Shiripuno Amazon Lodge — Hotel in Curaray

Very very disappointing and disrespectful experience

My son and I had a very very bad experience with Shiripuno Lodge. Leading up to the trip the communication was sporadic, sparse and never timely.

We arrived still without feeling completely clear, trusting that once we met Fernando in person the confusion would lift. However, we arrived at the airport and no one was there to meet us.  All other travellers were met by their hosts from other agencies and we were left alone there.  Taxi drivers tried to contact Fernando without success.  As did we.  No response. Everyone was trying to solve our problem except our host, Fernando, who remained silent.

We decided to go to the Hotel El Auca, which Fernando had indicated he worked with.  The manager there helped us by trying to locate the guide who had been identified to meet us as well as Fernando.  He also started to call other companies for guides.

In the middle of this, the guide arrived, Octavio. He didn’t have an explanation for why he didn’t meet us, tried to convince us that he went to the airport 1 hour late (we were the only people at the airport so it would be impossible to miss us).  He went away for a long time to search for a taxi.  It was clear that he had forgotten we were coming but tried to cover it up.  We were apparently the only people on the tour that week.  We can only gather that the reason he arrived at the Hotel was because somehow Fernando received our messages and contacted him.  But never us.

We set off in a taxi, very hungry and eventually found somewhere in a little village to get some food (we had been told that a boxed lunch would be available, as we were arriving near mid-day), but Octavio didn’t seem to know that was the agenda.

We had been reassured that guides speak both Spanish and English.  My son speaks fluent Spanish but it is not one of my languages.  Our guide had very little English and my son did most of the translating.

Just before embarking into the canoe, my son had a seizure, a complete shock.  The rest of the day was focused only on seeking medical attention in a remote area, 2 more seizures and an ambulance ride back to Coca.  Octavio may have been instructed to continue to be our guide (still no communication from Fernando) in some way and he took that role seriously, but it was very unclear to us.  We are grateful for the few things he did to support us as we entered Coca hospital emergency (another seizure upon arrival). He seemed confused by his role as were we.

When we were discharged we tried to contact Octavio for some advice but he had gone back to the Amazon and the Hotel El Auca manager helped us again.

Fernando not only failed to comunicate, have someone meet us properly, but reached out to us only one time in all the time of the medical crisis and since.  Probably because we wrote many times expressing concern and disappointment and shock?

Early in the process we wrote and asked for at least a partial refund or a credit.  We have never heard from Fernando again. 12 days still after our tour began (and ended) he has never reached to inquire about my son’s well being. We were in a remote clinic and two hospitals. Negligent behaviour professionally, ethically and morally.

This was in mid-January. Now, at the end of March, we still have never heard again from Shiripuno Lodge. We paid $23,000 CDN...

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