Beware Hostel Jislene in Rurre!

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There are a few good things about this place and they have a guest comments book full of good comments - however, these are invariably from guests that have spent plenty of money with them on guided tours - which they organise and from which they take a good commission. We noticed on looking at the guest book that a few pages had been ripped out - i.e. they were happy to keep in the good comments, however, any guests with poor comments could (and probably were) taken out of the book!

We had a good trip into the Pampas, booked through Jislene, however, it was somewhat marred by the number of other people on the trip (and we had been reassured that we were going to be in a group of five - the other three we had already met and decided that they were like-minded sensitive, intelligent travelers. As it turned out on day one of the trip, three very loud, immature Spanish men got into the vehicle with us - which made it very cramped - and to some extent, they really did make our trip much less enjoyable - one little example - we were travelling silently along a beautiful, peaceful, quiet stretch of pampas river at sunrise spotting an amazing amount of wildlife, with just the sound of the paddle being skillfully and quietly driven though the water - and these three guys just couldn't stop talking, giggling, making childish, rude comments about women generally - and the ones on the boat, including my partner and wanting to hunt and kill the baby alligators - you see what I mean???? - So, try to ensure you know exactly who is going in your group - it is not a cheap three day trip and the people in your group and size of the group can make or break your enjoyment of what is one of the most amazing adventures we have ever had.

So, although we had also asked the Jislene hostel owner to look into a bespoke trip to take us up the Beni over the border into Brazil to get to the Amazon, we decided not to require the services of Jislene and we told him this on our return from our pampas trip - we had not promised any money and he had only made some enquiries and not given us any detail or even a confirmation of whether or not the trip was possible or what sort of price it would be. This, however, did not stop him from being in a foul mood with us for the next two days - even his young daughter was exceptionally rude to us and they really made us feel unwelcome for the last two days of us staying there - it was certainly very different from the false smiles and "can do" attitude of when we first arrived there. We also heard another couple of guests get into a heated argument with the boss and they left on very bad terms as well. The boss really made sure we knew how disappointed he was that he wasn't going to be making a big fat commission from our suggested bespoke trip - as well as the fact that it was a relative of his who was going to be our guide and get a lot of money from us. The owner still complained to us, however, for not wearing the free (very warm, thick cotton) T-shirts that are given to new arrivals (promoting his hostel) - his smiles and all the freebies are false and have a catch! Be warned!!! Go elsewhere in Rurre!

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