We did the 3-day trek. To start with, the hike itself was absolutely beautiful. We had stunning views throughout. The local places where we stayed were nice and served good food. The lunches during the hike were also really great and clearly made with care.
We booked an English-guided tour and paid extra for it, specifically to start on Thursday. We even adjusted our travel plans around this. Unfortunately, we were assigned a guide whose English was quite poor, which made communication very difficult. This was especially disappointing since we paid extra for an English-speaking guide. We saw many other guides from different groups who spoke good English.
Not only was his English limited, but he also didn’t make any effort to connect with us. He constantly walked about 100 meters ahead of us at a very fast pace. We felt like we were always rushing to keep up and didn’t get the chance to properly enjoy the surroundings or ask questions about the environment. He didn’t adjust to our pace, even though we are relatively fast hiker. We were actually overtaking other groups.
Interestingly, he was very social with other guides and groups, chatting in Portuguese during breaks, but made zero effort with us. During rainy conditions, there were also some difficult parts of the hike where we received no assistance from him. On top of that, he came across as quite unfriendly and sometimes even shouted instructions, which felt rude.
He shared very little information about the surroundings, which is a big part of why you choose a guided hike. It ended up feeling more like just following someone who knew the route rather than having a guided experience.
Overall, the hike itself was amazing, but our experience was significantly affected by the poor quality of the guide.
When we returned, the agency didn’t make any effort to ask about our experience. They also gave us incorrect information beforehand. We were told that a rain jacket, backpack cover, and warm clothing were not necessary, which was completely wrong. On the last day, we had constant rain. One girl in our group had all her belongings soaked because of this. So definitely bring a rain jacket, a backpack cover, and warm clothes (long pants and a sweater are essential as it gets quite cold in the evenings).
If you book with this agency, don’t pay extra for an English-guided tour, as there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get one. Alternatively, make sure you know in advance who your guide will be (ours was called Hau).
Or better yet, consider booking with another agency. We met several other guides along the way who stayed with their groups, helped during difficult parts of the hike, created a friendly atmosphere, and spoke good English.