Easter Island + Panoramic Peru + Cruise on Manatee + Cruise on Eric, Letty & Flamingo, Jan 2011
Travel made your way ™
tour guides were super--Daniel in Quito area, Carlos in Lima to Puno, Vidal in Cusco area, Daniella on Easter Island; plus guide-naturalists on the Letty and guide on the Manatee were super; in Sacha Lodge guide was very knowledgeable.
to me food is not very important on a trip ; however the food at Sacha lodge was excellent and the food elsewhere was fine; in the high altitudes of Peru my appetite was reduced.
Couple of suggestions: in Quito area I read in the Lonely Planet I was carrying that Cotopaxi and the Quilotoa loop were highly rated. so the last two days in Quito area I modified our itinerary and went there with a night stay at La Ceinga Country Home-- fantastic ending to the 3 weeks I had in Ecuador. I think AdventureLife should recommend those places to people,. I went to BellaVista earlier which I enjoyed, but if I had not later read and then gone to Cotopaxi and Quilotoa loop, I would have missed out. That is more important and exciting to see than BellaVista, in my opinion. Second, when I got into Lima at night I called the representative to find out when our guide and the bus left the next day. Millagros said Adventure Life should have known and been able to state in the itinerary the time which was at 12:30 pm. Ecuador had excellent diversity--8 days Gallapagos, 7 days Quito and surrounding area, and 7 days the Amazon Basin, Rio Napo and a lodge!! Also Peru had fantastic diversity, from the 9 million people in Lima and the desert following the coast and then to the highlands and the greenery of Puno and Cusco and surrounding area. Suggestion-- at Nazca the flight is excellent and safe as only 3 airline companies now fly, with stricter rules since an accident a few years or so ago. So I highly recommend flying the lines. Also due to flexibility our guide switched the bus to Puno to one which left at 2 pm, rather than 10 pm. This allowed us to see the inland and coast area from the bus up until 7 pm or so when it got dark. It also allowed us to get to Arequipa that night by 11 pm and sleep in a hotel that night. I know the 2 pm bus does not run all the year, but it is the way to go in my opinion when it is running. Colca Canyon lodge is marvelous-- so glad we got 2 nights there. Night at Amantani Island was special, and I am very glad I went.I am glad I went back to Lima for 1 1/2 days before going to Easter Island; otherwise I would have only seen the city for a few hours the first morning before leaving for Paracas. The two museums were excellent there and it was nice to see more of the city than just walking the Miraflores area. Easter Island was super and a great way to end the trip as it combined a bit of relaxing with lots of seeing the sights. I highly commend AdvertureLife for planning a great and well organized yet flexible trip with super guides and wonderful places to stay and with lots of acitivity.
