I just read the previous reviews and must comment. We were the couple
that capsized on your last evening on the tour mentioned above.
I can assure you we were NOT laughing uncontrollably. If you or your other guide had been anywhere near us you might have known that. Capsizing in dark murky water at night is not fun. As the others have mentioned your company is not concerned in the slightest with safety. Luckily, it was during the time we were close to the mangroves and the water was very shallow. There was absolutely no one to help us. We had to get ourselves back into the kayaks and out of the mangroves.
Also, I must agree with the person that mentioned your condescending remarks.
Just go back and read your reply, it oozes with self righteousness, not a good trait for the owner of a tour company.
Furthermore, no one during our orientation stepped out or decided to skip that part of the evening. Even though, I was very tempted to after you treated the group like school children and started demanded that we respond verbally because you could not see in the dark. Also nasty remarks about you not being able to communicate with people from Italy or those that speak Spanish doesn't fare well for international tourists. You most definitely need to educate yourself when working with tourists!
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Oct 2019
Hello and thank you for leaving this review.
So I specifically rember what I said, because it is a written script, that we all memorize, so every person can have the same experience.
I rember going over reverse paddling to a tune that went like this... "OK guys, next is reverse paddling, so right now I need everyone to put thier paddle in at thier hip, and sweep the paddle allll the way out to your toes, hip to toe, hip to toe,.. Now, this is important guys, because we have trees and shrubbery that line the lagoon, so if I hear you heading for the trees screaming,... " OH MY GOSH, I'M HEADING FOR THE TREEEEES WHAT DO I DOOOOO, AHHHHHHHHH" (waves paddle in the air while mimicking a customer screaming), "... Annnd you continue to paddle faster forward into the trees?",.. "Well it's hard for me to feel sorry for you at this point", "so it's important that we all understand reverse, so again, that's hip to toe, hip to toe", "now does everyone understand reverse, does anyone have any questions about reverse paddling?" ..
Does any of that sound familiar?
As you mentioned previously "I had treated the group like school children and started to demand that you respond verbally because I could not see in the dark" . Which actually went like this "OK guy's, I'm like the person in McDonald's, I will not see you shake your head at the drive thru out here, so I'll need you to respond verbally, so I know you understand and do not have any questions about this instruction or what we're talking about in the water, ok guys ".. (Again, this is all a script that the guides will memorize.)
Now if you were offended by our safety instruction and didn't answer verbally that you didn't understand, well there's not too much I can do in the way of repremanding a guide, which happened to be the owner (me) this night. This probably explains how you found yourself in the bushes.
As you speak English, and found yourself in the bushes, it is our guides duty to make sure that guests whose native language is not English, can communicate with thier guides.
We don't want anyone in the bushes.
As for our company not being concerned with safety, we just had another kayak instructor out as a guest who teaches CHILDREN how to kayak, and they left an amazing review that actually highlighted our orientation instruction.
So while we can not please everyone, we do try and be fair. Had you called the following day to tell us of your experience we would have gladly refunded you.
However, we know this review is to support your friends who left the 4 other negative reviews from the same night, two below (titled Huge Mistake and "the review is correct... huge mistake") and the two above (titled "Do you want to live" and "Let's try this again"), and didn't agree with the response the original garnished.
While we are not ok with people trying to smear us, we are not here to dispute that you feel you didn't have a good time, we are here to dispute the context in which you made your case.
Again, not one time did you call to complain, ask for a refund, nothing. Had you reached out, we would have issued you or your party a refund.
Obviously as stated, the owner was on site, so with the exception of you paddling your kayak into a tree that lined the side of the lagoon, after being instructed on how to avoid that exact situation, we would never agree with your depiction of the events. But we would have issued you a refund to at least have left that good taste in your mouth.
You opted to join your friends in a smear campaign and that is fine. Our guests are well informed and can see this sequence of reviews for what they are. Localized to a disgruntled party of 5 in a 30 person group.
Now this reply is left as of 10-1-2019. Your party was out on the 21st...so what a shocker it will be when more of your friends leave more reviews after we highlight how big the groups was as opposed the people in your party.
We'll have those removed too as harassment, same as the others.
Thank you for joining us!