The story of a drug addict guide Konstantin Martynov. Peru, Bolivia, Chile.
We are seasoned travelers who have visited more than 70 countries. We had a dream to go to Peru, Bolivia and Chile. We have already been to Chile and we really liked this country, we wanted to get to know it better. We called the guide, agreed on the route, sent 1000 dollars as an advance payment to the card. We agreed with Konstantin Martynov to meet on January 4.2019 at the airport in SANTIAGO, Chile.
The first surprise: there was no guide in Chile. It's good that we booked the hotel in Santiago ourselves. Arriving at the hotel got through to Martynov. He, as if nothing had happened, offered us to fly to Lima at his expense. And this is Peru. Allegedly, he has another tourist, whose interests he does not want to infringe. We still had to find out how he would "throw" this tourist, a wonderful girl from Moscow. And we had to fly to Peru, although this was the end point of our journey according to the plan agreed with him. Yes, and tickets home from us were redeemed from Lima, which meant a second return after the tour back to Lima. But Kostya assured us that he is an experienced guide and knows the best and that he will return the money spent on these flights to us at the expense of his fee. My husband suspected something was wrong, but I convinced him that it was uncomfortable somehow in front of the guide and you had to fly.
In Lima, we were met by a guide. A few words about Martynov's appearance. To say we were shocked is an understatement. Dirty, toothless, with a long unwashed head, with a neglected beard, in a torn shirt and an unpleasant smell, "something" met us. Well, the spitting image of an aboriginal who came out an hour before our arrival from the jungle. In fact, it was. But we thought it was for a deeper dive into the theme of the tour. Konstantin brought us to the hotel so that we could meet the third member of our trip. It turned out to be a wonderful girl from Moscow. We immediately fell in love with each other. But she traveled with us only in Peru, and then flew off to the jungle and home.
Martynov immediately, at the hotel, took from us the entire amount for a tour of three countries, car rental, insurance, hotel accommodation at the rate of $80 per day, his fee for work plus a block on her husband’s card for $1000 for a car.
In general, a decent amount came up - $ 11650.
Having rented a car, we drove along the route. We kept our way to the Balestas Islands. The first surprise awaited us in the evening, when Konstantin brought us to the hotel. It turned out to be a $30 guest house. To our grumbling, the guide replied that there were no decent hotels here. Okay, we thought. One night. There is nothing terrible. The next day we had a transfer to Nasko. I will not describe our emotions about the Nasko lines, that's not what we are talking about, but in the late afternoon there was another surprise when checking into a hotel. It was no longer funny: no air conditioning, no hot water, no breakfast - in a word, a hostel. We went to Booking, looked at the price - $ 20. Politely told the guide about it. He reacted strangely: they say there is nothing to worry about, here you will have a hotel for $20, but in other places hotels will cost $150-200. Well, okay..... Let's move on. Here I want to draw ATTENTION to his driving ability to warn future tourists from shock.
To say that this is an extreme driver is to say nothing. He does not keep his distance, constantly honks and, opening the windows, obscenely explains to local drivers how they should drive. To our remarks to stop racing and that we do not want to say goodbye to life in this car, the unfortunate guide began to fall into lengthy discussions about the meaning of life. Well, just a guru!
But it turned out to be only flowers. We were waiting for the next surprise. The police stopped the car near Cusco. And then it turned out that our driver-guru-guru did not have a driver's license. How could you go on a 7.000 km tour of three countries without a driver's license? Having settled somehow the issue with the police, we drove on.
So, the bottom line is DRIVER WITHOUT A LICENSE, ILLEGAL, AS A GUIDE - TOTAL ZERO. We, tourists, preparing for the trip, having read literature about the countries we planned to go to, knew hundreds of times more than he did. He didn't even know the name of the capital of Bolivia. He does not know the roads, customs, traditions, culture of those countries where he is taking us, while earning good money. One philosophizing on the theme of the search for the meaning of life. This is not why we went to another continent to listen to the delirium of an unbalanced, deceitful and unnecessary person. He never showed up on time to meet us. His delays of 30-40 minutes is the norm. Without a shadow of embarrassment and apologies, only an aggressive reaction from him for every remark.
It's time to say goodbye to our third fellow traveler. After warmly saying goodbye, loading things into the car and driving 100 km from Cusco towards the border with Bolivia, Konstantin with a blue eye tells us that we will be able to enter Bolivia only after 4 days, since the insurance for the car was issued on a different date, although all the dates of crossing borders were agreed in advance.
At the same time, we did not hear any apologies or explanations from him. Nothing to do. We change the route. We are staying for 4 more days in Peru. Finally, we leave for Bolivia, and then it turns out that he is illegal and that he has an overdue deadline for leaving the country and that he needs to pay a fine for violating the migration regime when crossing the border of Peru with Bolivia. And this time and nerves. Unfortunately, ours.
But then luck smiled at us. Since he realized that we would no longer live in hostels, we were able to take the rest of the money allocated for hotels from him. It was $1200. It turned out that this amount is quite enough to live in 4.5 * hotels at the rate of $ 80 per day. To which he told us later that it was ugly on our part and that he planned to earn money on this too. As he said: it's none of your business, the main thing is to buy low, sell high. To our reasonable remark that he receives a fee of $ 150 per day, he reacted inadequately.
As we follow from his stories about himself, we learn that he is a heroin addict. Lives 7 years in Peru illegally. Most of the time he spends in the jungle alone with his "cockroaches". We saw these cockroaches right away. But they endured, because they were in a foreign Spanish-speaking country and could not stay on the floor of the road themselves. And Konstantin refused to return the money.
Every day this addict guide became more aggressive. He began to demand more money from us, arguing that what we paid him at the beginning of the tour was not enough for him. He left us on the road, went somewhere for two or three hours, calmed down, returned, behaved as if nothing had happened, and in the morning everything was repeated again. Give us more money, otherwise we won't go anywhere else.
As a result, we are in Bolivia, in the city of Sucre. In the evening we agreed that at 8 am we would leave for Uyuni, for salt marshes. Neither at 8 nor at 9 o'clock did this "misunderstanding" appear. And when he finally appeared on the doorstep of the hotel, even the hotel administrator asked us: "What's wrong with your driver? "
plunged into the car in the car, an outdated guide, without the shadow of embarrassment, said that she had to call behind his things to another hotel that he had to have breakfast and that he had for the rest of the rest of 10 days the remaining tour in the pocket of only $ 200. And, as you may have guessed, he will not carry us further without additional payments. Our patience has run out. To endure for $ 11.600 this inadequate was no more strength or desire. He put our things out and left them on the road.
In a foreign country, without completing the tour, without returning the money for the remaining 10 days, this scoundrel left.
We hired a taxi ourselves and went to Uyuni. We have to overcome the further path on our own. But, believe me, it's much better and calmer than with such a guide. And finally, our pleasant fellow traveler called us and said that he also threw her for money in the jungle, where she went after our parting.
Dear tourists, if you see an advertisement for the services of a guide in PERU, BOLIVIA KONSTANTINA MARTYNOVA (tel. +51961355555) do not agree for no money. You will get nothing but spent nerves, observing a clinically unhealthy person, missing money.
Mikhail, Natalia (Ukraine, Zaporozhye) 02.02. 2019
From the site administration - the authors confirmed their readiness to officially defend their assessments.