|
Peru Treks is a licensed trek & tour operator based in
Cusco, the heart of the ancient Inca empire.
We offer a variety of treks and tour packages in Peru with exciting itineraries designed to appeal to most
visitor's budgets. Due to our many years of experience in the travel
industry, we can offer unbeatable prices with no compromise on
quality.
Peru Treks is run as a professional tour operator with
experienced office staff and guides. We take pride in looking after
our team and pay our trekking staff such as cooks and porters well
above average wages.
A percentage of our profits go towards funding
local
community-based projects either organized directly by ourselves or in
association with local non-governmental organizations (NGO's).
In 2006
Peru Treks received an award for the Best
Travel Agency in Cusco 2006, an award that recognizes the
quality of our services and hard work and dedication of our
trekking team. In 2011 Peru Treks also won the Best Adventure Tour
Operator award (Ministry of Tourism).
|
 |
Georgina ("The Boss") collecting
the award for Best Travel agency in Cusco 2006. |
For
details about how
We
are taking Responsible Tourism seriously
please click here.
Our Office staff:
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Georgina (the
boss) |
Mike
(reservations) |
Goyo
(Office manager) |
Remigio
(assistant) |
|
Our Porters (&
family):
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Pisac
community |
Chinchero
community |
Paucartambo
community |
|
|
Georgina Gonzalez
de Weston
(Owner/manager)
Georgina (Koqui)
was born in Cusco and brought up in Aguas Calientes before moving
back to Cusco to study Company Administration. She has travelled
widely in Peru and has been organising treks since 1998 and
working in the travel industry since 1995. She is one of eight
brothers and sisters.
Goyo Mamani
(Operations manager)
Goyo, born in a
mining community near Lake Titicaca, worked as a porter on the
Inca Trail for several years before helping out in the equipment
stores for several trekking companies. He was in
charge of the stores at Peru Treks for five years, checking that
all the equipment was in order for our treks. In 2009 he became
our operations manager and is in charge of all aspects of running
the Inca Trail trek. Goyo speaks Quechua, Spanish and is currently
learning English.
Remejio (Inca Trail
permits)
Remejio, born in
the village of Tinqui near Ausangate, was also a porter on the
Inca Trail before starting a 4-year course in Tourism. He helps
Goyo out in the office and organises the purchase of the Inca
Trail permits. When he finishes his course in a years' time he
will become a qualified guide and will work as an assistant guide
for Peru Treks for 2 years before becoming experienced enough to
lead his own groups.
Mike Weston
(Asssistant Manager - Part time)
Mike is in charge
of our community projects. Mike was born in Britain and moved
to Peru in 1998 where he has now settled down with his Peruvian
wife Koqui (The boss - see above) and their 9 year-old daughter. In 1994 Mike
travelled extensively throughout South America and in 1996, he
dedicated a year to visiting local village festivals throughout
Peru and Bolivia where he spent a lot of time staying with
families in remote Andean communities as well as dancing (with a
complete lack of natural ability some may say!) and drinking large
amounts of local firewater. Mike is our webmaster and is currently
working on several projects to promote handicrafts and textiles
from local mountain communities.
Dave Weston
(Reservations Manager)
Dave is Mike's
brother and is in charge of the reservations which means that he
is responsible for answering all of your emails. Dave is mad-keen
on photography and is currently taking a year off work to travel
around South America with his camera & laptop, so your email may
be answered from just about anywhere !!! Dave normally works as a
Shore Excursion manager for a cruise line and has visited just
about every country on the planet. Of course Peru is his favourite
country!.
Our Guides:
|
01.- Claudio cesar Andia Paz
02.- Aragón Villagra David
03.- Elistan Guillen Paucar
04.- Percy Huaman Levita
05.- Juvenal Iturriaga Baca
06.- William Mirano Quico
07.- Víctor Mogollon Aller
08.- Wilfredo Pumayalli Quispe |
09.- Freddy Torres Chullca
10.- Juan Virgilio Araos
11 .- Huber Lazarte Juares
12.- Franklin Aragón Villagra
13.- Manuel Latorre Letona
14.- Augusto Vivanco Maguiña
15.- Amadeo Valer Farfán
16.- Ernesto Cusi Cusi |
17.- Nohemí sallo Callañaupa
18.- Miguel Ángel Ninancuro
19.- Jaime Raúl Paucar
20.- José Alberto Lazo Mamani
21.- Pedro Alejo Ramos
22.- Yaneth Ugarte Flores
23.- Jimmy Espinoza Campo |
Our Cooks:
|
01.- David Velasque Camara
02.- Apolinario Quintanilla
03.- Cristobal Quispe Quispe
04.- Edy Huaman Tumpay
05.- Jesus Manuel Chaman
06.- Cesar Huaman Cusi |
07.- Luis Achahui Merma
08.- Edmundo Flores
09.- Abel Mejia Huillca
10.- Vidal Vargas
11.- Justino Ccana Huanca |
|
Our Porters:
Peru Treks employs
about 250 porters taken mainly from the three Andean communities
of Chinchero, Pisac and Paucartambo.
