Hi Mauricio:
For the most part, our Belize trip was great. The guides were top notch and went out of the way to identify birds and animals for us. Top vote to Calbert at Gaia River Lodge.

When we first arrived, there were two guys there with our names but the details were quickly straightened out and we were on our way. The lodge was very welcoming and our cabin was very nice. The food was good and the wait staff were very gracious. We substituted the horseback outing for a morning birding session with an afternoon trip to 1000 foot falls which were spectacular. The view was awesome and we got to see the Orange Breasted Falcon and a pair of White Hawks. The trip was a good blend of archaeological sites and nature. The San Ignacio Resort was fine also.

I spent that last night with the traveler's curse and no sleep. Can't say what the cause was; the restaurant we stopped at had good food, but I had a different drink than Melinda and our guide, she had a veggie plate but the guide and I had the same dinner. He of course, would be more accustomed to the local food than I.

All  in all the trip was great!
Karen Barnum

Mauricio,

I want to thank you and your supplier in Lima for the outstanding service that was afforded me on my recent trip to Peru.
 

My accommodations were excellent.  The tour guides were very proficient in their knowledge of each area I visited.  The drivers were excellent managing those mountain roads with ease.

All pickups were on time.  To be met at the Lima airport was such a comfort for two women travelling alone to a city of over 9 M people and not speaking the language.

We had a unforgettable experience in the main square in Lima, when students approached our guide and asked if they could practise their English by asking us questions.  Encounters like this are priceless.

Also, we had 3 long days and were very tired.  However, to see ruins that are still being uncovered in the middle of the city and to contrast those while one is looking at the skyline of Lima was quite something.

Many thanks for all your excellent arrangements.  I would highly recommend your company to any friends travelling to Peru.

Sincerely,
Barbara Hoffos

Hi Laura

This note just to say thank you for organizing a superb trip, I thoroughly enjoyed!

Love Medellin & Colombia's huge mountains, a pretty place. Had an absolutely awesome time in Chile, the kayaking trip excellent. Atacama also super and great host. Well done Chile!

Will certainly recommend your services. Once again, many thanks!!
  

Dear Mauricio,

I have only just returned from my extended trip to the Americas and UK yesterday, and am wading through over a month of mail... Suffice to say that the Peruvian pre-cruise tour which you arranged was by far the highlight of my 5 weeks of travel!  The arrangements and organisation were top notch as was the accommodation and excursions.  Barb, Sheila and I are unanimous on this.

Again, a big thank you for a superlative few days in magical Peru! I have already endorsed your brand to many friends I have since shared my trip with.  I cannot say enough about how satisfied I was with absolutely every aspect of the experience!

Kind regards,
Colin

Hi Laura,

We had an absolutely wonderful trip! All the guides were great, we were always met by someone as planned and all transfers went smoothly.

The Cachalotte in the Galapagos was a lovely boat, but people do need to know the cabins are VERY small, and the boat can be very noisy at night as it moves from island to island. The guide, Juan, was fantastic, and the hikes and snorkelling were unbelievable!

The Aqua on the Amazon was a very luxurious boat, the meals were great and the staff beyond belief! The guides were very knowledgeable and we saw so much wildlife! The only drawback was because we were on a 7 day trip, with other people who came for 3 days, and then others who joined us for 4 days we ended up getting repeats on some trips and lectures...it would have been better for the company to do something different with those who were there for 7 days.

We would absolutely refer people interested in travelling to South America to your company for arranging the trip. We thank you for setting up such a fabulous trip for us.

Thanks again, Ronni & Charlie

Hi Laura
We really enjoy our trip, especially after being delayed a year and were happy to see a lot of Chile from bottom to top! We were pleased with all of our accomodations (especially liked the Orly Hotel in Santiago) and the transport always met us when needed at the scheduled times. Both boat trips, although different in level of lodging comfort, were great adventures and we were blessed with reasonably good weather for both. Overall, we were pleased with the trip and certainly appreciated your efforts in helping us put it together and working on delaying it a year. Will attach three pictures from the trip, one of us at Cape Horn, one of a glacier on the Navimag journey, and the last at the Tatio geyser field in the Atacama. Again, thanks for your efforts in helping us arrange this memorable journey. Gracias por todo.
Ron
  

I thought the trip to Belize was a fantastic and loved everything. The guides were all very knowledgeable, especially about birds and were very accomodating about it. 

