Titicaca itinerary and indulging in some local culture.

Tags

All Ways Travel, Amantani, Community, Cultural Exchange Tour, Culture, Cusco, Eco Tourism, Hiking, Lake Titicaca, Peru, Pullman Tourism Bus, Puno, Reviews, Taquile, Tour Bus, Transport, Travel, Uros Islands

This section of the trip to Peru, was probably the easiest overall to book.  Right off the bat, I decided to go for the highly recommended All Ways Travel.  Every reference I looked at for trips on Lake Titicaca, with exception of one or two self-recommended tour operators, all referenced AWT as the superior option.  AWT take very little for themselves and the main goal of the tourism, is to support the community of the islanders; something that was at the forefront of my mind, when looking for this trip.

The website is very clearly laid out, and it was so easy to choose the tour I had wanted (Cultural Exchange Tour).  At first, I was a little despondent over the minimum requirement of four people for the tour, but, after a brief E-Mail and quick response from Willy, I was assured that due to the request being so far in advance (six months), I could book anyway and they would have plenty of time to find another couple of people, to make up the minimum group size.

The tour itself includes Amantani and an overnight stay with a host family.  If you’re looking for something close to a day in the life of the islanders, this is perfect.  The lodgings have very basic toilet facilities and no running water or electricity, so don’t expect the usual tour treatment; I need to remember to take water and also some snacks, in case the local cuisine doesn’t agree with my stomach or nostrils.

Something that really attracted me to this particular tour, is that we are required to pay the overnight and meal costs, directly to the host family.  This is a guarantee that no money is going through the operator and, the islanders themselves are directly benefiting. Incidentally, the cost is amazingly cheap for the experience you’re getting – at the time of booking, it’s just shy of $10 per person.

The remainder of the islands tour includes the floating Uros Islands and Taquile, as well as some meals and hiking to the lesser travelled parts of the islands.  I’m more interested in getting away from the crowds so again, this was extremely appealing.  The full tour excluding the overnight costs, is only $45 per person, which is an absolute bargain for what you’re getting.  All hotel transfers are included (with a $3 transfer fee, for hotels out of the free pick-up range).

As a wonderful bonus, AWT also has on-line booking for a tour bus to Cusco.  The Pullman Tourism Bus is an all day affair, departing at 7:30am and arriving in Cusco at 5:30pm.  While it seems a long journey to take, cramped inside a bus, it does cover five sight-seeing stops along the way and also includes lunch.  At $40 per person, it’s a little more expensive that the standard bus but the richness of experience, makes it so much more appealing.  For those interested in visiting Puno after Cusco, the tour bus also operates in the opposite direction, leaving and departing at the same times; an additional $5 cost, to the Puno to Cusco direction.

When everything was finalised via quick E-Mails and it came time to book, the procedure was as simple as sending passport numbers and names, along with confirmed itinerary – hotel details are also needed, if you’re requiring a pick-up and/or drop-off.  No money, not even a deposit, is required for any of this and everything is paid for in cash, when arriving for the tour.  Be aware to take enough currency, to cover the costs of everything as it goes without saying really, that the islanders will likely not be looking to hand out change, for large denominations.

The process of booking the Inca Trail.

Tags

Aguas Calientes, Cusco, Flights, Hiking, Inca Trail, Llamapath, Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Payments, Peru, Reviews, Surcharges, Travel, Trip Advisor

After a couple of weeks of re-hashing itineraries and having a few issues cleared up, we finally booked our Inca Trail portion of the Peru trip. As you would imagine for the most famous of hikes in Peru, there are an unfathomable amount of tour operators to go with, and plenty of unscrupulous types, no doubt out to con us poor oblivious travellers, of our cash.

Strangely enough, we ended up booking with the first operator I considered, who also happen to be the cheapest option yet. I’m always a little dubious when prices are too cheap, but a few days of research and review reading, put my mind at ease.

Something I’d not even bothered using before, because I had been happy with the guide books, were the on-line reviews. People often forget that the Internet, offers more recent feedback than even the newly published guidebooks, in terms of range of review and cultural issues. With this in mind, I can’t rate Trip Advisor, highly enough. A point to remember, is to use a rule of thumb, to dump the highest and lowest rating, and review what’s left in the middle, so you’re not concentrating on the biased opinion – I also tend to not lean too much on a reviewer, that only has a handful of other postings (more senior reviewers for example, have well over 1,000 posts).

The trustee of our passport and Visa info, ended up being Llamapath (Who could really do with a cleaned up website). The service was fairly prompt for the most part, with just a few days between one or two E-mails, as the longest wait. The dialogue was perfect English and understandable, and the contact pretty thorough in details. Ultimately, we ended up securing the 4-day Trail hike, the train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo (which isn’t the normal included route) and the info for catching a safe bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco (at 10 soles). On top of that, Llamapath has also secured the flights from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado (for our jungle trip) and from Puerto Maldonado to Chiclayo. For the flights, I’m a little tentative until we get the actual tickets, as they seem to have either found us seats on the plane for about 3/4 the LAN Peru website costs, or they’re only covering one person and we’re getting charged $100 more per person. Currently on all E-Mails, they say ‘for two people’, so here’s hoping that isn’t lost in translation; should find out in the next few days.

One last thing to note about the payment process. We decided that everything should be paid by card, wherever feasible. The last thing you need, is to pay cash or transfer a couple of grand, and have it disappear without being covered for fraud.

Llamapath use a third-party payment website for Visa but unfortunately, it has a surcharge of just over 8% for the privilege. After checking the fees for a Western Union wire transfer, there would have been only a couple of dollars difference (still over $90 in charges) so it made sense anyway, to opt for the Visa payment. The good thing about the payment on-line is that the shopping cart is signed and encrypted, and will give you the relevant confirmation codes at the end. A word of warning here; do print each stage of the application out, as there is no confirmation E-mail sent. If your system is set up to do so, always print to PDF, so you have a digital copy to E-Mail to the tour operator, if necessary.