Ecuador mountaineering holiday

Planet

We operate this Ecuador mountaineering holiday in conjunction with an ecologically aware tour operator.

Our staff are local with an excellent knowledge of the area. Our guides hold informal talks to inform about and discuss aspects of local life. This helps understanding of the area and appreciation of the people who live there. We support the local economy by using local transport on this trip and always using locally owned and run accommodation and restaurants.

When trekking & climbing we buy fresh local produce. In preference we choose local over imported goods, encouraging the use of Andean products in our cooking. On our treks we minimize waste by using products with minimum packaging, leaving no litter and keeping all water sources clean, leaving camp-sites cleaner than we find them. Rubbish is carried out.

We support the Tourism Concern Porters Policy in Peru and are involved with the social project Huchuy Yachaq. We are happy to distribute your donations of much needed warm clothes and shoes to children through this organization - please contact us for details of how you can help. Volunteers are welcome to work on the project.

We are also now supporting the UK registered chairty Amantani. As this charity is very much in keeping with our ethos of small scale, targetted help which is educational & sustainabale. HuchuyYachaq is the other main Peruvian charity we support by paying a for a full time teacher. A % of all our income goes to support those projects.

People

By working with local people on all our trips, we ensure we pay fair wages and inject vital funds into the local economy. We do this by using specialist agents on the ground with insight into the communities they live and work in, and working with locally-owned hotels and restaurants wherever possible. In turn, these partners employ local trek staff: porters, muleteers, cooks and guides who are all educated in cherishing and respecting the landscape and leaving no trace. These workers keep us informed of any items their communities may need for their schools or village, and we endeavour to raise funds to help them.

Fresh local produce from small shops and markets is sourced in and around departure towns and villages – we always prefer to choose local rather than imported goods. We use public transport whenever possible, and aim to offer our guests opportunities to meet and talk to local people, soak up the atmosphere of villages and markets and learn about the vibrant culture of your proud hosts.

Over the years, everyone that has travelled with us has helped good causes across South America. As a small company iwe are proud to say that we support the work of nine charities/NGOs through donations and membership fees. These donations have contributed towards the education of many Peruvian Quechua children, a teacher’s salary, library materials and school maintenance costs at Huchay Yachaq.

We also send six volunteers annually to work in the Huchay Yachaq project and have paid for the set up and cost of hosting their website and donated photocopiers, computers and various school supplies. Amantani is another project we support. We sponsored the Grafham Water Marathon in Sept 2011, which raised more than £21000 to go towards Amantani’s boarding house project in Peru. Our UK staff also took part in the race, swelling the sponsorship funds. And for every booking that we make for Galapagos we donate to Galapagos Conservation Trust.