The food was good.. I liked the Gaia Resort best, and next to that I liked the Chateau Carribean for its old style, quaintness and view. I have no complaints. Great trip!  As far as pictures are concerned, mine didn't turn out very well, but my travel companions did.

Regards.
Melinda

Hello Mauricio,

Firstly your service has been great. I know we could have gotten better prices but your service made it worth the extra money. 

The pick up service was great and the young guy that gave us our information was very helpful and spoke well. The hotel in Cuzco was perfect

Our guide briefed us the night before and was good though his English was a bit patchy. The porters were great and did a fantastic job. The food was outstanding for the conditions and equipment they have to work with. 

I felt the hike could have been done in three days as we spent a lot of time waiting. But overall enjoyed the Inka trail experience.

Regards
Chris

Hola Mauricio, 

Ha sido un viaje muy interesante y agradable. Por supuesto nos encantó la naturaleza y la dedicación de Costa Rica y de los Costarricenses a proteger su patrimonio excepcional. Es una confirmación de lo que se busca en un viaje a Costa Rica. 

Lo que más destacaría es la amabilidad de la gente, siempre dispuestos a hablar, a ayudar, a dar consejos sin espíritu de engañar o aprovecharse. Por ejemplo, nos enseñaron algunos sitios escondidos muy preciosos: ríos de agua caliente, acceso a saltos en agua impresionantes, algunos caminos públicos, gente apasionada (cerca de Tenorio) que comunica su pasión de su país, de la fauna y de la naturaleza (ha costado solo 10$ y pasamos las 4 horas más interesantes e instructivas del viaje).

Los precios de los parques y de las actividades organizadas nos han parecido muy caras. En Europa (Francia, España, Alemania ….), hay miles y miles de kilómetros de senderos, miles de km de carriles bici muy bien mantenidos (con balisas, tracks …) que son gratuitos y de acceso público ; las visitas de los sitios más famosos no son tan caros (Alhambra, chateaux de la Loire, museos ….) aunque necesitan mucho más mantenimiento. 

En cuanto a su servicio (Latin Discover), estupendo y muy bien organizado. Entregar y devolver el coche/carro al hotel es un + que apreciamos mucho. Los precios que nos conseguiste eran muy correctos (competitivos), los coches en muy buen estado, el servicio muy profesional y puntual. Todo bien. Los carros eran poco potentes pero da igual, no veníamos a Costa Rica para hacer una carrera, era perfecto para un viaje turístico y nos han permitido llegar a algunos sitios de acceso bastante difícil (camino a Villas Altura en Dominical por ejemplo). 

Gracias. Saludos cordiales 

Christophe

Hello Mauricio, 

We are back at home with many great memories of our trip which will take some time to document. 

However one of the highlights of our trip was going to Macchu Picchu. For the most part of the trip all the arrangements as scheduled went as planned. We arrived on time in Lima and found our tour guide quickly. We  went to the Sheraton and the accommodations were very nice. Most everything went very smoothly. All of the tour package information  was in one package under "Colin Whiteheads". All the tour guides were pleasant, informative, helpful, all guides were excellent. 

Star Peru airlines as you suggested was a very good service. We all found the trip through the sacred valley fabulous, the lunch amazing, and the first part of the Hiram Bingham train trip wonderful.  It was as you may know not the normal full trip from Cusco to Machu Picchu, it was cut short by 2 hrs. Machu Picchu absolutely outstanding.  Every minute.

Overall I think you and your company Mauricio are very good to work with, 

Thank you
Sheila McInnis

Hi Sandra,

My friend and I had wonderful and memorable trip in Mexico. Everything went as it was planned. The program was well planned. The hotels were excellent although some are far from the city center. The tour guide, Armando, is very nice and helpful. He took care of everything and was ready to help everything we needed. Twelve nights in Mexico were a very good time for us. We are looking forward to going back there. We recommend Latin Discover to anyone. Thank you for making this trip perfect!

