CASA GREGORIO

Ideal para quien quiera conocer la Amazonía, para quien quiera aventura y a la vez tranquilidad, para quien prefiera estar con la comunidad local. Es un sitio cómodo, seguro y lleno de color y alegría

A big and lovely thank you to Casa Gregorio ???? The team, the guides, the cookers, everyone were wonderfull, all was wonderfull ! The handcrafts let us an opportunity to listen the ancestral strories about the community. The selva and the Rio Amacayacu are magic. We loved spent time there. So thank you again.

Review casa gregorio

If you are looking for an experience in the midst of the jungle - this is not it. Although small and without traffic, San Martin is a town with quite some noise. Expect sound of parties from locals and sometimes dogs at night, noisy neighbours (and chicken) from 5am to 7am, the sound of a chainsaw during the day.

The accommodation
+ chill vibe, nice personell.
+ everything is arranged
+ building is of good quality (but no fan in the room, limited electricity and no wifi)
+ coffee, juice, and bananas are served regularly for free
+ close to the jungle, fairly close to puerto nariño

-volunteer run as the owner was 5 weeks on holiday.
-Poor communication. Another guest they forgot to pick up by boat, there was no announcement of plans/schedule, you just have to remember everything they send via whatsapp.
-intransparant pricing, they just whatsapp you an offer.
-sub par food. Some meals were nice, but sometimes it was just rice, beans, salad, without salt or spices. Or white bread with scrambled egg for breakfast. For this price i expect every meal to be good.
—you are not surrounded by old jungle, but by (former) small scale farm land. Also nice to see, but i thought we would be in the jungle proper.
-personell was not aware that the parties in town would last until 4am one night. For a “community stay” i think this says a lot about how connected they truly are with the community. There are ca. 10 locals working as cook or guide, and also 10-20 people coming in daily for food or wifi, but apparently nobody bothered to share the news of the party.

The activities
+ nice variety of activities
+ all guide were locals (indigenous)
+ guides really kept there eyes and ears open for (traces of) wildlife
+ boots are provided (i recommend to also wear them when it’s not raining)
+ saw quite some wildlife in the river tour
— jungle tour, for which we came, was only 1 hour of walking. Of course, we did not see any wildlife because it’s way too short (and because of dry season)
-night tour was in (former) agricultural area. Saw a lot of tarantulas, but no mammals or birds. Could’ve been due to dry season.
— You pay the price of full day program, but you were home at lunch, and in the afternoon there were only small activities , such as ceramics workshop. You can do these anywhere in the world.
-guides just tell you the facts they always tell, and are not at all bothered to get to know you, or chat or anything. They were generally uninterested and just doing their work. Same with all the locals preparing food at hostel etc.

The town
We were also disenchanted by the amount of daytime drinking done by locals, although that may have been because it was not the season to harvest. The water levels in the Rio Amacayacu were very low during our stay, but no one bothered to remove the uncovered (very small amounts of) trash. It was nice to swim in the river (only possible in dry season), and the riverside is beautiful.