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Dear Patricia:
I did have a wonderful time in Peru. The guides were excellent. I regret that I seem to have forgotten the name of my guide in Lima (was it Antonio?) but we had an excellent day birding through the city parks and the Wetland of Villa. I enjoyed the anecdotes of local history he could tell me as we went through the various districts and down the coast. I saw more of the real city neighborhoods than with a regular city tour and enjoyed many birds along the way. The rainforest tour was marvelous. Cesar was my guide and he is an excellent birder and charming young man. We found 118 species in 3 days, most of them totally new to me. Being a retired scientist myself, I found the field work at TRC especially interesting. We observed a group of 7 capybara swimming in the river on the way back to P. Maldonado. I will definitely recommend this experience to my birding friends and others who want to visit Peru. My stay in the Colca Valley was a highlight equal with Tambopata Research Center. I enjoyed Trujillo. My guide also worked in the museum gluing pottery back together, so she was able to give me a lot of history and background for the Temple and Chan Chan. The real surprise for me was the Temple of the Moon. It was exciting to see the excavation in progress and the beautiful colors on the murals and façade.
Melinda
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Dear Mario,
You are to be complimented on your attention to every detail of the adventure, from boats, to airplanes, buses to new mattresses, wine glasses in the Andes to new rubber boots in the rain forest - you never missed a beat. As we all mentioned at our farewell luncheon, the day in Patacancha with the members of the village was the high point of the two weeks, I have looked many times at the photos we took that day, and two things strike me. The first are the faces of the people - they are so strong, natural and beautiful. The other is the wonderful color of the traditional dress. I just hope that your experiment with us will lead to other opportunities for the people to preserve their wonderful culture and way of life. Again, thank you for planning and executing a simply superb experience. I hope we will be able to join you, Steve and W&L on another adventure somewhere else in this wonderful world.
Best regards,
David and Eleanor (Washington and Lee University Alumni)
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Dear Mario,
I’d like to thank your organization for the trip of a lifetime. My husband, two sons (age 6 and 10) and I spent a week in Tambopata, and traveled to The Refugio and Tambopata Research Center. We have traveled a lot in Latin America and Africa, you’re your organization stands apart from all the other adventure companies we have worked with. They made us feel safe and well cared for, but at the same time we felt immersed in the wild beauty of the Amazonian rainforest. Our guide (Pepe Sobrevilla) was superb and delighted our boys with lessons on how to search for and identify birds, how to move silently through the forest, and even how to catch piranhas. Our night walk in the rainforest was magical. Pepe was so considerate of our family’s needs,he even organized a quick soccer match on a riverbank during a long travel day. We will never forget our experience and hope to return to Tambopata in the future.
Sincerely,
Lisa
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Hola Mario and Jeanine,
Thank you for such an incredible experience. At our age, it is wonderful to propose a trek in Peru to both of our teenagers, and receive an enthusiastic response equal to our own. I was doubtful that they would want to travel with us as they got older, but we all like to be active and challenged, so this appealed to our desire for adventure. We all agree that this was a trip of a lifetime. You were able to meet all of our individual needs in amazing ways. We loved the unique surprises due to your special connections everywhere we went, like the exposure to local artists and collectors, native ceremonies, unique Peruvian music, the tours of historical Incan sights, the gourmet cuisine (!), the special excursions arranged for our active 16 year old adventurer (!!!), and more. Our accommodations were fabulous, whether they be camp-side with dining tent and amazing cloud forest scenery, or hotel luxury before and after our back country experience. And most of all, we want to thank your talented team that helped guide us through this exploration of the Andes and its history and culture. The pace was perfect so that we could achieve our goals. What an awesome group! Great leadership, great fun! Thanks for letting us participate in this fantastic trek. It was beyond our expectation, and will remain a great family adventure in our memories.
Mary… ( Mike, Amy and Michael)
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Dear Mario,
A little feedback on our trip to Posada Amazonas: it wasn't at all as advertised. We expected torrential rain and the air thick with mosquitos, but the sun shone almost the whole time and there were hardly any mosquitos (well, there were a few, but they were petite and gentle compared to our Canadian mosquitos). But seriously, we did have a wonderful time, added hundreds of birds to our life lists, saw an armadillo, capybara, agoutis, lobos de rio, a tyra (the last two were especially nice for me, since I am a mammalogist who has studied other species of aquatic and arboreal Mustelidae), and all 5 local species of monkey, besides tracks of jaguar and peccary, and thoroughly enjoyed our hikes and boat rides in the jungle. Our 84 year old blind Mom, after enduring the rigours of Machu Picchu, was happy just to sit on the sunny boardwalks or in the shade of the palm thatch according to the time of day, and listen to the parrots and monkeys, so she had a wonderful time, too. Cesar is a great guide, thoroughly knowledgeable about the flora and fauna and a great bird and game spotter (I'm pretty good at that myself, but more than met my match!), besides being a friendly and gracious companion. We also appreciated that he was so attentive to our Mom, helping her and guiding her. Attached is a picture of Cesar feeding Mom a piece of cake at the transfer station on the bank of the Tambotata River and one of Cesar and me doing a little dance in front of the giant kapok tree. Back in Lima, Mario Cabrejos and I had a great time birding together. I'm not sure if I wrote down Cesar's hotmail address correctly, so if I have it wrong, I would appreciate it if you would send me the correct one. Thanks for organizing such a great trip for us. Are you doing the same sort of thing in Africa? It's a place I haven't been to...yet.
