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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 8
years we have operated more than 2200 Inca Trail groups (just over
24,000 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). 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 6 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. 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). 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 new 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.
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 March
2005 we built a new school for 60 children in the remote mountain
village of Checaspampa near Ausangate. In November 2006 we completed the
construction of a primary school for 30 children in the community
of Pinipujio in the district of Ccatcca (on the road between Cusco
and Ausangate). In 2007, with help from some of our clients from
Canada, we were able to construct a Kindergarten for 30 children
together with toilet block and repairs to the primary school in
the community of Pampallacta near Chahuaytire in the mountains
behind Pisac. In 2008 we distributed school equipment to over
2000 children living in the foothills of the great Ausangate
mountain. We did the same again in 2009 as well as donating 15 new computers
(Pentium IV, 17" LCD monitors with DVD-writer) to schools in
the Ocongate province, a remote mountainous region about 4 hours
by car from Cusco. In 2010 we have continued to distribute school
equipment and, hopefully by the end of the year, we will have
donated 20 new computers to secondary schools in the mountain
villages. For the last 3 years we have "adopted" the secondary
school of Tiracanchi and continue to pay for their school
promotion. In 2007 the visit was to Cusco & Machu Picchu, in 2008
& 2009 the promotion went to Cusco & Lake Titicaca. Many of these
children had never left their village before, never been on a bus,
seen a restaurant or eaten an ice-cream!!
Starting in April 2011 we hope to distribute school equipment to a
record 2250 children and continue to donate warm clothing to some
of the communities in the more remote districts. Following on from
the success of our computer donations we hope to donate 20
computers later in 2011. Thanks for all your support.
>> Click here for details of
our Inca Trail 4 day trek prices and services
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