This article was posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2014 at 9:40 pm and is filed under .
I had the privilege of visiting Peru via Best Peru Tours and it was all in all really great. First and foremost, I would like to thank Mr. Juan Zamudio of BPT for setting up everything from top to bottom, left to right, beginning to end. You were very professional and very organized and not once did I get confused over your itinerary plans. I appreciate everything you did to make my sister and my trip flow well…
Now off to the trip:
We arrived at Lima airport about 40 minutes late (not BPT’s fault, it’s the airline), arrived at 12:30am, yet was greeted enthusiastically by our Lima guide Ms Aurea and our driver Mr Danny. Ms Aurea and Mr Danny were very courteous and very warm. Ms Aurea in particular, made me and my sister feel like we were at home. Mr Danny was quiet but warm, and only speaks very little English, which was very understandable. They sent us to the hotel (Britannia Miraflores – very beautiful with very accommodating staff) and had to pick us up at 6:40am the next day for our flight to Cusco. In the short time that we were introduced and acquainted, we felt most welcomed and the secure because of Ms Aurea. I love that lady to bits and am sorry that we only got to spend a very limited amount of time with her because we had to leave for Cusco early. I know we would’ve learned a lot from Guia Aurea.
Moving on, as we arrived in Cusco, we got into a bit of a fiasco when no one picked us up at the airport to the hotel. I had to call the main office for confirmation and had to take a cab and pay out of our pockets to the hotel. There we met Ruben, our supposed guide for Cusco. He wasn’t able to pick us up at the airport because according to him, he called the airline we were taking to Cusco beforehand and the airline said we were going to be delayed. After all that has been settled, we settled for just a good 5 minutes at the Anden Inca hotel and then directly went to the Cusco City tour where we had a small group with us touring. We met Mr Edson, who was the Cusco City Tour Guide for the day. Very knowledgeable man, very informative, and answers the questions on point. We went home after the tour and was greeted by a cup of coca tea from Anden Inca. The hotel was very quaint, had the feel of a rustic hacienda. The staff were very polite and very helpful, as always, and knew their way around Cusco. The next day we had our tour of the Sacred Valley, mediated by Mr. Juan Carlos. Also very knowledgeable, had a very professional manner and voice, his English is spot on, and he comes off very passionate at what he does. If I had to choose over my Cusco tour guides, I’d pick him to guide me around. He took us to an alpaca farm and had a first-hand experience in the process of creating natural dyes for alpaca wool from a very awesome Inca descendant who lives in the farm. Later that day at Chinchera, we would also meet Melanie, also of Inca descent, and a good-humored human being, and learned a lot about how the Inca use nature to their advantage, and with respect.
The next day we were greeted by Mr. Ruben, who arrived bright and early. He and his lady driver (forgot her name, sorry) sent us to Poroy train station to Aguas Calientes. They were very informative and answered all our questions.
We took the train to Aguas Calientes, greeted by a representative when we got there and basically just took the bus right then and there to Machu Picchu where our guide Mr Freddy met us. Mr Freddy was also very informative, but we had a bit of a language barrier problem. Unfortunately, it rained down in Machu Picchu before we got to finish the tour. We went down from Machu back to Aguas Calientes and stayed at Inti Punku hotel. Courteous staff, beautiful restaurant.
The next day we had our time in our hands and explored AC and MC and went up to Huayna Picchu (very grueling, but worth it). In the afternoon, went by train to the town of Ollanta where we met our driver who would take us back to Cusco. Our driver only speaks Spanish but tried his best to engage a conversation with us even with the language barrier. He was very polite and very good-natured. He never presssed us for anything and told us to ‘dormiendo’ or sleep, as it would take 2 hours to get from Ollanta to Cusco.
Went home the next day.
Overall, would have tweaked some services here and there, but the people and the places in Peru and the people behind our adventure did everything to help us have the best Peru experience, and we sure did. I would definitely recommend Best Peru Tours, and would use their services again, as I haven’t gone to Titicaca and Nazca yet. THANKS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED FOR FOR A VERY AWESOME EXPERIENCE!!!
