Argentina cultural holiday

Planet

Our environmental impact in our offices is low, so we focus more on the value chain. Anyway, in the office, we do waste separation and always try to reduce and reuse whenever possible.

Selection of our suppliers:
In order to ensure sustainability and consistency with our work philosophy, we always look for sustainable tourism providers that meet any of the following requirements:
- Be distinguished by quality and/or sustainability programs/seals
- Be recognized locally for their good environmental and social practices.
- We prioritize local ventures and, if possible, attended by their owners.
- In the case of accommodation, we work with hotels certified for their environmental management whenever we can.
- We also encourage our allies to improve and continue implementing environmentally responsible practices, especially those related to water, energy, and waste.
- In the more traditional destinations, we seek to offer a different travel experience, with small group excursions, certified local guides, and alternative proposals that complement the most tourist sites.

Responsible practices with the environment
- Walking and public transport tours
- Visit natural areas where we work on environmental awareness and the importance of biodiversity.
- We started calculating the carbon footprint of our trips and we offer our clients options of carbon offset. As an example of this policy, we contribute monthly with the Argentine Wildlife Foundation (a member of WFF) for reforestation programs in Argentina.
- We deliver a recycled leather envelope to our customers to carry their documentation. The Vacavaliente company is a certified B company that buys the remains of leather from tanneries (preventing them from being waste) and transforms them into design products through reuse techniques.
- As part of our paperless policy, we stopped printing long-road books and changed them for digital brochures for our clients.

At Mater we always search for alternative activities to those usually chosen by large groups of tourists so that you can have more intimate and authentic experiences, without missing out on the most emblematic places in Argentina.

In this tour you’ll have the chance to get close and learn about the local culture while seeing the amazing landscapes the North of Argentina has to offer. You’ll be able to stay at a family house in a community in Valle Colorado. This is how you will get a close look on their traditions and share the activities in which the community members are involved daily. You’ll have a local bilingual guide, with vast knowledge of the culture and routes taken in the tour.

This tour, on the one hand, decentralizes tourism by visiting places that are not in Salta’s classic circuit, giving smaller communities that aren’t frequently visited by international groups of tourists and have a great cultural value an opportunity to work and develop independently.

We also give our travellers the chance to have direct and genuine contact with the local culture, accompanied by a local guide, promoting reciprocal cultural exchange.

Not only do we manage to preserve and protect the environment, but also local cultures, traditions and economies. Rural Community Tourism allows visitors who seek to get involved with local inhabitants to live a unique cultural exchange experience and simultaneously offers rural families an opportunity to develop independently.

Also, by visiting local communities that are usually not included in itineraries offered to large groups of tourists, you’re helping them develop independently and giving them an opportunity to share and give value to their cultural assets. This is the case when visiting the Valle Colorado community, where you’ll get the chance to learn about their local traditions, participate in activities such as knitting, making ceramic pieces, viticulture, and more.

People

On this tour, we visit lots of "off the beaten track" places thanks to the possibility of traveling north in a private vehicle, with a local driver-guide who knows every corner of the region.

A day is shared with a family in the rural area of the Quebrada de Humahuaca (UNESCO World Heritage Site). They have agriculture and livestock as their main economic activity but generate extra income for the tourist services they offer, in addition to the sale of handicrafts and regional products. In this way, we contribute to the local development of these communities while offering a truly differential service, in unique environments outside traditional circuits. Families do not speak English, but we work with local guides/interpreters who live in the area.

Local guides give recommendations on respect for Pachamama and the protection of the natural, cultural, and intangible heritage of the Andean culture. Some of the accommodations are in family houses (private rooms), which allows an even deeper exchange. This can be seen as an opportunity for really interesting cultural exchange, while we support the local development.

We also recommend our travelers to visit social projects, for example, some of our clients have visited Camino Abierto, a soup kitchen located in a rural area that also offers training to the children: organic farming, local food preparation, harvest, farm, etc.

On our trips, we hire local certified guides who know their environments best. We include visits to local communities and estancias. These are off-the-road places, where the tourists do not frequently go and so our support is crucial to them. We support them not only by hiring their services, but also by creating a cultural exchange, having lunch for example, or buying them provisions.

Some of the accommodation is in family houses (private rooms), which allows a more meaningful cultural exchange, while we support the local development.

We collaborate with the local development of that region through tourism revenues. In addition, we raise awareness about the importance of cultural and natural heritage as different sites are visited, including some protected by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.

It is important to mention that in the rural community tourism programs, in addition to the genuine income generated for the families, there are other positive impacts such as the enhancement of their cultural and natural heritage, the revalue of their customs and identity, and something extremely important: young people do not migrate from the countryside to the city, as they find in tourism an opportunity to stay in their places and work.