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Inca Trail & Machu Picchu Closure
March 2010
Frequently Asked Questions relating to the
closure of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in March
(this information is ONLY
for clients who have Inca Trail trek bookings with us in MARCH
2010)
Q1a. If the Inca Trail is closed in
March how will we be compensated?
A1a. Peru Treks is
offering the following cancellation options:
Option 01: Alternative
Trek: The Inca Trail trek will be replaced by the 4 day Lares
Valley Trek (in accordance with our terms and conditions). The
Lares valley trek will be cheaper than the original Inca Trail
trek.
Option 02:
Cancellation of the Inca Trail trek and no refund of any deposit
(in accordance with our terms and conditions). "NO SHOW". A no show will be applied to all clients who
fail to inform us at least 2 days in advance of their trek
departure that they wish to cancel their trek booking.
Option 03: Changing
the Inca Trail date to a departure date within 12 months of the
original trek date. A US$25 admin charge will be applied to
reschedule your trek booking.
Option 04:
Cancellation of the Inca Trail trek and partial refund of the trek
deposit. Refund = Trek deposit - office overheads and expenses
The amount that will
be refunded will be somewhere between US$67 & US$102 (based
on group sizes to date we estimate
that the average refund will be US$90 per person). The exact amount depends
on how many people participate in our 4 day Lares trek - the
greater the group size the more we will be able to refund to
clients who decided not to do the alternative trek.
The above information
is just a brief summary of our cancellation options and does not
form any change to our original trek booking terms and conditions.
IMPORTANT: In order
to change your Inca Trail trek departure date (option 03) or
receive a partial trek deposit refund (option 04) you MUST email
us at least 2 days before your planned departure date to let us
know that you will not be participating in our alternative trek.
If we do not receive such an email from you your trek booking will
be treated at a NO SHOW (option 02).
Q2. What alternative trek will Peru
Treks offer in place of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu trek?
A2. This will depend on local
conditions but we currently plan to offer the
4 day Lares Valley
Trek.
Q3. Does the Lares Valley Trek include
a visit to Machu Picchu?
A3. The government have stated that
Machu Picchu will be closed until at least the end of March.
Unfortunately any alternative trek that we offer in March will not
include a visit to Machu Picchu. Sorry.
Q4. Since the alternative trek doesn't
include a visit to Machu Picchu will it be cheaper?
A4. The 4 day Lares Valley trek will
be cheaper than the 4 day Inca Trail trek. The Lares Valley Trek
doesn't include entrance fee for the Inca Trail & Machu Picchu or
return on the train but it does include a more expensive bus ride
to collect the group from Lares at the end of the trek. We also
plan to use as many porters as possible for this trek which are
much more expensive than horses (usually
this trek is done using horses to carry the equipment) but this
also depend on local cooperation with communities in the Lares
Valley and a mix or porters and horses may have to be used.
The basic price of the 4 day Lares Valley trek will be
US$350 per person which is US$115 cheaper than the basic price of
the 4 day Inca Trail trek (the basic price is the price before
adding any extras such as personal porters, sleeping bag rental
etc).
If on the morning
of trek departure we have more than 7 persons in the group we will
refund each client an additional US$25, if we have more than 14 in
the group we will refund each person US$55.
We have tried to make this trek as economical as possible. Unfortunately we cannot
offer student discounts for the Lares Valley trek since the
discounts were government discounts on the price of the Inca Trail
trek permit given to students with ISIC cards. Further details can be
found on our 4 day
Lares Valley Trek web page.
Q5. Is the Lares Valley trek easier or
more difficult than the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu?
A5. The Lares Valley trek is rated
moderate and similar in difficulty to the Inca Trail trek. Clients
need to spend at least 2 nights in Cusco before the trek to allow
for acclimatization to the high altitude.
Q6. I would like to do the Lares
Valley trek, what do I have to do?
A6. If the Inca Trail is closed then
your booking will automatically be changed to the Lares Valley
Trek. You don't need to email us. Just come to our offices in
Cusco 2 days before your trek departure date and pay the trek
balance (which will be approximately US$115 less than your original Inca Trail
booking). A guide will be in the office to answer any questions.
