Amazon Experience — Hotel in Iquitos

I really doubt how Amazon Experience got such positive reviews on Google. But my own 3d/2n tour with this travel agency was the only but very disappointing experience I made during my entire trip in Peru.

Before i booked the tour, i have contacted 3 agencies and got offers for two different 3d/2n routes with different prices: one to Nanay area and another one to Pacaya samiria. As the drive to Pacaya samiria usually takes at least 6 hours which is really long, I was not sure whether it would worth it. Also, Amazon Experience was the only company which was willing to organize this route for a solo traveler but at a 60% extra charge (in total 460 USD which was also 150% more expensive than the best offer I got for the first route) . I called the co founder Wolfers Cardenas from Amazon Experience and he confirmed that the landscape at pacaya samiria is more beautiful and I could see more interesting animals there. So I decided for this tour with the hope of a nicer vacation experience.

However, it turned out to be a very disappointing tour with this company.

First of all, I didn't see anything spectacular and the tour guides even got lost during the day walk in the jungle. Yes, the pacaya samiria area with black river was beautiful and also the dolphin watch at the checking point was nice. But that was it. From the first 2 days including 2 different walks and 1 Kanu drive in the early morning, the only things I could see were just a few very tiny spiders which i can find in my own garden and 3-4 monkeys far away on top of the trees. Of course, a few birds during the boot drive. Overall, nothing spectacular at all! As part of the tour, the first night walk was organized on day 1 after dinner. But the walk just took place in the back yard of the guest house where we stayed. The first day walk took place on day 2 after lunch right behind the camping place near the main river. We started at 2pm, only walked for about 1 hour away from the tent, without seeing anything, the tour guide said that it was late and we should get back. Then they got lost and we were running in circles for another hour. After we finally found our tent near the river, i got scared about the planned night walk and felt very insecure whether they will be able to find the tent in the night again if they already got lost during the day. Knowing that i would not see anything more, I decided to stop the tour and come back to Iquitos already on day 2. The tour guide Timo just kept telling me that it was not his fault and it was up to the jungle what I got to see. I got the impression that we didn't really enter the reserve but only drived along the main river. We didn't really get the Iricahua lake area as promised in their program. With this doubt in mind, i asked Timo where we were and he could not clearly point it out on the map.

Second, after we returned to the office in Iquitos at 10pm, it made me even more angry that the co founder Wolfers Cardenas showed zero interest in my customer experience but only in earning more money. After this bad experience, i did expect them to organize another trip on day 3 for me to compensate and I was even willing to pay for the additional basic cost. However, the co founder was very arrogant, showed zero empathy and was blocking the whole conversation. He was keeping telling me how expensive it was to go to Pacaya-samiria and I should pay more if I want a different trip on day 3. I had to interrupt him in order to speak out. He requested another 80 USD which was unreasonable for me. Moreover, I just got angry with his attitude towards the customers. I refused it.

Third, I only got very simple food like in a real jungle life. At the beginning, a lady came with us who was supposed to cook but she suddenly disappeared after we arrived in Nauta. The tour guide also cooked for us during the entire tour. As a result, i had to wait long for the food and only got some basic stuff to fill the stomach. So clearly they tried to cut the cost for a solo traveler.

So please be careful with this company named...

