Tour guides and scouts, the Tour Operator to Lost City — Attraction in Santa Marta

I just finished trekking Teyuna, The Lost City tour (which was not actually lost, only recently 'discovered' just as Colombus 'discovered' the Americas) I must preface to say I did not use Baquianos as a tour operator and I'm glad I didn't. We shared camps with this group and I was appalled by their behaviour

On the last night while camping in Wiwa Camp, on the traditional territory of the Wiwa people the Baquianos guide started talking to his group about his so called knowledge of indigenous people. He then took out a popopra (a sacred object to the Indigenous people) and began to mock 'Los Indios' and make fun of their culture. He proceeded to hand his group handfuls of coca (a sacred plant to the people of the territory he was on) to try. The group one by one began to both try the popora and stuffed coca leaves into their mouths and spat it out while laughing. They went on to make stereotypical jokes about the Native people. They were in a Traditional Native Village, for goodness sake.

I was on the Wiwa guided tours and one of our guides, a Wiwa native stood by their table watching this mockery take place and to see if they would stop their behaviour if they noticed him. No body in the group made any motion to stop what they were doing and the Baquianos guide continued his insulting behaviour and remarks.

They treated him like he was invisible, an object of the past or a nuisance of the present.

When speaking with our guide later he stated that he was saddened by their behaviour and it made him feel uncomfortable.

While we were receiving the history of the Tayrona people and the continued fight against colonization and their way of life, The Baquianos group ended up getting really drunk that night and continued to act like a bunch of frat boys keeping the local families and other tour groups awake.

As far as I'm concerned if non indigenous people are telling indigenous stories there is a HUGE need for cultural sensitivity training. I believe that All of the non indigenous tour operators need to be trained directly by the people of the territory so that they do not continue to treat indigenous people as objects...

UNA MALA EXPERIENCIA EN LA GUAJIRA - BAD CHOICE FOR GUAJIRA TOURS

Lack of information, lack of attention, lack of coordination between sites, lack of customer service.

First, they said that they would pick me up at the terminal; however, once there they told me if it was possible to take a taxi and get to the starting point. I did not see a problem, without realizing that the signs of disorganization would begin there. I took the taxi and arrive at the starting point, where they told me they had made the wrong pick-up point for the people of Santa Marta and that we would now leave an hour later.

Before leaving, they asked us to say what we were going to have lunch, however, when we arrived at the lunch site it took a long time for them to locate us and they did not know what we had ordered, so lunch took more than an hour to arrive. With these accumulated delays, the time in the points was limited and I could not fully enjoy the landscapes.

At night, there was not even a mosquito net in the hammocks, and although we were told that at 6 am we should be ready to go, the accommodation site does not manage those times for breakfast. As it was impossible to go up to Punta Gallinas, they offered some alternatives, and we opted to go back and get our money back. However, at the time of making the claim, we saw BAQUIANOS is only an intermediary and that the "operator" is another company, so it is not clear who to claim. According to the "operator", Baquianos is the company that has the money, but they do not know if they work on weekends. In other words, they are partners, but they do not know their working hours, and BAQUIANOS since Sunday has not given an answer via WhatsApp, subject to returning what they consider and when they consider it.

In summary, the tour activity to Cabo de la Vela with this agency is a terrible option, if something happens during the weekend there is only one left and no backup, between the operator and the agency they do not even know the working hours, They do not have coordination with the accommodation, food, or...

Carlos is an amazing guide, and we felt fortunate to have him lead our trip. He has such an astounding depth of knowledge, and is one of the original guides to the area. You can request him as your guide, so I highly recommend you do so if you decide to use this company.

We did the trek with this company a week ago and had mixed feelings about the company. First of all, the company lied to us about the price of the trip, and it was only because we talked to our hostel later that we found out we could get a better price. This company told us we would only get a discount if we recruited a private group for another tour (which was a lie). When the company sent a representative to the hostel to do a sales pitch, and it turned out to be the exact same person we had spoken with twenty minutes prior, he was quite embarrassed.

The trip is quite expensive for what you get, and we realized that much of the fees go to the local people living in the area around the lost city, rather than for the expenses of the trip itself.

Our translator was a joke. He was so bad at English that another girl and I had to take over translating for the group. We also had to do the translating because our translator, Juan, often wasn't even with the group to translate. Halfway through the trip he didn't even know who was part of our hiking group. A tough pill to swallow when you know you are helping pay his salary and he doesn't even take his job seriously.

The final frustration was that our driver didn't take us all the way back to our hostels like they were supposed to. The company didn't have the foresight to send a truck with the right license plates, so we were suddenly told to get out of our truck on the side of the highway, and put in taxis, with very little explanation of what was happening.

Overall, Carlos was the redeeming pillar of this trip. I think he was fantastic. However, I wouldn't recommend this company very highly. I didn't have a good impression of Magic tours either from my interactions...