Nutida

Mauricio, First, I must again thank you for assuring we were picked up at the correct hotel on the first day of our trip after the leaders of our mission changed our hotels at the last moment. Great customer service and I will be sure to recommend you and Latin Discover to anyone I know that plans a trip to Central America.

I appreciated all the preparation and e-mails that you provided me prior to our trip as well.You certainly have my permission to use any part of this e-mail on your testimonial page. Our tour guide, Julio Flores of your Nicaragua supplier was absolutely outstanding and really made our experience in this country a very positive one.We learned a great deal about the history, people and culture along with seeing plenty of wildlife.A great ambassador for his country. There was only one glitch in one of our pre-paid tours in Tortuguero (not on the list given to the guide) and your Costa Rica supplier made it right the very next day. All guides and drivers were on time, courteous, and professional.The guides were well-informed and top notch. Having only one pre-planned activity a day, as you recommended, worked out well. We added on two as our time and energy permitted (night tour and coffee tour in the Cloud Forest) and having the flexibility was good.

All of our accommodations were just great.Our favorite was the Belmar at Monteverde, followed by our accommodation in Granada. The Costa Verde in Manuel Antonio was very nice with good restaurants and a perfect location. This was the hotel that I asked you to book to keep down the cost. Tortuguero was a great experience because of the uniqueness of the boat rides and the gardens around the lodge. The itinerary for both countries worked out very well, were varied and well paced. I would recommend both countries to future travelers.

Hopefully you will find this feedback of value. Debbie

Hi Laura,

We had a great trip. The hotels were perfect. As we drove into El Calafate we saw a hotel on the hill overlooking the city and thought that must be very expensive and certainly not our hotel - but it was and it was superb. I think it’s called Alto Calafate. The cruise was great too. Thanks so much for all your help, including the bus tickets. I took hundreds of pictures, so too many to share.

We’ll definitely call you when we look at another trip to South or Central America. Your online itinerary was very helpful.

Thanks again and hope all’s well with you,

Brian

Laura,

Jim and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip.  There were some highlights that we will cherish in our memory.  The Estancia El Ombu was a wonderful experience.  (Other than the biting flies…)  We rode and had good experiences with the gauchos, the food and other guests.  In Buenos Aires we did a lot of walking and did a half day intro tour of the city.  We found some really good restaurants here.  One of the special parts of the trip was our stay in Puerto Madryn.  Punto Tombo was fascinating with all the penguins as well as the beautiful scenery.  The young man who was our driver/guide was outstanding and you should know that he went out of his way to provide those little extras that made our trip easy.  Things like picking us up at the hotel and taking us down into town to the restaurant area for dinner, then coming back to take us back to the hotel.   I know he lived locally but we felt bad about taking him away from his family in the evening even for a few minutes.  He didn’t seem to mind and provided us with outstanding service!
 
On to Ushuaia and our train trip.  That was fun and a unique little (narrow gauge) train.  As was the trip into the park.  We had our requisite picture taken at the “end of the road”.  The Australis cruise ship was a very good choice with not a huge population of people and staff that made the shore excursions very special.    My only comment would be to really encourage people to have rain pants.  We had our rain jackets and used the boots provided by the ship but as an afterthought wished we had rain pants.  We got to have all the shore excursions which were varied and interesting – from hiking up the hill to the southern lighthouse, to hiking back to the glacier, etc. 
 
Another highlight of the trip was our stay at Calafate.  The Perito Moreno glacier was absolutely magnificent.  We got to see some “calving” of the ice as well as hear the terrific sounds.  We also went to the Laguna Nimez bird sanctuary in town and saw the flamingos.  Another day we took a boat to another estancia, then a 4 X 4 trip up into the mountains and finally hiked to see the second largest glacier in the world.
 
All the hotels throughout the trip were very much to our liking.  Small and pleasant with really good and helpful staff.  And the breakfast menus were excellent.  During our drive, we were able to stop as we wanted and explore a bit off the beaten track.  When we got to Santiago, my husband did have his opportunity to fly in the Andes;  I don’t think he quit smiling about the experience for weeks afterward.
 
I have attached some images for you that Jim took during our trip.  I have about three thousand that I took, so my next job is to get them processed and onto our web site.  I will let you know when that happens.

  
 
Thanks again for your hard work on our behalf for this trip.
 
Alice and Jim