Well we are back from Peru. We had a fantastic trip! I am so impressed with Amazonas Explorers. They were 100% reliable, friendly, well equipped, and well organized. Our guide Jimmy was so great. We did have him (and a cook, driver and other helpers) to ourselves for the biking, rafting, town tour, and horseback tour. Though we didn’t do horses because Dan was unwell so Jimmy (his driver, actually, with Jimmy) drove us to all the local sites and we walked through them, besides helping Dan with his digestive issues. He was so knowledgeable and friendly, spoke English well (and also Spanish and Quecha (?)…we couldn’t absorb a quarter of all he told us about, it was so much. Perfect guide in every way.
The trek was awesome; harder than we expected (for me the uphills, for Dan the fear of heights did get to him sometimes), BUT, we persevered and did just fine. Our companions were Brits that were about 30 years old, but the group did well together. I am still amazed at the porters running up and down in their sandals with huge packs on their backs. And the rafting…Jimmy and Henry, in a kayak, were obviously VERY skilled; it was the most exciting whitewater I have ever done. We ended up with the bike trip NOT to the salt mines; I’m not sure why, but the ride we had along the Urubamba was plenty interesting and wore us out anyway. Maybe he looked at our age and decided the salt mine road was too much? He didn’t know yet how rugged we were.
