We had a very helpful and friendly guide. Some of the activities were delayed or canceled due to the rain. It was a huge mistake doing zip lining on the last day when a lot of us were exhausted. The food was good, on average. Be prepared to bring lots of sunscreen, bug spray (deer), a wide brimmed hat, and long sleeve quick drying clothes.
Things to note:
1. You’ll probably need to do your laundry and hang it on the line outside (unless you bring checked luggage), so bring laundry soap.
2. Shampoo/Conditioner isn’t included: Bring some or at least 10 soles (should be enough for two people) as they don’t take cash or credit cards.
3. Multivitamins: Definitely bring some unless you want to be exhausted almost the whole time. There are not enough complex carbs, vegetables, or dairy to keep up your energy or the health of your body. At the very least, bring Calcium/Zinc pills.
4. Bring sleeping pills (prescription recommended): There were a lot of mentally ill people when I attended. One woman was screaming random things into 3 in the morning and woke up a lot of people (the couple across from me had to cancel their whole trip because they couldn’t get to sleep all night).
5. Be willing to skip activities if you need to: for example, a lot of the bird watching happens at 5 AM (boat leaves at 4:30 AM), don’t bother if you’re exhausted or will miss too much sleep.
6. Make the ZIPLINE super optional: For example, in my opinion, the first zipline is quite dangerous (I don’t recall there being a platform to come to a stop with your feet if you need to) and I hit my head (helmet on) pretty fast and someone had to come rescue me (though, I could have reeled myself in, it would just have taken around 3 hours). It was a huge mistake making us do the zip lining on the last day. It was my fault for going, but in my exhaustion, was not really mentally aware enough to know the full extent of my exhaustion. If you’re going to do it, know that’s there’s no break you can pull to help you a lot (it’s a manual break) or anything to stop your fall (if you don’t nail it, the tree could make your head a meat patty).
7. Although none of my stuff was stolen, I highly recommend being a neck wallet and money belt to keep your cash/jewelry/credit/important documents with you at all times (especially, if you are traveling in a group; that being said, I don’t know if they place random people in the same rooms).
Hopefully, this helps someone.
