PAFECOMAR TOURS — Local services in Parroquia Puerto Villamil

Chaotic, Confusing and Unprofessional

We booked four activities with this tour agency: hiking on Sierra Negra, snorkelling at Los Tunneles, rented bikes and scuba diving at Islota Tortuga. Hiking was done with a separate organised tour - no complaints, done well. Snorkelling was chaotic and unorganised to start with, people trying on equipment with one member of staff while others booked a tour with another seemed to overwhelm them but once in the water the snorkelling was done well and we were pleased with the day. Bikes need to be chosen carefully but that was easily arranged.

The biggest issue by far was the scuba diving. Starting with the equipment, trying it on was again chaos with equipment being all over the place and often mislabelled and misplaced. Harry, the owner, in particular made the experience very stressful and unsettling. On the boat the chaos continued, equipment everywhere with no oversight or organisation. The briefing was not only uninformative but also unhelpful and confusing. Two divers who were in our group had panic attacks in the water due to their disorganisation, one of which was dragged back on the boat by his wetsuit feet first with his head in the water. While Esteban needs to be given credit in his attempts to calm the situation, the opposite is true for Harry and the other Divemaster who would leave divers behind underwater, swim away without checking to see if anyone was following and started the ascent without telling anyone.

While the tour agency as a whole can be described as dysfunctional and unprofessional, the scuba diving must be labelled dangerous and...

We did the tuneles snorkeling tour with them and it was mediocre for me. Transportation, boat and lunch were okay. What bothered me the most was that it felt more like a photo shoot than an exploration. The guide was a lot into taking pictures of everyone with the sharks or turtles so sometimes we needed to wait in line until everyone was done. We were not allowed to explore the area by ourselves so didn’t have much choice than to wait and to get cold. You could see that some of the animals, especially some turtles got really stressed by being surrounded by so many people. Also some people of the group touched the animals and the guide didn’t say anything although I told him to please remind the people to not do so. Even he himself touched a see horse which is on one of the videos he took. For me as an ocean and animal lover, this is really sad to see and the reason I wouldn’t recommend this tour with them. Not sure if other agencies handle it differently though.

To reply to the company’s answer to my review: No, I am not confused about the company! I booked this tour with Isabela tour center. Instead of listening to customers’ feedback and trying to incorporate it they pretend that this is not about their...

The area is really cool in how it's formed and to see turtles, sharks and seahorses especially if you haven't before - if you have come from other islands and other snorkelling you could give this a miss. The reason is, I feel this area and the wildlife are not being protected, there are 10-12 people snorkelling from each boat and at least 4 boats at the same time, snorkelling in an area that sometimes has no clearance room below you meaning sometimes you're hitting the bottom/corals, some people have never snorkelled before and everyone's crashing into each other, and you're told not to leave the group and swim further so it's very congested and as someone said below is more of a photoshoot with the wildlife than enjoying the experience. I think less tours and boats should be operating at any one time and more guidance given on protecting the area and not crashing into each other. They say on the boat, dont touch anything, then tell you to dive to the turtles for a photo. Yes, my tour was with Pafecomar even though everytime someone writes a bad review they deny it. It's the same situation for every company though. Staff and guide...