Lightweight Journey Pack

Chile, San Pedro de Atacama: Today was a great day, traveling through the desert in our own 4×4

Bolivia, Uyuni Salt Flats: It’s been an excellent trip across beautiful Bolivia, incredible to witness the vastness of the salt flats!

Perú, Amazon Jungle: Having an amazing time on the Delfin III, the Amazon Jungle is a wonderfully rich environment 🙂

Unu Raymi Tour Operator & Lodges is the best. They planned our amazing trip to Peru, Edwin our guide, Jesus our driver. James managed our trip through airport accidents and transportation strikes, making sure we didn’t miss any of the main highlights of our trip. Truly amazing! I highly recommend it and would certainly go back on our next incredible journey.

We have had the time of our lives and the best is still to come. We are very happy with everything! We loved Puno and everything else has been amazing 🙂 Thanks

Mimi and I have just completed a one-month trip of a lifetime with Unu Raymi Expeditions. We are experienced independent travelers who, as active retirees, enjoy private, escorted touring that is customized to our interests and abilities. Originally planned for early 2020, the trip was severely disrupted and reorganized many times due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Potentially, these changes could have spelled the end of our wish to visit Peru and all that went with it. However, James Mackender and his team worked overtime to maintain and amend our plans and ensure the trip went ahead when clear to do so.

The result was well worth the wait. At every turn, James and his team planned, booked, confirmed, and followed up on all details resulting in a stress-free visit which we cannot fault. The quality of accommodation, guides, transport, drivers, and advice was just as we anticipated and such a result does not occur without professional input.

Mimi and I would highly recommend Unu Raymi Expeditions and James and his team without reservation. If we return to South America on another visit, James will be the first person we call.

Accommodation.

Great.

-The staff at all locations were engaged and reacted rapidly to any concern. We appreciated and enjoyed each hotel’s facilities, food and locations/access to local sights and amenities (food, shopping, walking areas).

-Although the accommodations in the Iquitos Doubletree were very nice, we must comment on the internal noise impacting guest rooms/suites overlooking the pool. We would strongly recommend a plaza-side room in preference to a pool-side room. The noise (loud disco/club music) on the poolside was unremitting from morning through evening and far greater than the traffic on the plaza side. Additionally, this hotel was the only one of our accommodations that did not provide daily drinking water. Our personal complaints initially made to staff were subsequently reinforced to management by James. These complaints were heard and we were satisfied with the resolution. Our concerns are the loud music and lack of water represent the hotel management’s standard operating procedure, and this practice will remain. We would have preferred a bottle of drinking water each instead of a cookie!

The Lima Hilton hotel staff, particularly at the front desk, dining room and executive lounge, deserve special commendation for exemplary customer service and friendliness. We greatly appreciated this.

Of the hotels, El Albergue in Ollantaytambo was the stand-out. We loved the setting, the spacious room, the friendly staff and truly enjoyed being on the train platform. The restaurant staff was very accommodating with our requests for ‘light’ dinners and the staff stayed late as we chatted with fellow travelers after dinner over another (!) bottle of wine. Memorable.

The Amazon cruise with Delfin 1 was off the scale. We were accommodated, educated, fed, watered, and pampered beyond belief; strongly recommended. We were also very pleased we booked on the smallest of Delphin’s ships. This made the onboard and outstanding expedition experiences personal and so enjoyable. Delphin’s staff are exceptional.

Transport.

Excellent. The standard of the vehicle was most suitable and the drivers were very professional and safe. Jesus was particularly good.

As an aside I would recommend the Hiram Bingham train in preference to the Belmond Andean Explorer. This is due to sleep being extremely difficult on the Andean Explorer on night one due to sub-standard trackwork and altitude on night two. The train, food, staff and accommodation were magnificent but if you cannot get a good night’s sleep it makes for a less than wonderful activity. Again, the Belmond staff were exceptional.

Food.

Excellent. We loved being introduced to the local fare, although we are not accustomed to big meals at lunchtime! All the restaurants were wonderful; we especially enjoyed the cooking lesson at the restaurant in Lima and the picnic at Ollantaytambo.

Locations.

Excellent. In our early planning process, we only personally chose Machu Picchu, Lake Titikaka and the Amazon. They were magnificent as expected, as were all the other sites recommended by Unu Raymi, especially in the Sacred Valley. All sites and experiences exceeded our expectations. We learned so much and since our return to Australia, we have referred to our books on Peru to review and seek additional information on our experiences.

