Focus on Nature Tours, Armas Hill

We did not receive the full package of services for which we prepaid on the Costa Rica birding tour run by Armas Hill, Focus on Nature Tours, Jan 30 -Feb 15, 2011:

* Trip leader, Armas Hill, failed to meet up with group until the morning of the third day;

* Day 4: Armas routed the group via rough back-roads with which he was unfamiliar; upon arriving at the destination city, group had to wait while he went searching for accommodations - he was apparently denied credit card authorization at the first two hotels to which we were taken;

* Day 6: all-day river trip was cancelled when Armas could not pay for the tickets;

* Day 7: Armas was unable to pay the hotel bill for previous three nights or the driver from day 4; he was detained by the hotel, police were called; group left for next destination without Armas who said he would rejoin us when money was deposited to his account; had to find our own accommodations;

* Day 9: Armas arrived early afternoon saying he received payment for a future trip, so he now had the finances to continue;

* Days 9 - 16: trip resumed however the itinerary and accommodations kept changing from pretrip documentation; it was difficult to keep contacts at home up-to-date on whereabouts; we refused a scheduled overnight trip into Panama when Armas divulged it was illegal to take his rental car across the border.