Review: Tour of Ecuador & Galapagos Island Cruise, Quito, Otavalo, Cuenca, Arts & Crafts

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TRAVEL COMPANY COMMENTS:

 
Thank you for your feedback on your trip to Ecuador. We are very sorry to hear that the trip did not meet your expectations, but we urge you to please consider the following explanations regarding your concerns.
 
 
1)Their operator in Ecuador mainland was a very nice older couple who are knowledgeable, but very unacceptable to any change in the itinerary they setup.
 
While we do consider ourselves a “custom” tour company, there is a limit to the amount of flexibility we can allow, without compromising the quality of the trip. We spend many hours before the trip crafting an itinerary that considers both your desires, and our expertise. We then share with our local partners, who confirm everything. They schedule specific specialists for certain days, based on the itinerary that they and our clients have agreed upon. As you can probably assume, changing the structure of the itinerary during the trip can be detrimental to the trip itself, and we try to prevent this if at all possible. That being said,  we ended up changing the Otavalo trip to Saturday. We originally chose Friday as the day to go to the market because it is less crowded with other tourists, yet has the same amount of vendors, but because of your insistence, we decided to help you make this change.
 
 
2) The hotel in Quito was very nice, but probably not a necessary expense (2 people in four room presidential suite)
 
The presidential suite was a free upgrade that we kindly offered you. You did not pay for this, and we therefore find it unfair that you would bring this up as a negative point in your review.  
 
3)One of the places we stayed in had a fireplace in the room which the staff lit a fire which could have killed us. We went to bed and were awakened by the smoke alarm as the room was full of smoke.
 
Safety of our travelers is our biggest concern, so when we heard of this incident the following morning, we contacted the hotel right away. We received a report from the hotel soon after.  They told us that they add a certain number of logs to the fire every night at 7 pm; enough to burn until around 10:30 M. When the incident happened, at around midnight, the staff woke up to help both of you out of the room, and noticed that more logs had been added to the fire. Despite this, the hotel went above and beyond for this inconvenience, paying for your room, laundry and dinner.  
               
At this point we have already issued the refund. Sometimes these things take a little while as we have to settle the final bill with our partners to get an exact amount for your refund. We are sorry for this delay.
 
4) That involved an 8-hour trip by car that should have been only 4 or 5 hours but our guides are such slow drivers.
 
In the United States, it is legally acceptable to drive 10 mph over the speed limit without getting pulled over. In Ecuador there is no such leeway. 1 MPH over the speed limit can be met with harsh penalties, and speeding excessively (10-20 mph over) can lead to arrest. Because of these harsh laws, our guides are extremely careful for their own well-being, as well as the well-being of the clients. It would be a much worse situation than a long travel day, if our guide were to get pulled over and perhaps arrested. I hope you can understand why we take such precaution with this.
 
5) We were supposed to go to areas to see an ancient way of weaving, jewelry making and and leather working. At the weaving place nothing was explained so we learned nothing. The jewelry making was instead a trip to shops to try and sell us cheap trinkets and the leather workshops were instead stores.
 
During the Weaving demonstration, our guide gave you an explanation of the IKAT technique, and when you did not ask for further explanation , she assumed you wanted to just watch the demo. In Chordeleg, where you went to the jewelry stores, they sell real gold and silver. Sure there are less expensive items, as well, but there is plenty of fine jewelry in this area to look at and purchase.
 
6) Also we wanted to go to some of the parks in the Avenue of the Volcanos.
 
For the past year, Cotopaxi has showed a lot of activity, therefore there is always a chance that this tour is cancelled on the spot. We actually found out that this tour was cancelled before their trip and we were able to inform the clients ahead of time. We are very sorry for this inconvenience, but it is something that we cannot control.
 
Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback, and I hope you will consider our comments when reflecting on your trip.