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QUECHUAS EXPEDITIONS THE BEST LOCAL TOUR OPERATOR

HOW YOU CAN HELP ENSURE PROPER TREATMENT
RECOMMENDED GUIDELINES FOR PROPER PORTER TREATMENT Proper Porter Treatment

Quechuas Expeditions: If you really want to enjoy the Inca Trail!  Share with Porters Chaskis the same bus and food and make sure they have a proper clothes and equipment to sleep like sleeping bags, mats and tents. as well as proper food. not only soup or rice water.

Inca Trail - Porter Welfare

Thousands of people make the Inca Trail trek each year. They typically complete the 43km mountainous trail in 4 days. For many the experience is an trip of a lifetime and the fulfillment of a personal ambition. The satisfaction of having completed the trek and arriving at the spectacular Inca ruins of Machu Picchu is hard to beat. However the feeling is even better if you know that all the porters helping you along the way have been well looked after and treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve.

Now that most trekkers on the Inca Trail take a trek organized by a local tour operator, the camping equipment (tents, dining tent, kitchen tent, tables, chairs, stove, gas bottle and food) is carried on the backs of human porters. Pack animals such as horses, mules and llamas are now banned from the trail. The prices that tour operators charge for this 4 day trek can vary considerably as can the rates of porter pay and conditions provided by each company. However trying to find out if a company looks after its porters can be quite difficult. Often tour companies are not completely honest about the wages that they say that they pay their porters and real facts are difficult to verify. If you ask a porter how much he gets paid then very rarely you will get a straight answer. If a porter is well paid he is likely to tell you that he is poorly paid so that you give him a better tip! If he is badly paid it is likely that the company has instructed him to lie and tell you that he receives more than he actually does. If he complains about his pay to tourists on the trek then he is unlikely to work much longer!

How you can help

1. Book your trek with a responsible trekking company.
At the moment none of the trekking agencies are perfect and there is still plenty of room for improvement. However if you pay under US$480 for a 4 day group Inca Trail trek it is very unlikely that porter welfare is high on the company's concerns. When you book with a company let them know that the treatment the porters receive is important to you. Porters need fare wages, decent meals and warm and dry accommodation.

2. Hire a porter.
Hiring a porter will make your trek more enjoyable, giving you time to enjoy the scenery rather than looking at your boots! You'll also be giving employment to people who really want and need to work.

3. Interact with your porters.
Talk to your porters, learn about their traditions and villages. Share some coca leaves. Even ask them to sing some of their local songs. Most porters suffer from low self-esteem so make the first move, don't wait for them to talk to you first.

4. Thank your porter.
Show your porters that you appreciated them. Thank them verbally and leave a tip.

5. Report instances of porter neglect.
If you are unhappy about how your porters are treated then complain to the guide. If he/she can't resolve the problem then make a big fuss back at the office when you return to Cusco. Make sure the office is full of other potential clients. If you bought your trek in another country then make a complaint in writing when you return home.
If you are a member of South America Explorers let them know that you were unhappy with the service.

The Porters Law

Porters' Wages
The Peruvian government can be praised for introducing the Porters Law which states that a porter should receive a minimum wage of 43 Soles per day (about US$15). Sadly not all trekking companies are paying their porters this wage.

Weight Limit
The maximum weight that a porter can carry on the Inca Trail has been limited to 20kg. This includes a 4kg personal allowance for items such as blankets and clothes. Each porter is weighed at the start of the trail and then again at Wayllabamba at the start of the second day. This regulation was introduced in 2002 and has been strictly enforced. Companies that are caught overloading their porters receive fines and the risk of losing their licenses. However, as with most regulations, many companies make great efforts to get around them. Tourists who have hired a personal porter are often asked to carry their own bags through the check points and guides and assistants temporarily take some of the load. If you hire a personal porter to carry your equipment do not accept this practice and ensure that you porter is fully loaded when he is weighed at the check points. Some of the worst companies also restrict the amount of personal items that a porter can take with him, imposing upon his personal allowance of 5kg. Many porters are scared that if their blankets are too heavy or they have packed too many warm clothes then they will exceed the 20kg limit and receive a fine which the company will then deduct from their wages. Obviously responsible companies do not practice such activities.

Meals & Sleeping Conditions
The biggest difference between a responsible company and an irresponsible one is how they look after their porters on the trek. Many porters are given very little to eat on the trail. They have to wait to see how much the tourists have eaten before the left-overs are divided up amongst them. Many porters end the trail tired and hungry. In general porters sleep together in the group dining and kitchen tents. This is fine since there is warmth in numbers. However, when you are on the Inca Trail remember not end up talking all night in the dining tent as there may be tired and cold porters outside waiting to go to bed. You may also notice that very few dining tents have integral floors to keep out the cold and damp. When it rains the floor can become like a river running through the tent. Very few porters have sleeping mats or even warm sleeping bags. They usually put one blanket on the ground and cover themselves with another one. There is still plenty of room for improvement for even the most expensive and professional trekking companies when it comes to providing warm, comfortable and dry accommodation for their porters.

