We have just returned from our South American journey. Firstly, I wanted to say how amazing our host Julie Salt was. We were very relaxed travelling with Julie taking the lead, which obviously we don’t have when we journey away on our own. She dealt extremely well with all sorts of situations, people and personalities, yet keeping the group running smoothly without drama. She was always smiling, engaging with everyone and there to help whenever anyone needed it. I bow to her strength and fun personality, she made the journey run so smoothly.
We have travelled a great deal with World Journeys arranging our tours and we have always found that we have had the best service. Top guides, great drivers, excellent accommodation and itineraries. This was our first small group hosted tour, which with only 10 people was perfect in size for us. Once we got to know the others we became good friends and had some fun and lots of laughs. We still made sure we did things on our own at times as well, which was a good thing and was very easy to do.
The Galapagos cruise was fantastic, well organized and run. Our suite was a very good size, with a comfortable bed and good-sized bathroom. The service was exceptional, and the guides were very knowledgeable, fun and went out of their way to make our tour interesting. Our accommodation throughout South America was good, our favourites were in Machu Picchu, Urubamba, Iguazu, Buenos Aires and obviously Sacha Lodge. Our highlights were the Galapagos, Piranha fishing in the Amazon, La Paz (great city) along with meeting Mario and visiting his studio and home, Chopper flight in Rio, Iguazu Falls and Chopper flight there, plus our first glimpse of Machu Picchu.
To sum up, both Murray and I really enjoyed our tour, we enjoyed every country we visited and the people we met. We felt extremely lucky to have visited places like the Galapagos, Machu Picchu and Iguazu Falls. Seeing the photos of these places doesn’t do them justice, they are breathtaking and inspiring and need to be seen to be truly believed. Having a fantastic host, like Julie taking care of all the details when you’re travelling to so many places in a relatively short time was essential in making the journey run smoothly and we felt very relaxed.
