Name: Tarantula Hostel
Address: Av. Aeropuerto Km 1 Puerto Maldonado,Av. Aeropuerto, Puerto Maldonado, Puerto Maldonado, Puerto Maldonado, LIMA 00, Peru
Rating: 8

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Puerto Maldonado Airport

Tarantula Hostel

Puerto Maldonado

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We booked a 2 night 3 day tour with Tarantula, specifically to see a Macaw Lick.  This was always included in their itinerary but I'm sorry to say the itinerary changed from hour to hour. We didn't visit the Macaw Lick at all, just a Parrot Lick which was very underwhelming.  All the parrots were green in green trees and almost impossible to see. On a positive note, the accommodation was fine and the food was good with coffee and tea on tap. One further thing to consider, if you think you are going into the depths of the jungle, you aren't. The lodge is very close to the city which also detracted from thinking we were in a jungle.

We left disappointed because they changed the itinerary

Having stayed in Puerto Maldonado before (with another company), we had a good idea of what to expect. Unfortunately, our expectations were not met at all, and we were really disappointed with our tour. We sent the following to the manager to ask for a response and a partial refund, but he wrote back essentially telling us he would not offer a refund and that some of our complaints were unfounded. In any case, here is our experience:

We were not met at the bus terminal, and had to make several phone calls to the office to figure out what was happening and arrange our transport. When picked up, the driver told us we were "early", but in fact we were actually 30 minutes later than what we had arranged. We were given a small breakfast when we arrived, which was a nice touch and we hoped that would be the last of our troubles. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

It seemed that our reservation was completely forgotten about, and we listened as the staff tried to make last minute arrangements for us to join the other couple who were there for their tour. We felt that we were just being added on to other people's plans, rather than having our own plans being made. We were told we would leave at 9am, so we rushed around to get ready, then ended up waiting until after 10am to leave. This was to be the first, but not the last, time we were rushed around for no reason and then made to wait as things left late.

At the office, we were told that the plan would be roughly the same as what we had signed up for and paid for online. However, when we arrived the lodge, we were told that we would be ziplining on the 1st day. We asked what would be happening instead on the 3rd day and were told by our guide that he didn't know and he would find out and tell us later. Overall, the plan kept changing and we didn't know what to expect. 

The ziplining experience was not the best, as the lines appeared to be in bad condition, and were very scary to cross. Also, one of the other guests did not have his harness properly tightened and it almost fell off as he was crossing! This is not at all the "100% safe" experience advertised on the website. 

The first night at the lodge, we were kept awake until almost 3am by the staff getting drunk and having a party (including the owner who was there also). This was extremely unprofessional and disrespectful to the guests, who paid to be there and enjoy their vacation, not listen to yelling and staff getting wasted. Then, we were told we had to wake up at 4am to have breakfast at 4:30 and leave at 5am. The staff were so drunk that they slept through their alarm for almost an hour (we listened to it going off and the staff snoring), and woke up late, so we didn't leave until almost 6am. Again, we were rushed for no reason, and this was extremely unprofessional. 

Following this, our guide (who said he only had 1 hour of sleep) walked very quickly through the entire trip to Sandoval, hardly pointing out any wildlife, and not respecting that one of our party was feeling sick. He barely checked to see if she was alright, and seemed to just want to rush and get there as fast as possible. He had also told us originally the walk would be 1 hour, but then when we started said it was actually 2. So, we were lucky to have brought more water and snacks than needed, since the trip was much longer than we were told. Then, we arrived where the boat was supposed to pick us up and there was no boat! Instead, we had to walk another 30 minutes, over very broken and dangerous bridges to arrive at the second lodge.

After we arrived, we went on our next excursion and ended up not having lunch until almost 8.5 hours after we had eaten breakfast! We were not given snacks, and were not told to bring any. This is very irresponsible to not inform guests of long periods between eating and receiving water, especially given the heat and the physical exertion of the activities. 

That night, we asked when we would we doing the trip to the salt licks (as advertised in our package, and one of the main reasons we chose this package). We were told that we weren't going there as it was "too far away", and instead we would visit a local family and go fishing. This is not what we paid for, and not what we wanted to do. Also, the family visit was very cheesy and not at all authentic. We did not want to do this activity, and were not happy to have our salt lick tour replaced with this. To make things even worse, when we were at the family's property, our guide asked us to borrow the money to pay the family for our visit! This was completely unacceptable and unprofessional. 

Other things that bothered us about our experience were:
-the monkey that was around the lodge went to the bathroom several times on the floor, and it wasn't always cleaned up. Or, it was just swept away bit the floor was not washed. This is very unsanitary.
-almost everything started 30-60 minutes after we were told it would, so we spent a lot of time getting ready and then waiting. 
-we got a rash on our legs from the boots provided, and they did not appear to be getting cleaned between guests.
-we hiked for 2 hours on the last day before breakfast. we should at least have been given some fruit or something small.
-we were told we didn't need flashlights for the night tour, and then felt we couldn't see anything without them and had to share one between several of us

On the positive, the food was very good, our beds were comfortable, and the staff (while rudely keeping us up all night) were pleasant to be around. 

Hope this is useful to other guests looking to have a good time in the beautiful jungles of Peru!

Terrible experience!! Avoid.

I stayed two nights here. Room was clean and breakfast was plentiful. The owners were very friendly and helpful in planning trips for me. The hostel is very convenient to the airport and very easy to get taxi/collectivo into town.Next door there is a very nice thai restaurant.I could not have asked for more

Very Friendly and Helpful

We went there for a two days jungle trip to the lodge. That was really good:-) Marco - our guide - explained a lot to us about flora and fauna. Also we went for the tree tops, a boat on Lake Sandoval, wild Monkeys, Caymans, Spiders...

Staff and food was also perfect. One the way back to the bus it was a bit of a hurry due to some communication problem...but even that has been mastered perfectly by the team.

So: Thumbs up!

Great Experience!

The location is very near the airport, but that's a positive!  Easy to get there, easy to get back.  You aren't missing anything by not staying in town.  You could stay in one of the jungle lodges, but the cost can be prohibitive for those.  We saw an Agouti in the yard as soon as we checked in and Tamarins on the porch at breakfast the next morning.  

There are plenty of taxis and "motokars" to take you to town for dinner or essentials.  Also a minibus that costs 1 sole.  The employees at Tarantula are so helpful.  The breakfast was good, with eggs, cheese, bread and jam, and juice and coffee.  The hostel can arrange taxis to town or to the airport for cheaper than you can get on the street and are happy to do so.

We booked a day jungle tour to Lake Sandoval.  What a great trip!  Marco took the time to point out smaller things we would have missed and was so knowledgeable about plants and animals.  The boat ride on the Lake was gorgeous (don't forget sunscreen!!)  We saw monkeys and caimans and some sort of punk rock looking bird that I will never forget (even if I forget the name!).  The boat ride back was even more amazing.  Even though we were behind schedule, Marco didn't rush us through the jungle back to town.  He continued to stop and point out monkeys and frogs, etc.

The last day we grabbed a cab to quickly hit a few spots around for pictures.  The cab driver was so kind and patient with our terrible Spanish!  In fact, everyone in town and the Hostel was kind!

This place was great!!!

Tarantula Hostel

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