Porter Culture
The Quechua race has a history of being down-trodden, first by the Incas, then by the Spanish and then by the landowners. Only in fairly recent reforms have the Quechua people started to own their own land. Because of their long history of being dominated by others many have a low self-esteem. It is important on the Inca Trail to try to involve the porters in your group. Take some coca leaves to share with them and try to learn a couple of basic words in Quechua (your guide will be pleased to help you). Many of the porters have amazing stories to tell about traditions and life in their villages. At the end of the trek don't forget to show them that you appreciated their work and valued their contribution towards the trek by thanking them verbally and giving them a tip.

How much to tip?
Tipping the guide and cook should be dependent on the quality of the service that you received. If their tips are consistently poor then they will soon get the message that they need to improve. However, even if the food was terrible and the guide spoke no English (which we hope will not be the case), the porters were probably still working away hard carrying the camping equipment and tents so don't forget to leave a tip. The amount you pay depends on you but as a guideline we recommend that each porter in your group takes home an extra 40-45 soles (a combined tip from everyone in the group). Try to take plenty of small change so that you can give the tips directly to the porters. This is much better than giving the money to the cook or the guide to be divided up later amongst the porters as often the money is unfairly distributed.

I have heard many stories where trekkers have wanted to show their appreciation of the porters by tipping hundreds of dollars ! Over-tipping can often be as bad as leaving no tip at all. Unfortunately it is a fact that if they receive large tips they often end up drinking in Aguas Calientes or Urubamba for several days after the trek after and little of the intended benefits reach their families who often need it most. Try to keep your tip to a sensible amount and if you want to help the porters more then contribute to one of the existing porter welfare projects in Cusco.

 "the law should not discriminate against anybody " "Porters are still discriminated on the inca trail" Make sure they have all their stuff and share breakfast, lunch and dinner with them as we do.

What one Quechuas Expeditions Porter should have on the Inca Trail:
• Jacket and pant
• Backpack to carry the stuff
• Rain Waterproof poncho
• Sleeping Bag
• Sleeping pad
• Aluminium Bottle for water & Hat
• Toothbrush, toothpaste & soap


• Wages – Quechuas Expeditions Tour Operator has agreed 45 soles/day for all Trekking routes.
• Loads should not exceed 25 kilos – Porter carries 20 kg for the company and 5 kg of their own gear.
• All Porters must have an insurance
• Porters receive the full amount of tip intended for them – A transparent tipping procedure in which each crew member receives their tip directly is the best method to ensure this.
• Porters are outfitted with proper clothing and equipment.(Sleeping bag, pad and their tents to sleep)
• Porters have proper shelter and sleeping equipment - Each porter is required to have a sleeping bag and adequate space in sleeping Tents is provided.
• Porters are given adequate food and water – Porters should be given access to water and at least two meals a day while Hiking the Inca Trail to Machupicchu.
• Number of crew should stay consistent throughout the trip – Porters should not be overloaded in order to send other crew down early.
• Sick or injured porters are properly cared for – An ailing porter should receive the same treatment as a sick
Hiker would.

Huarocondo (Town Square): Altitude Aprox, 3335mt 10955 ft
Canacchimpa Village: Altitude Aprox 3480mt 11437ft.

Responsible trekking in the Andes- Don’t Believe the Hype(click here)

Click on any trek operator’s website or leaf through the pages of any travel company’s brochure and responsible travel will leap out at you. Well they would like it to but it has suffered something of the same fate as car alarms. Once you hear the same noise so many times you no longer hear it. Some companies clearly do practice responsible tourism but for other trekking agencies it appears to be no more than a marketing tool. When every agency makes the same claim, which do we choose, which do we believe?

“We give our porters uniform, we practice responsible tourism. “

Do you? Do you really care or is it all about marketing. Tens of men clad in your brand, advertising your product to the world. Is a school child treated any better in a school with a uniform than one that has none? Is the street sweeper treated better than the council official who is allowed to choose his own clothes? The sergeant major screaming at recruits, telling them they are horrid little men, are they not wearing uniform? A uniform proves nothing.

Responsible tourism is a broad spectrum and often a contradictory one. Flying several thousand miles to trek on the other side of the world that is bad; you damage the ozone. But I provide work for porters and guides is that not good? Buying bottles of water from the ladies along the Inca Trail that is bad, you should be refilling your water bottles and cutting down on plastics. But I am providing these Andean people with income, am I not good?

