Machu Picchu Tourism Trail Gets Awards

Riders of the Peruvian Range

Mountain Lodges of Peru has created a unique lodge-based trek along the Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu, committed to the social, cultural, and environmental development of the Andean towns located along the route.

Four beautiful mountain lodges are located a day’s walk apart along the trail, which lies in the buffer zone of the historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu. The lodges have been constructed from local materials and carefully designed with traditional elements to blend harmoniously into the environment. At the end of each day, hikers find comfortable accommodation with a cozy, welcoming atmosphere and fine cuisine. In just two years,

MLP has already garnered several awards, including recognition as one of National Geographic Adventure magazine’s “25 Best New Trips in the World” and one of Outside magazine’s “12 Finest New Treks on the Globe,” in addition to winning in one of the categories of the renowned contest Premio Nacional Creatividad Empresarial. The company expects to host 2,000-2,500 guests in 2009.

In the region surrounding the lodges are 135 rural communities inhabited by 2,400 Andean families, many of whom do not have access to basic services such as clean drinking water, a sewage system, housing, healthcare, and education. MLP is fully committed to their welfare, recognizing that this project would be impossible to operate without their participation, and sees their venture as an environmental and ecological project rather than just a tourism enterprise. For example, the staff at the lodges are drawn from the surrounding communities and trained intensively in tourism and housekeeping practices as well as English language; locally hired mule drivers are paid in excess of 70% over previous earnings and enjoy better working conditions.

Together with local communities, MLP evaluates five basic areas of human development: health and nutrition, education, useful projects, work, and the environment. In development workshops, each community is asked for their input, including objectives and goals, with professional community organizers facilitating the process. This interdisciplinary group meets regularly to design projects that will improve the quality of life for the people of the Andean communities, studying the offer and availability of existing resources for its viability. The projects, like implementation methods, are self managed and periodically evaluated while being developed.

Current projects include health campaigns to fight childhood mortality and malnutrition, and to provide primary health care; support of local commercial or industrial initiatives—the development of handmade textile products, organic gardens, and orchid nurseries, for example—to improve income levels and life quality, including training, technical advice, tools and equipment, and help in identifying markets for the products and fair prices negotiations. And since education is crucial to human development, MLP works with teachers and administrative employees in the improvement and construction of facilities and educational materials.

Although Mountain Lodges of Peru has taken an active role in the socioeconomic development of the local communities, in 2006 they created Yanapana Peru (Yanapana means “help” in the Andean Quechua language), an independent, non-profit, non-government organization that is the executive arm for Mountain Lodges of Peru’s program for responsible tourism in Peru. Yanapana’s goal is to reduce poverty in Mountain Lodges of Peru’s areas of operation through sustainable community development as well as to provide for basic needs such as children’s healthcare and education, and to train the men and women of the communities so they may generate income for their families and thus achieve economic and social development.

Yanapana Peru’s “EcoTeam” of highly qualified professionals in the fields of flora, fauna, and environmental issues is in the process of developing various projects that will benefit the environment and the sustainable development of the communities. Already underway is a project to recycle, reuse, and reduce all waste residues that are produced around the entire Salkantay Route, the conservation and protection of the habitat of the endangered spectacled bear, the cultivation of ancestral medicinal plants for creams, soaps, and other products, reforestation with native species, implementation of orchid and butterfly nurseries, treatment and protection of hummingbirds, solid waste treatment through compost, methane retrieval from solid waste, trout farms, and the establishment of two Protected Natural Areas.

Under consideration for the future is the possible use of solar and hydroelectric power. With a team of over 30 doctors and nurses, Yanapana Peru also recently completed a seven-day trip throughout the region, dispensing medicines and giving specialized attention to more than 2,000 children and adults. This program, with the support of Mountain Lodges of Peru, will be undertaken periodically on a regular basis. For a detailed outline of the organization’s programs and what has already been accomplished, see Yanapana.org

In addition to their highly successful venture in bringing sustainable and responsible tourism to this impoverished area, Mountain Lodges of Peru can be proud of their accomplishments in benefiting the welfare of the local communities in which they operate. Together with Yanapana Peru, they serve as a shining model for socially and economically responsible tourism in the 21st century.

Valere Tjolle