We made it home. Outstanding trip with only positive feelings.
Alvear Palace=maybe the most elegant hotel in the world! The only place to stay in B.A. Loved the city and the tango show was a real highlight.
Iguazu=totally great; doing the boat trip under the falls and going to the Brazil side were great.
Mare Australis=beautiful ship and the Patagonia trip was a unique experience. Cape Horn on my birthday! Doing the ice fields and glaciers in a Zodiac was once-in-a-lifetime.
Santiago=a nice little break and the Ritz-Carlton was the Ritz-Carlton.
Atacama=you were right; it's awesome. Awasi was spectacular---with respect, it makes Explora (which we visited) look like the Holiday Inn. We had our own 4x4 jeep, guide, and sometimes an additional driver too. Excursions were fabulous and totally customized.
Wine country=great. Loved the night in Santa Cruz and Casa Real is beyond compare.

Guides were all very good; Santiago/Wine Country guide, Yoanna Eissler, was exceptional.
Connections, etc., were all flawless. Lan Chile is a superb airline and while Aerolineas needs improvement, it was no worse than our domestic brands!

Dear Protours Team:

We have just returned from a wonderful trip throughout your beautiful country. Everything was perfectly organised and we will be coming back next year!
Especially the Baobab Hotel in Huilo Huilo was a great and pleasant surprise. My husband Steve and I enjoyed the pisco sour in the hot tubs! Great hikes and wildlife!

See you next year!
Marlene & Steve

Hi Sue

Yes, I was going to email you to thank you for arranging a wonderful
holiday. The holiday exceeded expectations - and you were right - Mike's
birthday was probably the highlight of the whole trip.

Our touch of luxury(!!) in our Raa suite at Explora was excellent and we
were in fact extremely pleased to have discovered Easter island the Explora
way with the local guides and on foot. We both really enjoyed it - and not
just the history, the moais and the ahus, but also learning from the
islanders about the islanders and their culture. There were two walks a day
and we did our two walks a day, so we had a really good 'go' at the island.
It was a truly wonderful few days. 5 nights was perfect, 4 nights would
have been just enough, but it would have felt a bit rushed.

We liked Chile and the people and we were very lucky with our wildlife
spotting, including seeing all 4 camelids, rheas (including 6 babies!!), the
funny little rabbits, mice, wild guinea pigs and so many birds. We saw a
condor at close range - eating a dead llama! Our two guides who covered
North Chile Alan (1st 2 days) and Helen (5 days) were excellent
- especially Helen who was quite a wildlife expert. The space was awesome
in North Chile. The changes in vegetation fascinated me too.
We have been to some remote spots in our walking in Scotland, but those
places are not remote. In North Chile, the nearest place of any size is
150km away. On Mike's birthday we had a picnic outdoors on the salt lake
and swam in the hot springs - which were almost too hot! There was nobody
else there. It was surreal.

Margharita who met us each time in Santiago was a lovely girl. The Hotel
Orly was an excellent base. It was great when we finally managed a
breakfast there!!

Our guide in San Pedro - Guillermo - was quite a character. He wasn't a
patch on Helen as a guide- but he was fun - and he did what he set out to do
and got us up a volcano - to the rim of the crater. We climbed Volcan
Lascar to 5200m in the end. Volcan Saircebur had too much snow on it to
drive up and we were also going to be inadequately shod for snow. Volcan
Lascar was our original choice curiously. Guillermo and the driver took us
up to 3500m to stay in a sort of village hall in Talabre the night before to
minimise the altitude effects. All 4 of us climbed up (including our driver
Christian who was also good.) We didn't spend long on the crater rim as
there were some gases around.

We both had altitude problems in Putre (at 3500m) which took about 36 hours
to clear up. Only headache, nausea and loss of appetite, nothing serious!
It didn't spoil our time in the north. It did make you stop and think a bit
though. Arriving in Le Paz must be problematical.

Our night in Colchane was different. Very cold room and could scarcely move
under 4 alpaca blankets - very heavy. It was so different to home
- a room like that would have been damp. There - it was just cold and in
fact it was warm in bed. getting up reminded me of when I was a kid
- pre central heating! We ate what was on the menu there - llama. I liked
it, Mike was less keen, and Helen and Umberto had arranged a Chilean
birthday cake. We enjoyed the Chilean food and did try to eat as many as
possible of the local dishes. We had a smattering of Spanish when we
started and I would definitely learn more before the next trip out.

In the whole holiday, only a couple of things went slightly wrong. We
weren't expected and weren't collected from Arica airport and in the end
after some conversation with the company who were guiding us, we started our
tour the next day. Once we realised we had the afternoon free we had a
pleasant snoop around Arica on our own. We also weren't picked up at Calama
on time and just ignored all the taxi drivers who were very persistent about
taking us to San Pedro. Our guides eventually picked us up half an hour or
so late.

Lan airlines were excellent. We came back on Iberia and were very
disappointed not to have the luxury of Lan and the little screens to pass
the time of day (and night). Getting to Madrid was frustrsating on the way
out. We left home at 9 am and left Madrid at midnight. It did seem a
ridiculously long time for such a short distance. Its a shame there are no
direct flights to Madrid from Manchester. I got my case back last night!!
Only 4 days after I landed. Mike had his - typical!!

We now want to go back again!! We liked the very untouristy feel to North
Chile and will obviously have to go to Patagonia. We finally got an elusive
window seat from Calama to Santiago and I was looking at the wild country
south of Calama with interest. It would be nice to climb a little Andean
summit.

Thank you once again for arranging such a wonderful trip. When we've saved
up we will be in touch again!

Best regards
Sheila

Dear Veronica,

Now I would like to say thank you for your kind cooperation, my clients were very satisfied with your services!

Thanks again & with best regards from Hungary,
Bernadette

Dear Ms Patricia Estroz, I would like to thank you for the verry prompt and good service you have
supplied us during our stay in Chile. Everyhting else was just perfect and fine. Also all the other hotels
were fine and worth the prices.

Best regards
Paul