Bringing school books and coloured pencils to share as we trek through the valleys of Lares, surely that is good, we help their education? Or are we bad, are we teaching them to beg, to expect things for free in a world that is not free? The children selling postcards in Cusco, are they needy, are we being good by buying from them, are we allowing them to eat. Or are we bad, are we allowing their parents to sit at home and drink while the children bring in more money than they possibly could?

For a long time in Cusco the focus on responsible trekking has been on the porters. They work hard it is true, they work very hard but theirs is unskilled labour for which they are paid 64U$ for 4 days work. If we add on 10U$ of tips they have a measly 74U$ per trip. Wow we say, they work so hard and earn so little. However this is Peru, not Europe, not the U.S.A.

A porter trekking four Inca Trails in a month earns close to 300 U$ for sixteen day’s work. Minimum wage in Peru currently stands at 183 U$ and for many in Cusco the minimum wage is all you get for working ten hours a day, six days a week, twenty six days a month. Teachers, nurses and many more, all professionals, earn minimum wage having to slowly work their way up the scale. So is it responsible trekking that an unskilled, uneducated albeit hard working Andean porter can earn more than someone who has been to university for 4 or 5 years to learn their profession? Some porters have a skilled trade, some of them did get a secondary education, I am not trying to belittle the work these constantly cheerful men do but skills, education or experience are not a pre-requisite for the job.

So how did porters come to earn so well, so unequally? Through responsible tourism of course, projects were set up, NGOs the Peruvian equivalent of a charity organisation were founded to help the porters, the porters threatened strikes and eventually they won, they received their pay rise. But is it right that they earn more than a teacher? Are we practicing responsible trekking when we send out the message that you can earn more carrying someone’s bag than studying and gaining a profession?

NGO’s are for many a licence to print money; yet we are told to support them, they benefit the communities, they help the children, they make us feel better about ourselves. There are undoubtedly many good ones here in Cusco but there are many which exist solely to make money for the founder. When I used to trek the Inca Trail regularly, I worked with a porter who became chairman of the Porter’s Association. I asked him what he thought of the latest porter project supposedly set up to help “Liars” he told me “They do not help us; they have spent all the money donated on new computers for their office”.

Of course some agencies do not pay their porters what they are obliged to by law, some trekkers do not tip and sometimes he in charge of recruiting porters demands his cut of their tips or they do not work again. And the guides, what about the guides, are they treated fairly? Well they can earn a good wage, they can gain good tips, and they can earn a good living. But not all trek companies pay well, not all trek companies give the guide a constant supply of work. Many mistreat the guides not letting them know when they will be working next but expect  them to drop everything when they call; they fine them for being late for a trek briefing, fine them because they had  a drink with passengers, fine them because they do not like how they answered  a question.

Let me add some context; in Peru we favour the stick over the carrot, we do not encourage, we punish. Miss a school parent’s meeting- a fine; turn up late to work- a fine; make a mistake at work – you pay for it. This is not the western way, it wrangles, grates on us, how can employers treat people so badly we ask? I agree, but would the carrot work in a country where good timekeeping does not exist where telling the truth is not important. Values that we hold dear in the west do not carry value here, you do not hold it against someone that they lied to you, of course they did; you do not stand frustrated and cold waiting for someone who is late. You too have not arrived, you too are late.

Progress that is what we want, as responsible trekkers we bring money; we allow people and Andean communities to progress. ”Patacancha” that is what I say to that, one of the most traditional communities in the Andes, famed for their weaving skills we brought them progress, we ruined them. The once pretty village has its road, its internet, its concrete houses and it is ugly. Trekkers once used this as a favoured camp ground; now we avoid it, take other routes that have not been blessed with progress.

Chaullacocha, high in the hills of Lares a place visited by no-one, the jewel of the trek; hiking along one day we turned a corner and we cried, a yellow digger tearing up this untouched valley, bringing a road, bringing progress. Huacahuasi, once the most feared community in Lares, a wild place peopled by thieves who would raid stock from nearby villages, it has been tamed by progress. From high above you look down on the school a modern building funded by an NGO, out of place in this landscape,  you look down on the glint of corrugated iron roofs, easier to maintain than the traditional thatch that so fitted these hills.

Who are we to deny progress? Our ancestors in the west once lived in mud huts, once walked to school, and once farmed the land, would we want that for ourselves today? But care is needed to prevent destroying the beauty we come to see, will we come to these hills to trek when they are covered by roads will we come and provide jobs for the porters, the cooks, the guides? Or will we turn our backs and look for new pastures, new treks to destroy with our responsible tourism.

So stay at home, do not trek the Andes; that is not the answer. Come and visit this beautiful place, come and trek these magnificent hills and come and meet its people. But choose wisely, come with your eyes open, listen with your ears and decide for yourself. There are many good operators out there who value their staff who cherish the environment and deliver their promises. But as you click the webpage or turn the pages of the brochure proudly printed on recycled paper don’t believe the hype

View Canacchimpa (Huarocondo) in a larger map