Why choose Peru Treks ?
Since Peru Treks was founded in 2002 we have been working hard to become
Peru's most responsible adventure tour operator. In the last 9
years we have operated more than 2800 Inca Trail groups (just over
27,000 clients) so we should know what we are doing by now! We are
the only company in Peru that specializes in the 4 day Inca
Trail to Machu Picchu and since we operate all of our own treks we
have complete control over the quality of our service. This allows
us to attract some of the best guides, cooks and porters in Cusco
and keeps them working all year round. We now have more than 20
qualified guides working for us and an incredible team of nearly
250 porters.
Peru Treks is recommended in many
guidebooks including South American Handbook (Footprint), Peru
Handbook (Footprint), The Inca Trail Cusco & Machu Picchu Guide
(Trailblazer) and Peru Guide (Moon handbooks), Lonely Planet Peru
Guide, South America on a Shoestring, Rough Guide to South America
on a Budget. In October 2006
Peru Treks was awarded the Best Travel Agency in Cusco by the
Ministry of Tourism. Peru Treks have also been recommended in
several articles in the New York Times and Independent newspapers.
The Lonely Planet Guide to Peru (published March 2007) describes
Peru Treks as a "locally owned, ecoconscious company
with experienced guides; it also invests in the ethical treatment
of porters. Highly recommended". It is the only trekking
company to be highly recommended.
We want to make sure that you have a
great experience on the Inca Trail, however it is also important that everyone
involved in the operation of our treks is well treated and cared
for and that the benefits brought by tourism are shared throughout
the Peruvian communities. We now employ 20 professional Peruvian
guides (all bilingual) and nearly 250 porters the majority
of whom have worked with us for over 7 years. All of our porters are picked from one of three
mountain villages: Amaru (in the mountains behind Pisac),
Paucartambo (on the road between Cusco and Manu just before the
Andes drop down to the Amazon) and Cuper Alto (a small community
beside Lake Piuray near Chinchero). Since the beginning of 2004
all of our porters have been issued with free sleeping bags, rain
ponchos, backpacks and suitable shoes. All of our porters sleep in
a communal tent which has a waterproof floor and they have access
to any first aid equipment if necessary. Since the beginning of
2006 we have provided free life insurance to ALL of our Inca Trail
porters. Obviously we hope that the insurance won't be needed but
it should provide our porters and families with peace of mind. We
don't consider any of these items to be luxuries or anything
special, we consider them to be the absolute minimum requirements
for treating our porters fairly and like human beings. We cannot
promise you that our porters are happy all of the time (they still
have to work extremely hard for a living) but we can guarantee
that our porters are well treated, fairly paid (in accordance with
the Porters Law and requirements set down by the Ministry of Work)
and have warm dry accommodation and plenty of nutritious hot meals
to eat. Of course many other trekking companies will tell you
this, but there are less than a handful of companies that
genuinely care for their porters. More detailed information can be
found on our Porter Welfare
page.
Community Projects: Ever since
Peru Treks was first established we have been helping to spread
some of the benefits brought by tourism to local communities
by donating school equipment to village schools and ensuring that
it is properly used. A large percentage of the profits made by
Peru Treks go towards such community projects. (rather than just
talking about helping communities we would prefer to be judged
upon our actions. Information and photos of our most recent
projects can be seen on our
community projects page). In
2005 we built a school for 60 children in the remote community of
Checaspampa near Ausangate. Since then we have continued to
support the school with school equipment, sports shirts, second
hand clothing and we even paid for a teacher for nearly 2 years
before the local council agreed to provide this resource. In 2006
Peru Treks donated US$5000 to a local non-profit organisation to
build a kindergarten for 30 children in the village of Umuto, near
Ccatca (between Cusco and Ausangate). In 2007 Peru Treks donated
another US$5000 to this non-profit organisation to build another
kindergarten in the small community of Pampallacta close to
Chahuaytire (between Pisac and Paucartambo). A group of our
clients donated an additional US$2500 to this project which was
completed on November 2007. Between 2009 & 2011 we have donated 50
new computers to secondary schools and colleges in the Ocongate &
San Salvador region. In 2012 we plan to donate another 15 or 20
computers. Every year since 2006 we have paid for a group of 20 to
25 school children from the remote village of Tiracanchi to take a
3 or 4 day educational visit. The tour includes a visit to Cusco
and surrounding attractions and usually a few days visiting the
Islands of Lake Titicaca which is their destination of preference.
Most of the children have never left their village before, never
spent a night away from home. All the children receive a photo
album of their adventure after the trip.
Thanks for all your support.
|
