The Cotopaxi fiasco

When I went exploring in Quito yesterday, I also did some shopping around for Cotopaxi mountain-climbing tours. One of the tour agencies in town, Gulliver, told me that they had one person looking for a partner, to do the climb on Monday and Tuesday. I told them that they could put me down as confirmed for going on the climb as well. However, when I got back to Quito from Pululahua this afternoon, and phoned them up to confirm for tomorrow, they told me that they now had 4 people for the climb, and that I couldn't come any more! Gulliver's have ditched me: not the nicest thing a tour agency can do to its customers.

Gulliver's have a policy of strictly having 1 guide per 2 people, when doing mountain-climbing tours. If you want a guide just for yourself, they'll charge you double. The person that they said I could go with, ended up finding another partner (plus they had 2 more people come in): this meant that unless I too could find another partner, I couldn't go on the tour (unless I wanted to pay double!). And since I hadn't yet paid them, they didn't consider me as "confirmed".

I'm not very happy about what they've done — they really should have saved my place — but anyway, they said that I can come on their bike-riding tour of Cotopaxi tomorrow instead, so that should be good. Hopefully, I can find a partner to go climbing Cotopaxi with later this week.