Marcel, March 2017

We’re back, and thankful to you for organizing a wonderful trip. We all loved Santa Elena and Hotel Belmar, a true gem. Without doubt the ziplining in Selvatura was the highlight, our 5-year old grand daughter absolutely loved it, as did the adults. She also was delighted with the Herpetarium, looking for the frogs and snakes both during the day and in the evening (the little, and no so little, critters are incredibly well camouflaged, but Emme did an amazing job of finding them). We liked Morpho’s for dinner and the Orchid Cafe for lunch. I would not recommend the Treehouse Restaurant – overpriced and not particularly good.

We also liked Samara, Villa Kalimba is charming. One suggestion: the villa was a bit tight for us, there is apparently a more spacious villa (still a two-bedroom), and you may want to suggest it (possibly with an upcharge) when there are 4 adults and a child as was the case for us. I would also recommend the Locanda restaurant diagonally across from Villa Kalimba as an excellent place for lunch; in addition, there are lounge chairs and a couple of palapas in front of it. As far as restaurants are concerned, Gusto Beach and particularly Mamma Gui are excellent (though somewhat pricey). Where in Santa Elena all restaurants seem to take credit cards, that’s not the case in Samara and the ATM’s seem to be quite temperamental – visitors should make sure to bring enough cash.

I am attaching the photo, it’s a picture of a quetzal which Luis helped me take using my iPhone and his telescope since my camera’s zoom was not long enough to get a good picture. Luis was a decent guide, though he was quite late at the airport and he probably could have given more detailed explanations in general.

Thanks again for putting it all together, it went off without a hitch.

Global Family note: Luis was at the airport at the time I gave him but the family’s flight arrived earlier than the time I had.