Happy New Year.  We wish you wonderful 2013.

We enjoyed our stay in Santiago.  It is a very modern city, a bit like Singapore and LA, just smaller.  There is nothing to see or do in Santiago, but it seems a nice place to live.

Buenos Aires is a grand city, like Paris.  Unfortunately, it is not very well maintained.  We visited the usual tourist places and saw the Tango Show.   It is interesting to find these South American cities are very different from each other.  Before we came to South America, I imagined them somehow alike.

We are now in El Calafate, Patagonia.  It is a beautiful place with the lake and mountains.  Very open and dry.  We will go to the gracier trekking tomorrow.  It is so nice to get out of the city.

We all enjoyed our Cusco/Machu Picchu trip.  It was very memorable.  We like to thank our guide and the driver. They were patient, flexible and professional.  The guide was quite knowledgeable.  We could appreciate the sights and events well, thanks to him.  He was polite, courteous and friendly.  He not only explained about the tourist sights, he also talked about local life style while we visited local markets. It was very interestesting.

Machu Picchu was truly impressive, and the Sumaq hotel was excellent.

Of tours in Sacred Valley, we particularly enjoyed the first day lunch at the local artist couple’s house.   We found Moray and the salt mine quite interesting.  Children really enjoyed to see the Alpacas and Llamas.  I liked the setting of the hotel.  The only complaint is our second day lunch.  It was too far and the food was average.  If we skip the lunch, Moray and the salt mine are close and we could have more free time.   Sacred Valley is large and we needed to drive a lot between the sights.  I understand that some people like to see them all, but it will be nice if you could let us know the driving time required, so that we can make decisions.

Cusco is beautiful and very well maintained.  Novotel was good – convenient location, modern facilities and historic building.  Our guide recommended some restaurants, and they were all good.  The walking tour was interesting.  We especially enjoyed the market.  It is similar to wet market in Hong Kong.

All in all, we are impressed with the professional services and personal details given by Kuoda Travel.  Thank you very much for being patient and flexible with our changing requests.

We have traveled other large, personalized tour companies, but you are better because you did not bring us to souvenir shops and waste our time.