From: “Natalie “

Date: June 28, 2010 16:18:23 PM MDT

Subject: Costa Rica Vacation Feedback

Dear (Guest Name),

You’re right about flying from Liberia to Puerto Jimenez in a Caravan instead of the King Air. I apologize for my mistake, our operations department had not corrected our records.

When I spoke to Luis Torres about the situation on April 8th when you flew from Liberia to Puerto Jimenez, I asked him if he informed you and Emer of the change of aircraft. The King Air was out of service and therefore we were flying in a Single Engine Cessna 208, a Grand Caravan. Luis said that he informed you that it would be a single engine plane with two pilots rather than a twin engine and that your response was, “that’s alright”.

The change in aircraft was not something that Luis Pablo could have warned you about at the time of booking as we were informed that the King Air would not be able to fly to Puerto Jimenez on the evening of April 7th at 6PM. Upon returning from dropping you and Emer off in Liberia, the King Air had several indicators on that panel saying that it needed to be checked by a mechanic and we were advised that it was going to the shop. Given the situation, we offered you the safest option available.

It’s important to point out that although the Caravan is a single engine plane, it’s a much safer and better aircraft than the King Air that was originally scheduled. When faced with the situation, we could have put you in a Seneca, this is a twin engine plane, but it’s an old discontinued piston-motor that would not have been safer than a 208 Grand Caravan. 



Although the Caravan is single engine, the fact that it is a modern aircraft that is currently in production, and a turbo-prop, make it much more reliable then the discontinued piston-motor equipment. Experts agree that from the point of view of safety there is no question that the Caravan is a much better choice by a wide margin than discontinued piston-motor equipment.

The experts give the following reasons for this:

-The piston-motor equipment has not been in production for many years. This means that it does not get the factory support in parts and development that Cessna provides for the Caravan, which is currently in production and back ordered.

-The Caravans glide better with no engines than the piston-motor equipment twins fly on one engine or glide on no engines. The function of second engine on the piston-motor equipment is to provide speed not a backup in case of engine failure.

A safe emergency landing in case of engine failure is much more likely with a Caravan than with the piston-motor twin engine. Also because it has 2 engines, the probability of an engine failure in a twin is double that in a single. There is a slight disadvantage in terms of speed with the Caravan, it’s slower than the King Air, it may have taken you 20 minutes longer to complete the round trip flight to Puerto Jimenez.



If you want to look at the numbers, the Caravan 208 is also more expensive than the King Air, the difference in the retail value of the round trip flight from Liberia to Puerto Jimenez in a Caravan vs. the King Air is $879. Given the situation, you were not asked to pay the difference, we did what was right and upgraded the plane, gave you safer equipment, two pilots and did not charge the difference.

I’m sorry that you and Emer were sick. Upon looking at this more in depth, I wonder about the cause. Luis tells me that he ate with you both in Tortuguero and Sirena and he didn’t get sick. If the food that you and Emer ate had food poisoning, Luis would have gotten sick as well. Not only did Luis not get sick while on tour, he didn’t get sick at all, this suggests that whatever made you and Emer sick had been incubating longer than between Tortuguero and Sirena. You say that the doctor at Four Seaons told you that something we fed you made you sick, but how can this person make this assertion? It’s impossible to know for sure what made you sick.

It’s very common, all over the world, for travelers to get sick, the main reason being that the benign bacteria that exists in all food is different from place to place. When you go to a new country your stomach reacts to the benign bacteria. We are used the benign bacteria that is present where we live, but when we go somewhere else our stomach sometimes react negatively to the new bacteria. On the days that you ate at Tortuga Lodge, in the village of Tortuguero and had the picnic in Sirena you also ate at the Four Seasons, could it have been the food there? The symptoms you have are also quite similar to the symptoms of dehydration, did you drink enough water while you were on tour? Luis tells me that he warned you about dehydration in Sirena and encouraged you to drink water, but we don’t know if it was enough or if you had enough water at the Four Seasons before going on your day trips. It is quite common for people from the US to underestimate the amount of water that you lose in the humidity of the rainforest, this is especially true in places such as Puerto Jimenez and Sirena which have very high temperatures and close to 100% humidity.

As far as the lunch with Pastora’s family in Tortuguero, you’re right. This was an oversight on Luis Pablo’s part. You clearly stated that you weren’t interested in interaction with local people and it was overlooked. The refund for this lunch is $111. I have asked Luis Pablo to issue a charge back to your credit card in that amount. I will take 2-3 weeks for this to show up on your statement.

It’s also worth noting that we moved your trip to Rincon de la Vieja from April 9th to April 10th giving you and Emer time to recuperate from your bought with travelers sickness. The additional day did not go without expense to Costa Rica Expeditions, we had to cover an additional day of guides salary, an additional day of vehicle and the guide and driver’s expenses for lodging and meals in Liberia, we didn’t charge you for any additional expenses.

As far as the Caravan and your and Emer’s illness go, I don’t believe that we owe you a refund. When we are wrong we are very quick to refund guests to make it right. In your case, when presented with a mechanical failure, we upgraded you to a better more expensive plane and we don’t know for sure that our food made you sick. Running the risk of getting sick is an intrinsic risk of traveling, I am truly sorry that you were both ill, it’s not fun to be sick and even less fun to be sick while you’re away from home.

I am glad to hear that you enjoyed planning your trip with Luis Pablo Cubero and that you enjoyed traveling with Luis Torres. I hope that your wildlife experiences in Tortuguero and Sirena offered sightings that were interesting for you and Emer.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Best Regards,





Natalie Ewing

Chief Marketing & Guest Satisfaction Officer

Go back here: “Complaints: Response to Case 2″