Yours sincerely,
Lee
President, SciWrite Environmental Sciences Ltd.
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Dear Mario,
Since our fateful dinner meeting last February, our journeys took an adventurous turn. The sparkle in your eyes as you spoke of Tambopata, the macaws, the early morning walks, the beauty in the isolation of the rainforest, the intimacy of small groups, delightful, well-educated guides, good food, interesting folks, a plethora of critters in the wild, a journey into the rich history of the Incas and Spaniards in Cuzco, the awe of Machu Picchu, and personable, accessible guides for the entire journey, remains memorable. It was that, and much more. Though lying on the beach for a 15-year old young woman seemed far more appealing, Rosie found great excitement in the travel to our southern sister. 12-year old Tucker was energized by the mysteries of the rainforest, for he was the wide-eyed one at 4:30am. Our curiosity was piqued by the unique nature of each day's events. A walk through the rainforest proved a journey well worth rising for, being greeted by howler monkeys, leafcutter ants, wild turkeys, caimans, owls, macaws, capybaras, spider monkeys, and (Aldo beware!), JAGUARS! In addition, a delightful surprise- cold beer! And each of our guides made certain we were connected to the experience in a profound way. I feel as though we made many new friends. The opportunity to share this time with our children increased the foundation of our relationships and provided us an exciting, safe, absolutely fresh look at the world we live in. Every day was a new adventure, as we were introduced into a different culture and a new perspective. This trip will forever remain in our hearts with fondest memories. Thanks so much for facilitating this holiday for our family. We are grateful to you. Please connect with us when you are in the County, Mario. Take care. Stay in touch.
As ever,
Lynn
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Hi Mario,
Just wanted to let you know that our trip very much exceeded our expectations at all levels. It was truly unbelievable - I had to pinch myself many times to remind me that I wasn't in a zoo somewhere. The lodges and staff were absolutely amazing! Someone must have been looking out for us when they assigned Silverio as our guide for bird-watching. He was fantastic! We identified 112 species of birds (or rather, Silverio identified them - we just looked like idiots with permanent grins on our faces). Everyday our senses were bombarded with foreign sights, sounds and smells that didn't remind us of the jobs we left behind. And in the evenings, I found Cusquena beer! Thanks a million for a hassle-free fantasy tour! We're hooked and will return.
Cheers,
Pam and Terry Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada
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Dear Mario,
We made it back from a fantastic vacation thanks to you and all of the people that you had work with us. There was not one flaw in the time we were gone. Fernando, our guide, was a very good guide, who took care of all of or needs while we were hiking! He is looking forward to seeing you later this year. Everything you arranged for us was first class all the way. Our favorite was the Pueblo in Aguas Calientes!! Yet, the other places were equally as nice. The grounds of the Monesterio were so beautiful, I just loved to sit outside and look at the grounds. Again, I especially want to thank you and Barb for all the work that you did to make this family vacation our best trip ever!!! The people that you contracted with in Peru also did a first class job. Again, I cannot say enough how professional you are and what a pleasure it was to work with someone so organized and easy to deal with long distance. I hope some day that you will come to Oregon and we can meet each other.
Thanks for everything you did for the Gassner family.
Sincerely,
Rick
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| Chile Testimonials |
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Hello Boyd,
Thank you for the great chance to see spectacular scenery and lots of wildlife. The penguin reserve is not to be missed. We got to walk among these incredibly entertaining birds. It was wonderful! I really enjoyed visiting the World Heritage Sites. Everyone loved seeing the guanacos, seals, and, most of all, the penguins. Torres del Paine was incredible. It has to be one of the world's special places.
Rebecca
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Hi Mario,
Bill and I would like to thank you for another fantastic trip. From the beautiful boat and gorgeous scenery to our excellent guide, everything was perfect. Even the weather! Bill and I would love to go back to Chile, perhaps touring the wine country. Feel free to contact me if you'd like more feedback about various aspects of our trip. We look forward to our next travel adventure with your company.
