POB 2605
Evergreen, CO 80437
phone: 303-317-5411
fax: 303-496-7071
toll free: 877-870-0578
mc@andeanrain.com
© 2006 Andean and Rainforest Expeditions, LLC
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TESTIMONIALS |
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Date: 09/25/05 Hola Mario and Jeanine, We loved the unique surprises due to your special connections everywhere we went, like the exposure to local artists and collectors, native ceremonies, unique Peruvian music, the tours of historical Incan sights, the gourmet cuisine(!), the special excursions arranged for our active 16 year old adventurer(!!!), and more. Our accommodations were fabulous, whether they be camp-side with dining tent and amazing cloud forest scenery, or hotel luxury before and after our back country experience. And most of all, we want to thank your talented team that helped guide us through this exploration of the Andes and its history and culture. The pace was perfect so that we could achieve our goals. What an awesome group! Great leadership, great fun! Thanks for letting us participate in this fantastic trek. It was beyond our expectation, and will remain a great family adventure in our memories. Mary… ( Mike, Amy and Michael)Date: 09/25/05 Mario, Michael D. Partheymuller (High School Student) Date: 06/14/05 Hi Mario, Silverio introduced me to Eduardo Nycander while at TRC and I would appreciate it if you would forward this email along to him. Thanks a million for a hassle-free fantasy tour! We're hooked and will return. Cheers,Pam Mills and Terry Boswell Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Date: 05/27/05 Dear Mario, Chile photo trip with Boyd Norton Hello Boyd, 2005 Tanzania photo trip with Boyd Norton Boyd and Barbara, Subject : chile Hi Mario, Subject: RE: re[4]: Lee Harding - Jan program A little feedback on our trip to Posada Amazonas: it wasn't at all as advertised. We expected torrential rain and the air thick with mosquitos, but the sun shone almost the whole time and there were hardly any mosquitos (well, there were a few, but they were petite and gentle compared to our Canadian mosquitos). But seriously, we did have a wonderful time, added hundreds of birds to our life lists, saw an armadillo, capybara, agoutis, lobos de rio, a tyra (the last two were especially nice for me, since I am a mammalogist who has studied other species of aquatic and arboreal Mustelidae), and all 5 local species of monkey, besides tracks of jaguar and peccary, and thoroughly enjoyed our hikes and boat rides in the jungle. Our 84 year old blind Mom, after enduring the rigours of Machu Picchu, was happy just to sit on the sunny boardwalks or in the shade of the palm thatch according to the time of day, and listen to the parrots and monkeys, so she had a wonderful time, too. Cesar is a great guide, thoroughly knowledgeable about the flora and fauna and a great bird and game spotter (I'm pretty good at that myself, but more than met my match!), besides being a friendly and gracious companion. We also appreciated that he was so attentive to our Mom, helping her and guiding her. Attached is a picture of Cesar feeding Mom a piece of cake at the transfer station on the bank of the Tambotata River and one of Cesar and me doing a little dance in front of the giant kapok tree. Back in Lima, Mario Cabrejos and I had a great time birding together. I'm not sure if I wrote down Cesar's hotmail address correctly, so if I have it wrong, I would appreciate it if you would send me the correct one. Thanks for organizing such a great trip for us. Are you doing the same sort of thing in Africa? It's a place I haven't been to...yet. Yours sincerely,Lee Harding, Ph.D. President, SciWrite Environmental Sciences Ltd. Subject: Thank you from Tess After spending an amazing month working with ANIA in the community of Boca Amigo, Madre de Dios, I have returned to the United States. I just wanted to thank you for putting me into contact with Joaquin Leguia and his organization, ANIA. You helped me discover an incredible project, community, and an unforgettable experience. I hope we can keep in touch and again thank you so much for everything. Sincerely,Theresa (Tess) Edmonds Date: September 2003 Dear Mario,Now that I am back from Peru and caught up with most of my everyday life, I wanted to send you a note. I cannot thank you enough for the excellent trip you created for our group! From our entry into Peru, when we all got the "green light," to our last day when Kika and Milagros came to join us for a final pisco sour, it