Amazone Experience. What an experience it was.. highs and lows during the 4 days/3nights Samiria tour. We arrived early and found out it was just the two of us, quite nice. Everything seemed very well prepared and the car was ready with all necessities for the trip. The first day is mainly for getting to the reserve, but we spotted some nice birds and a sloth along the way. We arrived in a small village called Buenos Aires around 4 PM: Terrible! Nothing to do there, villagers are either unfriendly or drunk. La ceiba, the campsite, is filled with mosquitos and has limited electricity. All of this would be totally fine if it wasn’t for this hidden party village. Around sundown the people turn up the music in town and party until late at night..which we don’t care for.. and it really does not match the “eco” image of this agency. So after the first day we were very dissapointed because this is one of the agencies that’s a bit more expensive. The second day our guide Anthony, who is amazing and knows a lot about the reserve and its animals, and Aladino, local hero aged almost 80 and very fit, took us into the reserve. We found a nice spot for camping and then we went into the jungle where we spotted monkeys and a very rare eagle. That afternoon we went with a canoe into the jungle, it was quite nice at first but we had to cut through so many vines that we were not enjoying it. I feel like the guides may have felt some pressure from us to deliver a real adventure because the first day was a bit disappointing and we skipped the nocturnal walk (because there was no way there were going to be animals in party city). So, they took some risks and we were quite far in when it was turning dark. Quite frightening, but we had to get out of the boat up to our chest. Though we never really felt unsafe we feel like they overestimated their own abilities. At first we were a bit mad with them, but then we thought about the lack of information given to us when we booked this tour. The water was very high this time of the year, so there is very limited walking you can do in the reserve. Therefore there was limited hiking, which we regret. We weren’t made aware of this by the owner with whom we had exhaustive contact beforehand. And it is not described clearly in the information. If we were informed the right way, we wouldn’t have booked this tour or at least cut it shorter. We had a serious conversation with Anthony and made a relaxed plan with him for the last day. The last day was perfect, and we ended up with a good feeling of the tour. Thanks to the staff, not the information the agency gave us before. The food was good all around and we would recommend this agency.. but they should consider skipping Buenos Aires or have at least a serious conversation with the villagers. Other people we’ve met were also quite dissapointed by it, because there is a party three times a week. It just doesn’t do justice to the enthusiasm and professionalism of the guides.

So: overall it was good, but it needs some improvement to match the level of professionalism they...

We picked this company based on Google reviews here. We did not love them that much unfortunately. I am being generous by rating them 3 stars and the reasons are as follows:

Very prompt and helpful responses until the payment was made - after that Wolfes - the owner was a hard to get hold of. My friend messaged Wolfes if they could do something small for me on my birthday (which was day 2 of our trip) like a piece of cake or a local sweet packed from iquitos or something very simple and token like that - NO response from Wolfes, even though he texted regarding receiving the full payment after that. Poor first impression. The boat we were given had a crew of 3. The boat was OK. The crew was the driver Roger, The tracker Ruben-Grover and the guide Augusto. The first two were fine. In fact Ruben was more than fine - he was a great tracker, forest man and had a wonderful attitude and is the main reason for a 3 star rating. The guide Augusto was 23 years old and had the attitude of an arrogant teenager. We were at first amused then offended by his behaviour and weird/curt responses. I gave him a few words of firm feedback twice in our 7 day trip - to be fair he took that well and improved but this should never have happened in the first place. BIG MINUS - they confirmed on their confirmation email that anti snake bite venom is carried on the boat. The guide Augusto confirmed they had none in fact - after we were 4 hours from Nauta - the nearest place with anything like even a basic hospital. This was putting our safety as risk - walking in the day and night through primal rainforest, with venomous snakes present and was absolutely unacceptable! Food - the meals were BASIC - rice every lunch and every dinner , got really boring - with a little chicken or alligator and some curry. Thats it. Two dinners involved preserved meats - one was capybara and one was wild boar - both were so salty that they were inedible. Breakfast was eggs, toast and a fruit - it was better. On day 6 we were supposed to go to a point in the jungle called soledad. The guide unilaterally decided to skip it and took us to buenos aires (a small non ethnic jungle community - not Argentina!) to be fair we asked him to take us there too but he conveniently forgot to tell us that there was another point - soledad- which we would miss seeing. We missed it. Tent mattresses are way too thin and tents themselves are too small for a 7 day trip in the jungle. I saw MUCH better tents, mattresses and customer service on the Inca trail a few weeks earlier for example. Plus point was that pacaya samiria national park is authentic jungle and aside from above we did have a very fascinating time in the jungle - especially the night canoe rides -even though the mosquitos were horrendous in the jungle. OVERALL : If this company is the best jungle experience then there is plenty of opportunities for others to offer a much better experience. They can be much better if they try to improve...