Cheers, Janet
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| Italy Testimonials |
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Mario,
We loved traveling with you… beautiful walks, landscapes and great food. The only thing I did not like is riding my bike downhill over those damn chestnuts.
Thanks!!!!
Grace
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Mario,
You have done it again. What and amazing program you put together for us in Italy. You were right about Piedmont, it is undiscovered. The walks, the people, the cuisine were all very special. We in love with Barolo wine!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jan and Paul
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Ciao Mario,
All I can say to describe our walking trip in Piedmont is Belissimo!!!!!!! To experience Alba’s truffle festival and wine harvest was exceptional.
Will do it again.
Louise
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Walking Journey to Italy - Washington and Lee University
“Getting to know new people as we walked made it a “movable feast” of little visits, not just to restaurants and sites, but also visits into the lives of others-walking and talking, and telling stories as we traveled from place to place. The trip surpassed all expectations in every way”
“Keep up the good work. You upheld your standards all too well”
“The trip was what we expected-well planned, comfortable lodging and careful attention to details”
“Good food, good friends, wine and scenery……. Does it get any better?”
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| Tanzania Testimonials |
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"Your trip was magical, adventurous and safe. We felt so cared for."
Carl and Marsha
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"Boyd was the key to the total success of this trip. His many years of travel there and the contacts he has, made it so very special. This was not your typical tour of Africa. I cannot say enough about Boyd - his knowledge of the country, his very pleasant personality, his contacts, his relationship with Unique Safaris and their staff, and on and on. You won't find anyone better. I truly hope to travel with him again in the future." (He has, five more times.)
Bill
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"Boyd Norton: He is a great group leader, especially for Tanzania. He knows the area and the people so well that makes everything smooth. Boyd also arranges to leave early each morning to catch the best light for photography, which is great for me."
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"Great pictures, great animals, great guides and great memories!" L.F. and Marbrey
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Mario et. All;
We're back after an extraordinary 3 weeks. Many, many thanks to you and to your team for putting together and leading us on such a great trip. The guides, support teams and lodging were over the top in quality, and the suggested itinerary exposed us to a fascinating variety of locations in Tanzania. Meg's efforts on the flight seating also made the trip over and back much less of a chore than anticipated. We will try to send more detailed comments over the weekend, but wanted to get you some quick feedback before then.
Thanks again,
The Taymor - Parker family.
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Jambo Mario,
My daughter said the trip was "fantasmic" (which is something beyond fantastic). She said we've done some incredible trips (you certainly know a couple of them) but this one was way beyond all the others.
The scenery, the animals, the people, the accommodations, the guides, and the food were all great. Cudos especially to Nickson and Amani who were knowledgeable (Nickson was amazing on the birds) and very professional. The lodges were great. Boyd was right that we stay at the Plantation which really was special and had even more incredible food than most. And he was right that we should camp in the Serengeti--that was really special and none of us have ever camped in the luxury that we were provided there. Abdul, the chef, did fantastic things including making me a birthday cake in his "dutch oven"!
We saw every animal imaginable (even 3 leopards! and two black rhinos) and 120 or so different species of birds (I never was a birder until this trip but Nickson--with the help of your wonderful Safari Journal--may have converted me). Even though we didn't see a python in the wild (my daughter loves snakes and the puff adder wasn't enough for her) Nickson and Amani took us to the "Snake Farm" outside of Arusha where Sue got to see pythons and more! We also thought the scenery was spectacular--from the varied scenery in the different parks to the kopjes in the Serengeti to the crater!
The service and personnel in the lodges and tents were great. There was one issue that I'll leave to Ken to give the details on if he chooses in Kikoti that was less than perfect but it didn't substantially effect our enjoyment either of Tarangire or of the staff at Kikoti.
Zanzibar was also a real treat. It was a significantly different experience--more a cultural, ethnological one and also much more tropical. We loved both Stonetown and the beach. Our one suggestion is that we probably could have done it in a less expensive way in part by not having full board in Stonetown since the Serena's food is quite expensive and, although good, not quite as interesting as some of the local options. So half board or even just breakfast would have been fine. There also are other options beside the Serena (Africa House and Emerson) that are less expensive but quite nice. The Ras Nungwi Beach Resort was fantastic and I would highly recommend it to others. Great setting, great accommodations, fantastic food, great service and a beautiful beach. Snorkling isn't right there (you need to plan a trip to the reef--about $65--for a 1.5 hour trip to the reef) but once there the snorking is amazing. My wife even saw a dolphin. And the town of Ras Nungwi is interesting with some great places to eat (so half board at Ras Nungwi was a good move).
There's much more but I need to get back to work! The trip was amazing and I'd recommend it highly to anyone. Unique Safari's was a high class organization with great--and very professional--people throughout who took great care of us.
Thanks to all.
Paul, Judy, Sam, and Susan
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