We recommend visiting Colca Canyon as a 2-day trip. For us, it was too long a round-trip drive for a one-day experience (especially allowing for the altitude). But we loved seeing the condors soaring, and we would have not wanted to miss that.

Professionalism.

Excellent. Nothing needs to be added. We greatly appreciated James’ and Martha’s concern and willingness to help us retrieve a lost phone. Truly above and beyond the call of duty.

Communication.

Excellent. Before, during and after the trip communication was outstanding. During the trip James contacted us every day to confirm details and address any issues. We could not have asked for more.

Safety.

Excellent. Especially when it came to road transport. The drivers demonstrated the patience of Job, and they all kindly and consistently made our comfort, health and safety issues, especially in relation food and water, a priority. Our safety was clearly a concern of the guides during all of our activities.

Guides.

Excellent. All guides were well-chosen to manage visitors of our age. At no time did they attempt any activity before first confirming we were OK with the prospect. Additionally, at altitude and when climbing steps, the guides checked regularly on our comfort level. Their individual knowledge was wide-ranging, and we learnt so much more than anticipated due to the guides’ education and backgrounds and ability to put tours into a much-larger cultural and historic context. Martha, Herbert and Freddie were standouts. We commend Martha’s willingness to amend the itinerary on our final day. She and the driver literally made a u-turn and gave us a very special final experience at Pachacamac.

Finally, in addition to the history, culture and amazing sites, landscape, nature we experienced with the guides and drivers, we will long treasure the daily informal interactions we shared with the guides and drivers: Lots of laughter, family stories, and commonalities despite our supposed differences.

We also greatly appreciated the ‘down time’ built into the itinerary, especially around travel days.

Payment Process.

Needs Improvement. The problem may well have been due to international rules and Covid delays, but the process of payment requires addressing. In these days of global credit, it should not be difficult to pay/transfer funds.

Simon VL Willis and Miriam C Flaherty Willis

17 October 2022

I really wanted to hike in the Cotahausi Canyon, located in an isolated area, an 8-hour bus ride from Arequipa, and very far from general tourist attractions. I had contacted many trekking companies in Arequipa and Cusco, but most were only interested in taking me to the Colca Canyon, a popular and closer option. I was lucky enough to contact James Mackender, Unu Raymi Expeditions, who was willing to look into arranging flexible trekking options for me from the township of Cotahuasi in the Cotahuasi Canyon. James also arranged the guide from Arequipa, as well as accommodation, meals, bus, and air fares.

I traveled with my guide on a sleeper bus from Arequipa to Cotahausi and at 5:00 am the next morning we took a bus to begin the first hike. All trips to the small distant villages in the Canyon were made by local collectives and the guide used his knowledge of the schedules to capture the collectives on their return trips. Traveling with local people was an extremely interesting insight into daily Peruvian life in this area.

One morning we caught a bus at 3:00 a.m. to travel to Puyca to walk to the Wari ruins high above the village at the archaeological site of Maucallacta, at 3925 meters: such a quiet, pre-Inca site high on the heights of the Canyon overlooking ancient terraces that They extended to the bottom of the valley. There was even a stone bathing area that we recognized as an Inca addition.

Cotahuasi Canyon is extremely beautiful, remote, diverse, and unspoiled, with many interesting hiking attractions including the stunning tall cactus forest and Sepia Falls. One very cold morning we traveled to a town called Huaynacotas along the sides of the Canyon. It had snowed the night before and a volcanic crater and ridges above the snow line were covered in white dust. After hiking the ridge path to enjoy the view along the canyon, we took five hours to hike a narrow trail to the river and then to Luicho to splash in the local thermal pools.

Cotahuasi Canyon is an amazing place to hike and I am so grateful to James and my guide for having the opportunity to have such an authentic experience.

As an avid hiker, I have been to Peru many times and traveled in many places with many different companies, but I feel that my experience with James Mackender of Unu Raymi has been the absolute best. As I said before, no one would help me hike the Cotahuasi Canyon, but James took me through the extensive planning of it, I was able to have the most wonderful and memorable experience.

James never had too many problems and he was always happy to answer my many questions, discuss different travel options and sort out multiple bookings for accommodation, buses, trains and planes. James is the best travel professional and I am grateful for the way he coordinated all my reservations and made sure I was checked in for all my flights and train trips. This is very reassuring when you are traveling alone.

I was grateful that James was available on WhatsApp to resolve any issues or concerns. At the end of my time in Peru, I had some international flight problems and James was very happy to try to resolve the complications for me.

I highly recommend Unu Raymi Expeditions and James’ organizational and caring skills to any potential traveler to Perú. You would be in exceptional hands.