This is an open letter about our horrible experience with Amboro Tours. I couldn't publish this on TripAdvisor because they don't accept reviews for trips/expeditions that are +3 days or are tailor made.
Summary
Amboro Tours based in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) is a very unethical company that will rip you off. The owner (Marcos Velasco) is a liar and a thief.
DO NOT TRUST THIS AMBORO TOURS from Santa Cruz de la SIerra, neither for AMBORO PARK or NOEL KEMPFF MERCADO or any other tours. They are NOT HONEST... and their prices are WAY WAY TOO EXPENSIVE anyways, especially for Bolivia.
The Full Story (All of this really happened)
We (4 guys 28-35 years old, from Switzerland) worked over two years on a crowdfunding to get us to do an expedition to Noel Kempff Mercado, precisely we wanted to reach Laguna Chaplin and a couple other sites in the park (that are really hard to get to). This whole expedition (3 weeks in the jungle, fairly long trip, in august/september 2015) would be filmed the whole time (in order to make a movie about it) which means carrying a lot of video gear and different equipment.
Amboro Tours (which is "only" one guy named Marcos and his assistant, website is www.amborotours.com) said they could get it done for a certain price (very expensive for Bolivia, but we couldn't find anyone else who could help us get there).
We did a small "test" by having them organise a first SMALL expedition (7-8 day) in Amboro Park to see how well they did their job. This first expedition went very well : the guides and carriers were helpfull and got the job done (even though one of the "professionnal carriers" was over 60 years old and wearing thongs are we were rock climbing through rivers... didn't seem like that's what he really did for a living). We got fed very well, felt like they were taking care of us, etc.
Since that small trip went well, we now trusted Marcos and Amboro Tours. This was a big mistake.
Our main expedition did not go as planned :
- We had asked for at least 9 men/carriers to carry our video-gear cases/bags and only got 5 (of course, Amboro never warned us that the missing men wouldn't show up... this was a total suprise and we were already too deep into our expedition to contact him and discuss anything)
- We had been promised 2x guides and a cook : we only had one "true" guide who didn't lead the other carriers/bolivians (NO leadership or CONTROL over them whatsoever) and couldn't cook near the end because he was too tired to do so (over 10 hours of walk)
- We expected professionnal machete guys ("pika's") to open the 28km in the jungle and basically had 2-3 very capable "gardeners"
- Some of our gear arrived late (the 2nd airplane didn't make it on the day it was supposed to... ) and because we were missing men/carriers we had to leave almost half of our video gear behind
- Some of the food was also left behind, we ended up being pretty hungry by the end of the trip (eating one piece of bread in the morning, and one piece at lunch... at night, some of the "guides" didn't know how to cook so we had to use our "emergency" lyophilized-food rations)
- Because of these reasons, we couldn't film the way we were supposed too and this jeopardised our movie and projet (2 years of hard work)
- Because of these reasons (we didn't have the amount of men we had planned and paid for), we ended up lacking water and feeling exhausted to a point where it got fairly dangerous (we indeed DID have the choice to walk back to a river, but our goal was to reach the laguna)
- We had discussed with Amboro Tours some small airplanes to go to our first destination, and back. Near the end of the expedition, when we called Marcos (Amboro Tours) over a satellite phone, he wanted us to travel back by car (which is a 2 days trip versus 2 hours via airplane) with no valid reasons. We had to threaten to sue to finally get the plane back...
- When we got back after 16 days in the jungle, at one of our basecamps, we realised Marcos (from Amboro Tours) had moved ALL the video-gear (and the food) we had left there... He moved it 20kms away from there, without permission or asking !!!
- Amboro Tours lacked to clearly inform us of what was going on in terms of logistics (transportation, carrying/moving our gear, etc.) during the expedition. Before, the emails we exchanged with them were fine & went well
Conclusion
For all the trouble and the men/carriers/guides we didn't get for that we had originally dealt (and paid for, in advance) we asked Amboro Tours for a refund when we got back. Unfortunately, not only did they refuse, but they filmed us with an amateur camera while waving the contracts at us and even asked us for some more money. This was extremely disappointing and a totall scam when you do the math (how much we paid for what we got in terms of manpower, food, transportation and logitistics). We got ripped off and couldn't do anything about it. Marcos from Amboro Tours ended up calling us "little boys who need to go back to our mothers" and kicking us out of the office (while threatening us that they could prevent us from "leaving the country" if they wanted), when all we wanted was to discuss and find a solution. They are NOT professionals and it is very sad to see the way they reacted at all this, especially when you know they are the leading company of this kind of expedition/tours in Santa Cruz.My advice
Don't trust Amboro tours unless you're doing a trip/tour they've done a dozen times. Make sure EVERYTHING is written and specified on the contract (How many guides, how many carriers, what time you leave and come back, who you go there jeep/carriage/plane, how much food for how many people, etc.). And don't even think you're going to pay the "right" price, we've discussed with the bolivians and the price Amboro Tours says they have to pay for a carrier/guide is absolutely NOT true. You pay an "european" price for a very "bolivian" expedition (where the bolivians with you are paid a bolivian fee). You've been warned.
