December 2016 - Andean Trails

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Kathy Jarvis

Trekking, Peru, Climbing, Bolivia, Patagonia, Ecuador

Arequipa Top Restaurant Picks Peruvian gastronomy is famous throughout Latin America – and increasingly the world – for its quality …

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Kat Dougal

Ecuador, Bolivia, Galapagos, Families, Peru

Arequipa Top Restaurant Picks Peruvian gastronomy is famous throughout Latin America – and increasingly the world – for its quality …

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Gill Christie

Ecuador, Galapagos, Peru

Arequipa Top Restaurant Picks Peruvian gastronomy is famous throughout Latin America – and increasingly the world – for its quality …

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Tom Shearman

Galapagos, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Patagonia, Colombia

Arequipa Top Restaurant Picks Peruvian gastronomy is famous throughout Latin America – and increasingly the world – for its quality …

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Well, we had an AMAZING time. What a brilliant country. I'd probably say among many highlights, the best surprises were: - Peruvian food. We had no expectations whatsoever really - we went to Cuba a few years back, and whilst the country was fantastic the food there was pretty ordinary, and if anything we assumed Peru would be similar. But the range, quality and distinctiveness of what we found in Peru was amazing. The relative cheapness meant we were able to 'splurge' at really nice restaurants a number of times, which was great - but even the food at buffets on tour/coach trips and on the Inca Trail was excellent. We're on the hunt for a good Peruvian cookbook now! - Arequipa and (particularly) Cusco. Beautiful cities - and in the latter case, probably one of our favourite ever anywhere we've been. - The Tambopata Research Center. Thanks so much for organising a longer stay in the jungle with a trip to TRC as well as Refugio Amazonas. Both were great - but the time we spent at TRC, with fewer other tourists and lots more rare wildlife, was really outstanding, not least thanks to our guide Jhin (much more about him below). Both of us - but particularly Clare, I know - loved the working/research nature of the place and the more in-depth contact with the wildlife. - Colca Lodge. Thanks for the heads up, which as far as I could tell went down very well indeed. With regards to our guides/organisation, everything - pretty much without exception - ran like clockwork: we were picked up in every place, never had to wait or were left wondering what to do (even though having travelled independently a lot before we occasionally fretted needlessly). That's about it - if 'it' can cover what an amazing trip we had...I hope that's useful. Needless to say, we're very happy indeed with Andean Trails and we'll be recommending you to our friends and family. By the way, you might be interested to know that the things that initially really sold the trip over other agencies were: - the really detailed level of information you provided at the initial enquiry, esp the info about Tambopata and the Inca Trail. - the fact that the trip was planned to slowly acclimatise to altitude from Arequipa to Colca to Lake Titicaca to the Trail, before ending with Tambopata; this confused us originally because so many other tours (bespoke and non-bespoke) seem to have other routings - e.g. going straight to the Inca Trail after a night or two in Cusco - but your itinerary in retrospect made perfect sense, and ending with the jungle was the icing on the cake. Thanks very much again, and who knows? We might be in touch again regarding another South American trip in the future. We reckon Canada next year though..

Steven, UK, 2012
» Tambopata Research Centre

We were very lucky to have the company of some fantastic guides on the tour. Marco, our main tour guide, was as helpful as ever. The children will also mention Willow (Colca Canyon), Maria and Ruben (Puno and Taquile), Marlene (our host in the barrio [poor neighbourhood] of Cusco), Cristian and his rafting team, ‘George of The Jungle’ at Wasai and Fabiola (our tour guide in Lima). Enthusiastic and caring people – all of them. There were others too which i haven't mentioned. The trip would not have been such a great success without the superb organisation of Andean Trails and the personal attention of Kathy (the boss). We may have been their paying customers but their organisation, attention to detail and efficiency was fantastic. If you or any members of your family are ever planning a South American trip in the future then I don’t think you need to look any further for a quality organisation to organise your trip. Anyone who is familiar with our previous trip in 2006 will find it hard to believe that we actually crammed in more than we did then. For example, we had a great open-top-bus tour of Arequipa, saw a lot more of Lima including San Francisco and its catacombs and Lima’s Inca gold museum. The most significant addition to the trip was the visit to the poor barrio (bar-ee-oh) arranged by Andean Trails. We left a great quantity of clothes, football kits, pencils and 80+ ‘Tiny Tots’ watches donated by the Ragdoll TV company. A few members of the St Benedict’s community also donated a bit of money which we left with Marlene. The kids had great fun playing football with them and friendships were made the following day when 16 of them joined us on the rafting trip. On the bus to the river communication was easy and fun – we sang a song in English and then they sang a song in Spanish – again and again. It was great to see the handshakes and hugs between them all as we all said goodbye. We hope to maintain our contact with Andean Trails and Marlene and their work and are planning to raise money for ‘the project’ through our Advent and Lenten charity appeals.

Alex Hendry, UK, 2016
» Tailor made school trip to Peru

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