Comment 1a

As you can see, we loved our vacation in Peru and Ecuador!!  The memories will be a part of our lives forever.  I am planning to start working on a memory photo album soon.

Our vacation got off to a bang right from the first day.  We all loved the countryside hike, tour of the alpaca farm, mountain bike and then of course our 2 days hiking Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu. Percy was a perfect host, very helpful, knowledgeable, concerned and polite. We also thought our biking guides were great, in fact, I learned so much about biking!  Berk, who does mountain bike weekly, was very pleased with the tour, despite the tough steep hills.  It was definitely a thrill ride.  Both open air lunches were special too, not only was the food good, but sitting countryside was really fun for the family.

Percy made our long 6 hour hiking day just so easy. I know we couldn’t have done it without him. His knowledge and love of your country is such a benefit and treat.  Each Peruvian hotel was so unique, comfortable, we truly felt special by the staff at each hotel.

I will send you a separate email regarding our trip to Ecuador later.

Thanks to you too Jenny, your promptness, thoroughness, and concern for our vacation was truly above and beyond what was expected!

Comment 1b

As a continuation of our family trip to Ecuador, we had fun on the long train ride from Aqua Caliente to Cusco, the fashion show and dance were quite the entertainment!  Cusco was a tough day for most of the Hongs, I think it was a combination of the higher elevation plus being physically tired from the 4 busy days plus travel. After an afternoon and evening in the beautiful Cusco hotel, we all felt much better. We loved meeting Mery at the airport and discussing our travels personally with her.  The airport transfers and personal attention with our luggage etc we received was sooo nice and appreciated!

Norby was an excellent guide in Quito, we loved his calming and informative details as we toured the city of Quito and the equator. We all wished we were able to stay in the old section of Quito, the historic hotel looked very interesting.  The tour at the equator was fun and educational for all.

We all felt the trip to the cloud forest may have been just too much travel for us. We had to drive in the dark to the forest arriving later so we didn’t get to really enjoy being in the cloud forest. We all wished we had more time to zipline rather than the butterfly farm. The chocolate tour was great! Very informative and we loved the brownies.  We had NO idea how much was involved in making chocolate.

After a long 5 hour flight delay in the Quito airport, we finally made it to the Galapagos Islands.  Unfortunately we all missed reading the detailed note regarding the $100 cash entrance fee.  Norby did help us in finding an ATM machine to resolve this, luckily the airport staff was reasonable.

Our time in the Galapagos seemed too quick, and involved a lot of travel. We loved our time snorkeling with the sea lions, sea turtles, penguins and taking pictures of the unique sea animals the islands are home to. Norby was not as engaged while we toured the islands, not sure if he was the best guide of the Galapagos Islands.

Overall, our Kuoda trip was a trip none of us will ever forget. Kuoda made the trip a very unique, exciting adventure that the Hongs will be talking about for the rest of our lives.

Thank you so much Jenny, keep us updated on your new adventures.

Comment 2

Yes, we are all back and had a fantastic time!

Bevin and I were there only a week and we were exhausted but so thankful for the experience. Most hiking, biking, we’ve ever done in our entire lives but survived.

Lodging, food, excursions, scenery were all great. (only feedback would be to determine our level of these activities, one nephew rode in van 1/3 of bike trip and another nephew (13 years of age) was in van 2/3 of trip and very intense biking parts that all of us walked down instead of biking.

I opted out of the 8.5 mile trek on Inca trail unfortunately since not a big fan of peeing in the woods (only suppose to be one bathroom stop along the trail), and am sorry I missed it. If I had known ahead of time that limited bathrooms each day, I would have drank less water, or prepared myself better.

Tour guides were awesome and flexible. Learned a lot about the history of Peru, and the natives.

Thanks for organizing this wonderful trip for the whole Hong family.

Becky