Jonathan H.
One of my guides was disinterested
This was about a week long trip that incorporated a tour of Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca as well as the Sacred Valley and Cuzco. To summarize, they got the hard parts right-on time for everything, and they did what they said they'd do-I saw what they promised. But one of my guides didn't even bother to show me one of the sites himself-just pointed me up the hill to figure out the Incan ruins on my own. And he pointed me to a store that sold me shoddy goods. I know this because he told me I was buying a baby llama hat that I later showed to three other local people (one of whom was a guide) who said it was not what I bought. The rest of the trip was OK. The guides were on time picking me up, and the tour of Cuzco was fairly well done... though the English was a bit difficult to decipher at times. The Sacred Valley part of the tour would have been better if we had simply skipped the shopping districts, since as I said the guide didn't point me to the most authentic stores. That said, I did enjoy seeing the towns along the way, though the included lunch didn't actually include a drink, which I thought was a bit cheap, especially in so much as you can't drink the water in Peru. The Machu Picchu portion was fantastic. I would highly recommend the VistaDome experience on the train and Agues Calientes was a good place to use as a base to see MP. My guide was very good, and he spent the entire morning with me exploring the ruins and explaining what each building was used for, as well as the history of its discovery by Hiram Bingham. I walked up to the Sun Gate on my own and enjoyed the view from there. There was plenty of time to see everything before I took the train back. Lake Titicaca was, again, well worth seeing. I spent the morning visiting the Uros people who live on man-made floating islands and got to see how the islands were made as well as something of what their daily lives are like. Then we visited an island (Tequile?) in the lake which afforded fabulous views over the surrounding area. We had an excellent lunch of fresh trout while there. I would say that the hotel accommodations were middle of the road, though I asked for luxury. WiFi was not included in most, and there were other small inconveniences like too small or hard a bed, room noise, etc-but all had English-speaking staff and a good breakfast along with clean rooms and great locations.
Response from Quasar ExpeditionsJan 9, 2017
As the customer liked most of his trip (giving 4 stars for his cruise on other review sites) and only marked his experience down to 2-star based on just one day in Peru, we called him to both apologize and better understand the issue. He verified he enjoyed the trip and that the only issue was just that one day in Peru. We further explored the issue to learn that Juan, his guide, fell ill on the morning in question. Rather than cancel in favor of a healthy guide, as Juan should have done, Juan led the tour for that day. His illness is the reason Juan did not offer to accompany the passenger to the top of Ollyantaytambo fortress, which is quite a climb, and instead gave instructions to the passenger. This should not happen and we are taking steps to see it never happens again. We would have to take exception with the passenger's assessment of the "store" that sold him a hat. Awanacancha, where the guide also took the passenger that same day, is a living museum where travelers watch indigenous weavers demonstrate how wool is dyed using local plants, and woven using traditional hand looms. Various types of Llama and Alpaca are raised here as part of the exhibit, and products made locally are sold in the store. Awanacancha is the best and most authentic place to purchase woven goods in the Sacred Valley and they sell goods woven from both alpaca and baby alpaca wool. Unfortunately, it appears that a salesman sold our passenger a hat claiming it was baby alpaca that was mature alpaca. This is a good time to warn all travelers to the Sacred Valley that a bad habit of some sales people there is to falsely claim that items are 'genuine baby alpaca' when they are just alpaca; still quality but not the same as baby alpaca wool which is exceptionally soft. We are addressing this in our materials as well as training our guides to inspect all passenger purchases to see if they match the claims. True baby alpaca wool items are very expensive, so if you think you are getting a great deal that's a sign to check your purchase. We recommend that anyone who has doubts or concerns give us a call us at any of the numbers found on our website www.quasarex.com or they can email us directly at [email protected]. Thank you, The Quasar Expeditions' Management Team