Our Ethics

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Are we a responsible tour operator?

Encouraging you to fly to Peru, with all the emissions that it entails is not responsible.  No way around that. But you will probably come anyway. So this is what we do to help.

 

Certified B Corps

In 2017 we became the first Peru tour operator to have passed the assessments to be a certified B Corps. There is still only one other.  Out of 60,000 companies who have tried across the world, so far only about 1550 have passed.  Being a B Corps or Benefit corporation is a promise to use business for the good of the planet and its people. Find out more here.

 

1% for the Planet member

 

    • Joined 2007 ( first Peruvian member)
    • Still, the only Peruvian tour operator who is a member
    • 1% of our turnover donated each year to help reforest the Lares area with native trees.
    • Work with Ecoan, Green Our Planet, and the communities of Lares and Ollantaytambo to replant essential native trees.
    • Since 2007 we have, with the others in the project, planted over 1 million native trees
    • Fencing the trees to prevent grazing and promote growth also part of the plan to ensure their survival

We Offset our Carbon Emissions

Offsetting your carbon is not some guilt-free clause that allows you to carry on producing emissions as before. Everyone still needs to drastically reduce their emissions. But offsetting those we do produce, both during the operation of your trip, and throughout the year as a result of existing as a company, is something we feel has to be done. We work with a Peruvian-based company called Regenera, and the carbon is offset locally, to help preserve local ecosystems. Currently, our carbon is offset in the Manu National Park, the most biodiverse place on earth, an area that drastically needs more protection from illegal logging and gold mining. Regenera works with the local communities to encourage them to act as stewards of the forest and our contribution goes to help preserve this part of the forest which acts as a carbon sink.

 

Travelers Against Plastic member

Spend half an hour in Peru and you will see the huge amount of waste produced by disposable bottles of water. Recycling is not the answer. What is needed is to reduce the amount of plastic produced in the first place. We have pledged to work to reduce the number of plastic water bottles being used by travelers. We always provide large containers of purified water from which you can refill your non-disposable water bottle. We also promote the use of UV filters, water bottles with inbuilt filters and spend time trying to convince hotels we work with to make drinking water available, rather than selling plastic disposable bottles.  This last point is quite a hard task as hotels and restaurants make a lot of money from selling throw-away bottles of water. You can find more about Travelers Against Plastic here.

 

GRAYL Ultralight Purifier makes clean, safe drinking water from virtually any fresh water source in the world. It’s the only purifier specifically designed for international travelers, protecting against the broadest range of impurities including bacteria, protozoa, and viruses plus chemicals and heavy metals. It’s easy enough to use in your hotel sink and rugged enough for a jungle trek.

Use this exclusive discount link to receive 20% off your GRAYL order: https://thegrayl.com/discount/Amazonas20.

(Or visit www.thegrayl.com and enter the discount code “Amazonas20” at checkout.)

 

Amazonas Explorer declares a Climate Emergency

Living and working in the high Andes and Amazon rainforests of Southern Peru for the past 30 years, we have seen, with our own eyes, the realities of climate change. Watching glaciers above the Sacred Valley of the Incas visibly shrink and disappear, seeing dark holes appear in the forever glaciated Ausangate and Veronica Andean peaks, experiencing the lowest water levels, ever, on the Rio Apurimac, epic flooding on the Rio Urubamba, wildlife degradation and systematic deforestation on the Rio Tambopata are just some of the realities we have seen in our own short lifetime.

Standing by and watching it happen doesn’t feel like an option, so it is only logical we join forces with other tourism industries around the world and, today, 09 February 2021, sign up for Tourism Declares

By declaring a climate emergency, we are committing Amazonas Explorer, as the first Peruvian adventure travel operator to sign the declaration, to leading the way in Peru to take purposeful actions to reduce our carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by, at the latest, 2030 as per the IPCC advice.

We have committed to the following five actions:

  1. Develop a ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ within the next 12 months, which sets out our intentions to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade.
  2. Share an initial public declaration of our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’, and update on progress each year.
  3. Accept current IPCC advice stating the need to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030 in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming. We’ll ensure our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ represents actions designed to achieve this as a minimum, through delivering transparent, measurable, and increasing reductions in the total carbon emissions per customer arising from our operations and the travel services sold by us.
  4. Encourage our suppliers and partners to make the same declaration; sharing best practice amongst peers; actively participate in the Tourism Declares community
  5. Advocate for change. We recognize the need for system change across the industry to accelerate a just transition towards carbon-free tourism.

Please consider also declaring at www.tourismdeclares.com, and follow on @tourismdeclares on Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin

 

 

Porter Protection

Porters Protection

All porters are freelance. The fact many have chosen to work with us for over ten years speaks for itself.

We provide career progression opportunities – porter to waiter to assistant cook to cook.

Wilo our guide, Ernesto our storeman, David our driver, and Alex our office cook, were all once porters who worked their way up.

  1.   We pay porters more than the wage stipulated by the authorities. We pay them at the end of the trek. They do not have to come to Cusco or wait to collect their money.
  2.    Porters are contracted by a designated Head porter and payment is made directly by the Head guide, thus avoiding any intermediaries or other possible conflicts.
  3.    We pay the porter’s Inca Trail fee and do not take it out of their wages.
  4.  Inca trail rules set a maximum load for porters – 20kg of company equipment and 5kg of personal equipment. We abide by this and it is enforced by the Inca trail governing body at several weigh stations on the trail.
  5.    We provide a large communal tent with a carrying mat floor for porters to sleep in. It is not the clients’ dining tent.
  6.    We provide our porters with plenty of good food. This is not the same menu given to the passengers, but it is nutritious, abundant, and what they are used to eating. They have their own cooking facilities so do not have to wait for the clients to finish eating before they get their food.
  7.    We provide the porter’s transport from Ollantaytambo to the trailhead. We also provide them with return train tickets (with designated seat allocation) from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo. We do not deduct this from their wages.
  8.    We only use registered Inca trail porters (as Inca trail rules stipulate) – these have to pass several forms of ID, character reference, and a letter of good health and to have attended an Inca Trail Porter Awareness course.
  9. We provide accident insurance and work contracts for each period of work porters do for us. They are all freelance.
  10. We provide each porter with a uniform, back support, a carrying frame, and footwear. (Please note the porters often prefer their sandals.)
  11. As good quality camping equipment is unavailable in Peru, we encourage clients to donate any excess outdoor clothes, sleeping bags, etc directly to the porters.
  12. Tipping porters are also encouraged and guidelines are provided at the pre-departure meeting. The tip is administered by the clients with assistance from the head guide whose tip is completely separate.
  13. Amazonas Explorer holds an annual, end-of-season, porters’ party and football tournament.
  14. Our tree planting is done above our porters’ villages. The porters are proud to participate in caring for their future.

 

Other things we do

Other things we do (2)

  • We run small groups tours and explore new routes away from the busiest areas
  • We purchase locally produced food
  • We bring 20 liter bottles of water for you to refill from, to avoid you buying plastic bottles
  • We use reusable snack bags
  • We minimize paper use and where we do print, we then use the other side.
  • We carefully dispose of all waste. All non-biological waste is carried out and disposed of correctly. On the Apurimac rafting, all human excrement is also carried out. On other trips, we carefully bury all biodegradable waste below the high-water mark, at the official deposits on the Inca Trail or as deep as possible elsewhere.
  • We employ only qualified local guides
  • We cook on gas not firewood
  • We pay all staff a realistic wage and offer correct working conditions.
  • We discourage handing out gifts along the trail to locals to avoid creating a handout culture.