Hey Matt, we had a great time, lots of things to do and see, learned the culinary cuisine, local facts, history of the country and got to experience some truly epic experiences. It was so awesome! Every day was filled with a new adventure! Our guide Marcelo and our driver, Juan, were amazing! Made the trip much more enjoyable. There were just two drawbacks. First, there was a lot of driving. I’m thinking we could have stayed at the home stay an extra night and skipped the spa as it was a 4 hour drive to the spa, and we only stayed one night, then we drove back to Quito to catch the flight to Puerto Lopez. If we stayed at the home stay, we could have climbed other waterfalls in the canyon? Potentially? Or done something else close by. Second, the budgeted amount for food and drink was too low as it didn’t accommodate for tips for our driver or our guide. They did a lot, so I paid $110 for our guide and $70 for our driver. And I also paid more than others, which I didn’t think was fair. It was my choice but the way it was communicated to us on how to tip naturally meant some people would pay more than others. On next trips, it should be clearly noted that $8-$10 min/day is required for tips, for each guide, especially if they are accompanying us on all events and excursions, which ours did. Oh, and the temps were a bit off.. it was colder on more days than expected so I’d recommend taking half and half for clothes (half warm stuff for the cold, have cool stuff for the heat) if you’re planning this trip for others. Other than that, it was good.

Overall a great trip, however there were some excursions that could have been omitted and the itinerary was too jam packed, there was no downtime for people to rest and do their own thing. Also there was some minsformation communicated before the trip. It was indicated that there would be banks/atms and places would accept credit/debit but it turned out 95% of the places only took cash and if you did not bring enough cash, it would've been difficult to buy food/tip and purchase other goods. Very few atm's took canadian debit cards. The spa was a waste of a day, more time could've been spent in Quito.

What a GREAT trip! Thanks, Matt, for everything. We enjoyed every aspect of the trip, especially the time at Ave Sol River Sanctuary. Tropical Rivers river guides were just excellent; not only could they handle the rafts in the rapids, but their cooking was fantastic, and they prepared some of the very best meals we had on the trip. La Fortuna was a great stop with enough time to kick back and relax and have a few cool ones(maybe not a few). Tamarindo was a fun spot to take in some ziplining and look at the beach with a wine glass in our hands. Every detail was covered from start to finish. Matt, I cannot thank you enough for taking such great care of us.