Testimonials

This comment was sent to one of our valuable travel agent partners:

I just want to let you know that the tour operator Yacu Amu did an superb job with planning and arrangements.  Every guide we had was professional and exactly on time.  When we first arrived in  Ecuador, Santiago came to visit us at our hotel in Quito with a welcome gift and to double check all of our flights.  That was very thoughtful.  Then we had the best mainland guide Victor who was always where he said he would be and was very helpful and patient when it came to traveling with a child.  Victor also spotted an error in Banyos when we were checking out of the hotel.  The fellow behind the desk was filling in and overcharged us by $100 but Victor spotted the error and helped refund our money.  When we were on the donkey ride at the volcano and became separated going down the hill, he ran ahead to make sure we were all okay and not suffering from altitude sickness or physical exertion.  He was superb in every way.

The highlight of our trip was the raft ride in Tena.  That was a lot of fun for the whole family and our guide there was expert at making sure we hit the big splashes. Mason really loved it.  My highlight was the hike into the Amazon jungle.  Very cool!

I also want to thank Myriam who somehow was able to call me at least 5 times during the trip (we were always on the move but she was able to find us!) just to check in and make sure everything was running smoothly.  That was very thoughtful of her and I was glad to know she was right there if we needed her.  We had an excellent guide named David for a couple of days in Galapagos (San Cristobal).  He really shared his love of the Galapagos with us and it was obvious how much he cared for the animals and nature there.  When we made it to Santa Cruz we had just a couple of days to spend with Tony.  He seemed like a really super sweet person.  We owe a lot to Tony because of a last minute realization that we had to get to the airport a lot sooner than we had thought.  The flight ended up being changed to 12:45 and not 2:25 but Myriam called him and Tony arrived early. Not only did he get us the taxi in time, he helped us board the ferry and navigate the bus and helped us into the airport to our departure.  It would have been much harder without him.

This review was originally published on TripAdvisor.

Wonderful tour operator

I am writing this so that travellers who are puzzled if they could rely on or trust the tour operators in Ecuador.

We are in Asia and are tens of thousand miles away from South America. I looked at the various travel agents in Quito. And I picked Yacu Amu Experiences. Myriam was the representative. She responded quickly and adequately. This is important, when I am remitting almost USD10,000 for the two of us to join tours in Ecuador over the span of two weeks. We went to the islands-Galapagos, flat land-Guayaquil, the Andes-Quito & Otavalo and the Amazon.

Before remitting money, the remitting bank sat on my money fumbling with their fingers. I pressed on for almost one week, complained and threatened to report the bank’s incompetence to the local regulatory authority. Then the bank started to ask a load of questions, what is the nature of this company….. until at the end the bank asked a stupid question : when was the date of incorporation of Yacu Amu ? I blew my tops, I know it is there since 1996, but I declined to answer nor was I prepared to do a due diligence check for these imbeciles. This did worry me, I relied on the photos displayed of each and everyone of their staff, that their web site (though AVAST the antivirus program raised the alarm!) showed that they have almost been there for 20 years. I chose to trust the company.

At the end we had a complete and wonderful tour throughout.

I am settled at home, thanks. The trip was certainly very enjoyable, beyond my hopes in fact. Your documents were useful. I do not know if the person who helped us through check in for the flight from Quito to Baltra had been sent by you-if your company did it, thank you; he was a great help. We were met at the airport and dropped off very well. The yacht had just the right number of persons for a cosy and friendly experience; I didn’t get seasick, since I followed your advice and took seasickness tablets; the trips to different islands were really wonderful; the guide was extremely knowledgeable and very helpful with taking us around, providing for our comfort etc; the food on board was very tasty-they made an effort to meet my husband’s vegetarian requirement and prepared several tasty rice based dishes; the company on board was really homogeneous-we were all people mad about travel to exotic locations. The islands we visited gave us the most amazing experiences and both my husband and I are very happy that we took this trip.

The only inconvenience was the absence of facilities for using our credit cards for some payments at least. Wish we could have used them to pay for the services on the yacht for example as it was not possible to carry so much cash around, when there were so many (rather expensive) charges to be paid to the government at the airport, for entry into the park etc. Thank you all again.

Thank you for your response and the additional information I was unaware of. Bottom line, we had a great time, and I would recommend you and Yacu Amu to anyone looking for a trip to Ecuador or the Galapagos!

Hi Myriam,

I was very pleased with my trip. The ship and crew met my highest expectations, and the naturalist was very knowlegeable (sic) and committed. Observing animal life so close was for the most part as good as it possibly gets, and sometimes – swimming with baby sea lions and turtles – the experience was truly exhilarating.

Myriam,

We’re back from our trip to Ecuador and Peru and are still glowing from our wonderful experience in Quito and the Galapagos Islands. Yacu Amu did everything right and we very much appreciate all that you did to make the Ecuador part of the trip so special.

First was the boat, and we cannot say enough good things about our time on the Odyssey. The accommodations, the crew and the itinerary were perfect. It was exactly what we wanted and we just wish the cruise could have lasted for another few weeks (or months)!

Yacu Amu was wonderful to work with. You made everything so easy. Your hotel choice in Old Town was perfect and your transfers were exactly what we needed.

We were all a little thrown off schedule by the congestion caused by the Pope’s visit but you did a great job of anticipating that and proactively changing our hotel and pickup times to avoid problems. We appreciate your foreseeing all that and making sure our trip went smoothly.

We had a terrific time thanks to you and have already begun recommending you to our friends. We are available to be enthusiastic references for you if you would ever like us to talk to others on your behalf.

Thanks also for the gifts at the end of our journey. That was very thoughtful of you.

We enjoyed working with you and hope that we will see you again.

Your friends,