has been an excellent adventure, full of "green lights!" You have been a pleasure to work with. You created an engaging and well-paced itinerary for our trip to start with, and were particularly responsive in accommodating our special requests and unusual destinations. Your knowledge and love of the country was apparent in your planning, and everyone we met in Peru expressed liking you quite a lot! The guides you arranged for us were top-notch. Each shared their own unique attributes with us - Kika and her vivacious, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable approach to leading us; Helga with her sublte humor and introspective and intellectual knowledge of cultural history; Vico with his patience and earnest desire to teach us about the rainforest, and Ofelia with her efficient and welcoming help. Each of these guides went even beyond the excellent itinerary to provide us with authentic experiences, to meet and connect with the people, culture and nature of Peru. At every destination, we were met with warm, welcoming people. For example, Olaf invited us into his ranch home and even sang while he joined us for lunch. Mari Solari dedicated hours to showing us her arts and her home. The rangers at the Paracas National Reserve allowed us to peek at the penguin they had which was soon to be re-introduced to the wild. Monica and her colleague at Acarema spent quite a bit of time teaching us about their organization and the habitats they are working to conserve. Milena and Marcos at Punta San Juan spent more hours than you can imagine leading us around the reserve and enjoyed watching our total fascination with seeing 900 penguins, many thousand sea lions, and 100,00 cormorants all in one location! All the staff at El Portal del Pisco restaurant joined us in dancing Musica Negra and Salsa after our specially-arranged dance show and lessons. Our Nazca Lines pilot shared with us some little-seen lines. Cusi Seminario toured us through their mini-zoo. The principals and children in each of the schools shared time, songs, stories and games with us. The examples go on and on. Every detail was well taken care of. Between your careful planning and your excellent guides, we never encountered any difficulty during our trip. From the plentiful and delicious food, to the ever available water, to the entertainment, to calling us to check on us towards the middle of the trip, you took care of every detail. Even rain at Machu Picchu couldn't dampen our spirits! As our group meets for a reunion and photo exchange this weekend, we will remember all the unique experiences we shared during our two week Peruvian adventure. And I will be very happy that I had the good sense to select Andean and Rainforest Expeditions as our travel company. Thank you for all your work. Sincerely,Robin Dombeck Assistant Curator of Education Brookfield Zoo Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:05:00 - 0600 Dear Mario,Since our fateful dinner meeting last February, our journeys took an adventurous turn. The sparkle in your eyes as you spoke of Tambobata, the macaws, the early morning walks, the beauty in the isolation of the rainforest, the intimacy of small groups, delightful, well-educated guides, good food, interesting folks, a plethora of critters in the wild, a journey into the rich history of the Incas and Spaniards in Cusco, the awe of Machu Piccu, and personable, accessible guides for the entire journey, remains memorable. It was that, and much more. Though lying on the beach for a 15-year old young woman seemed far more appealing, Rosie found great excitement in the travel to our southern sister. 12-year old Tucker was energized by the mysteries of the rainforest, for he was the wide-eyed one at 4:30am. Our curiosity was piqued by the unique nature of each day's events. A walk through the rainforest proved a journey well worth rising for, being greeted by howler monkeys, leafcutter ants, wild turkeys, caimans, owls, macaws, capybaras, spider monkeys, and (Aldo beware!), JAGUARS! In addition, a delightful surprise- cold beer! And each of our guides made certain we were connected to the experience in a profound way. I feel as though we made many new friends. The opportunity to share this time with our children increased the foundation of our relationships and provided us an exciting, safe, absolutely fresh look at the world we live in. Every day was a new adventure, as we were introduced into a different culture and a new perspective. This trip will forever remain in our hearts with fondest