Peru & Bolivia overland tour, 34 days

Environment

Wildlife: one of the highlights of this trip will be your stay in the Amazon Jungle. The Jungle Lodge we use has a huge commitment to preserving the local habitat, flora and fauna and are very keen to share their knowledge and passion with you. On arrival, they will brief you on steps you can take to minimise the impact of your stay on the local environment., including guidelines on how to interact with the local wildlife and sticking to designated trails. They also include information on culturally sensitive behaviour with the local community, such as not taking photos without permission first.

Waste: at the point of booking a tour with us, all our travellers receive detailed pre-departure information which contains a large section on travelling responsibly. This includes advice on minimising the amount of waste they create on the trip. This informs travellers on what they can do before they go, for example removing toiletries from unnecessary packaging and taking a reusable water bottle and gives advice on what they should do whilst on the tour, for example, disposing of litter appropriately. Our operator in Bolivia is regularly involved in City Hall litter and tourist attraction clean-up events in La Paz.

All of this information on waste reduction is re-iterated at the pre-departure meeting at the start of the tour, with specific advice for the areas we visit on the tour. As a company we have a big commitment to reducing, reusing and recycling in our UK office. We are very aware of the environmental impact of our office in the UK, so we recycle and compost as much of our waste as possible. We try to reduce paper usage , but when necessary we use recycled paper and stationery. Our brochure is available to view or download online and the paper version is printed on stock produced from sustainable sources and vegetable based inks.

Community

Friends and Neighbours: This tour is led by a Peruvian Tour Leader in Peru (usually Ricardo) and a Bolivian Tour Leader in Bolivia (usually Marco). We receive consistently great feedback about their Tour Leading skills and the way they are able to immerse you into the local culture from trips to lesser known, more traditional, restaurants and bars to explaining local traditions and teaching you some basic local language.
All the accommodation and restaurants we use on the tour are small, locally-owned establishments. We use local transport providers, guides and operators throughout the tour. One of our aims as a company is to ensure that as many local people as possible benefit from our tour-both financially and in terms of employment.

Our stay at Lake Titicaca for example, also helps to support local communities financially -as we pay them directly for our homestay.

One of the highlights of this trip is obviously trekking the Inca Trails to Machu Picchu. This trek offers opportunities of employment to large numbers of the local community. Porters, cooks and guides are required. However, much of this employment is poorly paid and working conditions are not good. The local company we use to organise our trails has a commitment to the welfare of their porters-providing them with a professional wage and health insurance . They have also built overnight pre-trek accommodation for the porters and guides as many of them have to travel in from their home areas at significant distance from the start of the Trail.

Your Tour Leaders will tell you the best places to buy local crafts-from alpaca socks to silver jewellery! They share our enthusiasm for supporting local artisans and skills!