If you decide not
to do the alternative trek then we would appreciate it if you
could email us to let us know. This will help us calculate in
advance the number of porters etc that we need to contract for the
Lares Valley trek. However
if you don't come to our office 2 days before your trek departure
date then your trek will automatically be cancelled. i.e. if you
have a trek booking for a Monday then you need to come to our
office before 7pm on the Saturday to pay the trek balance.
Q8. Can I transfer my Inca Trail trek
deposit to an Inca Trail departure later in the year?
A8. Yes. Peru Treks will allow you to
transfer your US$175 trek deposit to a new Inca Trail booking at a
later date. Clients will have to make a new Inca Trail trek
booking for a departure date within 12 months of your original
departure date. Bookings will be subject to availability of
government-issued trek permits and availability within our groups.
Our website has a list of currently available trek departures and
is updated on a regular basis. Your change of trek departure date
will only be confirmed until we confirm it to you in writing.
Please note that trek departures in April & May are already fully
booked and several dates
in June & July are already fully booked.
An administration fee of US$25 per person will be charged for
making a new trek booking. Clients will be asked to pay the
remaining trek balance upon arrival in Cusco before 7pm at least 2
days before trek departure. It should also be noted that the price
of the Inca Trail trek may be subject to change and clients will
have to pay the price as stated on our website at the time of
making the new trek booking. If space is not available on the
newly requested Inca Trail trek departure date then a partial trek
deposit refund will be offered
Q9. Will you provide any documentation
for my travel insurance company?
A9. Yes. For clients who decide to
cancel their trek bookings and not opt for the alternative trek
that we are offering Peru Treks we will send these clients an
email and pdf scan of a letter confirming your trek cancellation
and loss or partial loss of your US$175 trek deposit. We will try to send this
email out within 1 week from your planned trek departure date.
Q10. It is absolutely sure that the
Inca trail will be closed until the 01 April 2010?
A10. Unfortunately nothing is certain
in Peru. We have only been informed of the closure of Machu Picchu
and the Inca Trail after reading about the press conference with
the Minister of Tourism in El Commercio newspaper (Peru's
equivalent of the Times or Washington Post).
On 07 March 2010 the
director of the INC, Cecilia Bakula Bubge, confirmed that the Inca
Trail would open on the 01 April (source Diario del Sol, Cusco, 08
March 2010).
Q11. Will Machu Picchu definitely be
open by the beginning of April?
A11. As stated above nothing is
certain in Peru. Repair work to the railway depends on good
weather in February and March and good cooperation between private
companies (Peru Rail) and public authorities. We cannot guarantee
that the Inca Trail will be open on 01 April and if it remains closed
an alternative trek will be offered in its place as detailed
above.
Q12. Will you email us to keep us
informed of the situation?
A12 We have now emailed all of our
clients with Inca Trail trek departures between the 01 March 2010
and 31 March 2010 informing them of the current situation and
asking them to check this webpage on a regular basis to keep
informed of any new developments. To try to avoid our emails
ending up in your spam folder we have sent emails to our clients
on an individual basis rather than by bulk mail. All future
correspondence will be via this webpage. Obviously you can
understand that we are dealing with plenty of emails at the moment
so please try to avoid sending us a question that has already been
answered above. As soon as we receive new information we will
update this webpage.
Once again we apologize for any
inconvenience caused by the closure of Machu Picchu and the Inca
Trail in March, obviously I am sure that everyone will agree these
things are outside of everyone's control. We are sensitive to the
fact that for most of our clients a visit to Machu Picchu is the
main reason for visiting Peru and many of our clients will be
understandably disappointed. However the alternative trek that we
are offering is a beautiful route and passes through small Andean
communities and we will do our very best to ensure that everyone
participating in this trek will have a great time.
The above
information is given in good faith based on the information
currently available to us. The above information does not
supersede any part of our original trek terms and conditions and
Peru Treks reserves the right to withdraw any addition
compensation options at any time.
Georgina Gonzalez
Owner / Manager
Peru Treks
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