memories. Thanks so much for facilitating this holiday for our family. We are grateful to you. Please connect with us when you are in the County, Mario. Take care. Stay in touch. As ever,Lynn Date: April 26, 2003 Dear Mario,You are to be complimented on your attention to every detail of the adventure, from boats, to airplanes, buses to new mattresses, wine glasses in the Andes to new rubber boots in the rain forest - you never missed a beat. We truly enjoyed the introduction to the traditional crafts of the native culture at Chinchero, with Pablo Semenario and in the gallery of Mari Solari. These were experiences to which most visitors to Peru are not exposed but which gave us a much better feeling and understanding of this country. As we all mentioned at our farewell luncheon, the day in Patacancha with the members of the village was the high point of the two weeks, I have looked many times at the photos we took that day, and two things strike me. The first are the faces of the people - they are so strong ,natural and beautiful. The other is the wonderful color of the traditional dress. I just hope that your experiment with us will lead to other opportunities for the people to preserve their wonderful culture and way of life. Again, thank you for planning and executing a simply superb experience. I hope we will be able to join you, Steve and W&L on another adventure somewhere else in this wonderful world. Best regards,David and Eleanor McCain Date: April 28, 2003 Jeanine--The trip was fabulous!! Hotels in Cusco and Aquas Calientes excellent. Particularly the Pueblo in Aqias Calientes. I've already recommended that place to a couple of people. It's not cheap ($200 nite/double with breakfast), but I'd say it's still a really good value. I hadn't realized the lodgings were nestled in among the trees. I sat on our balcony and within 20 minutes had seen a half dozen really neat birds. (Couldn't tell you want they were.) I can't say enough good things about Rainforest Expeditions. I wrote extensive rave reviews on the customer feedback form they gave us. They are really doing eco-tourism the way it should be done. The partnership with the native community was just awesome, including the fact they are giving the native community 60% of profits, and hope to turn Posidas over to the locals within 10 years. My guide, Silverio, was superlative. First of the locals that's doing guiding. I was blown away by how good he speaks English, given he apparently only started learning in earnest arount 3 years ago. His knowledge of local flora and fauna was most impressive. And, it was clear he came by that knowledge as a result of his love of all things natural. Bill PainterDate: 4/5/02 11:28:39 AM Mountain Standard Time Dear Mario,
Mario- I am not sure you have access to
e-mail right now, but I wanted to thank you so very much for
the trip, it was absolutely, completely, and Indescribably incredible!
I can see what draws you to Posadas Amazonas, it is almost like
a drug, and I could have just stayed there forever. The people
who are there and come there are truly special.
Dear Mario Corvetto: Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 10:40 AM Dear Mario,
Dear Jeanine,
We stayed ten days or so at TRC and loved
it! On the way, we visited "ecotourism" lodges that
kept "pet" animals (all poorly kept and misfed), dumped
garbage out of sight, treated people like cattle and abused
their environment. They DID have more creature comforts.
Mario, Date: 11/2/00 3:41:24 PM Mountain Standard Time Hello Mario,
The trip couldn't have been more perfect.
We loved Peru, and the hotels you put us into were beautiful.
(We would have liked to have spent more time in the Libertador,
but the train back from Machu Picchu hit a cow, so we were delayed
while they came to fetch us by buses/cars from the valley. We
went to sleep as soon as we got back to Cusco, after we made
our way through all the traffic from the big political rally
that was happening in the square. Those people drive like lunatics
there!! Then up at 5:00am to head to the airport for Lima...) Date: 8/27/00 10:35:43 AM Mountain Daylight Time Thanks for the greatest trip of our lifetimes!
We were VERY surprised when we found out we had a private tour
guide for just the two of us. We got to see much more wildlife
on our own in a small group than we would have in a large tour
group. We feel we appreciate the rainforest much more with our
private experience than we would have with a large tour.
Date: 2/22/00 12:27:57 PM Mountain Standard Time Hello Mario, |