptional job.