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About Us
About Us
Peru Treks is a licensed trek & tour operator based in Cusco, the heart of the ancient Inca empire.
We are a specialist Inca Trail to Machu Picchu operator. We concentrate our efforts on operating just the classic 4 day Inca Trail. We don't offer a lot of services, but what we do offer we do it well and by giving our guides, cooks and porters consistent work all year round we are able to keep an experienced team together and therefore attract some of the best staff available. Due to our many years of experience in the travel industry, we can offer unbeatable prices with no compromise on quality.
Peru Treks is run as a professional tour operator with experienced office staff and guides. We take pride in looking after our team and pay our trekking staff such as cooks and porters well above average wages. A percentage of our profits go towards funding local community-based projects either organized directly by ourselves or in association with local non-governmental organizations (NGO's).
Peru Treks has received an award for the Best Travel Agency in Cusco, an award that recognizes the quality of our services and hard work and dedication of our trekking team. In 2011 Peru Treks also won the Best Adventure Tour Operator award (Ministry of Tourism).
For details about how we are taking Responsible Tourism seriously please click here.
The Peru Treks Family
Marco, Lucho, Papa Edgar, Georgina, Mama Libia, Yandeli. Front row: Sthef & Christine
Marco, Papa Edgar, Georgina
Diana, Marco, Mama Libia, Papa Edgar, Georgina, Yandeli
Georgina, Mike, Mama Libia, Papa Edgar & Christine
Some guides & cooks (an ugly group if ever there was - apart from the girls that is)
Family + guides + cooks + kids
Enjoying a quiet drink in the stores
In the office, free hot drinks and Inca Trail map
The office and trek briefing lounge
Edgar & Libia Gonzalez (Parents of this big Peru Treks family)
Commonly referred to as Papa Edgar & Mama Libia, parents to Diana, Yandeli, Marco, Georgina, Lucho & Edgar Jr,
Although born in Cusco, they both moved to Aquas Calientes and were some of the earliest inhabitants of this frontier town. Edgar worked for the railway and Libia ran a small restaurant in the centre of town catering for the railway workers and just a handful of visitors that Machu Picchu had each day.
Georgina Gonzalez (Founder of Peru Treks)
Georgina (Koqui) was born in Cusco and brought up in Aguas Calientes before moving back to Cusco to study Company Administration. She has travelled widely in Peru, UK, Canada and Europe. She has been organising treks since 1998 and working in the travel industry since 1995. She is one of eight brothers and sisters.
Sthefanie (Office Manager, Director, niece to Georgina, daughter of Yandeli)
Sthef is the manager and youngest of the family business. She is Georgina's niece and Yandeli's daughter. She studied Company Administration and Tourism at University in Cusco and is the brains behind the running of the business. She's also the bossy one and can be found in the office on a day to day basis trying to keep control of the guides. She has travelled throughout Peru and also visited the UK.
Yandeli (Administrator, sister to Georgina)
Yandy is in charge of all the piles of paperwork. We have tried to be a paperless office but here in Cusco it just isn't possible especially when it comes to buying your trek permits, the government authorities just love paperwork. They have a form for just about everything.
Marco (Operations Manager, Director, brother to Georgina)
Willy (Stores manager, brother-in-law)
Willy organizes all the camping equipment, making sure its in good condition and all packed up ready for the trek.
Mike Weston (Founder, Part-time Publicity & IT manager, husband to Georgina)
Mike originally helped to set up Peru Treks. He now works as a civil engineer in the UK but occasionally lends a hand in answering emails when it's busy. Mike was born in Britain and moved to Peru in 1998 where he settled down with his Peruvian wife Georgina (The boss - see above). They have an 16 year-old daughter. In 1994 Mike travelled extensively throughout South America and in 1996, he dedicated a year to visiting local village festivals throughout Peru and Bolivia where he spent a lot of time staying with families in remote Andean communities as well as dancing (with a complete lack of natural ability some may say!) and drinking large amounts of local firewater. Mike is also our webmaster and tries to keep the website up-to-date.
Elizabeth (Sales)
Elizabeth is our resident salesperson, she's a fully qualified guide and has trekked the Inca Trail loads of times. Her husband Carlos is also an Inca Trail guide. Before working for Peru Treks Elizabeth worked for EcoAmazonia and has plenty of experience and knowledge of jungle lodges in Peru.
Dave Weston (Reservations Manager)
Dave is Mike's brother and is in charge of the reservations which means that he is responsible for answering all of your emails. He's been doing this for more than 6 years now which explains why he has gone slightly mad. He was just going to do this job for a few months but seems to have got stuck with it, his own fault for doing such a good job. Dave used to work as a Shore Excursion manager for a cruise line and has visited just about every country on the planet. Although he spends a couple of months a year in Peru he can often be found travelling round the world with his laptop so he could be answering your email from just about anywhere.
Our Guides:
01. David Aragon Villagra
02. Percy Huaman Levita
03. William Mirano Quico
04. Freddy Torres Chullca
05. Wilfredo Pumayalli
06. Carlos Tinta
07. Edwin Sequeiros
08. Manuel Latorre Letona
09. Ernesto Cusi Cusi
10. NohemÌ sallo Callañaupa
11. Jaime Raul Paucar
12. Pedro Alejo Ramos
13. Yaneth Ugarte Flores
14. Jimmy Espinoza Campo
15. Saul Callañaupa
16. Eddy Huaman
17. Darwin Bocangel
18. Ronald Ccana
19. Nemias Acostupa
20. Edwin Tito
21. Flor Bocangel
Our Cooks:
01. Jesus Chaman
02. Cristobal Quispe Quispe
03. Luis Achahui
04. Abel Mejia Huillca
05. Benedicto Ccana Tacuri
06. Milton Ccana Huanca
07. Lucio Ccana Puma
08. Gregorio Sicos Santa Cruz
09. Humberto Mejia Huillca
10. Zacarias Sicus Mar
Our Porters:
Peru Treks employs about 250 porters taken mainly from the following Andean communities:
- Amaru (Pisac)
- Sipascancha (Paucartambo)
- Cuper Alto-Bajo (Chincero)
- Lamay (Calca)
- Tocra (Paucartambo)
- Humasbamba (Chinchero)
Why choose Peru Treks ?
Great team
Since Peru Treks was founded in 2002 we have been working hard to become Peru's most responsible adventure tour operator. In the last 14 years we have operated more than 4500 Inca Trail groups (just over 50,000 clients) so we should know what we are doing by now! We are the only company in Peru that specializes in the 4 day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and since we operate all of our own treks we have complete control over the quality of our service. This allows us to attract some of the best guides, cooks and porters in Cusco and keeps them working all year round. We now employ more than 20 professional Peruvian guides (all billingual) and an incredible team of nearly 250 porters the majority of whom have worked with us for more than 8 years. All of our porters are picked from one of 6 mountain villages: Amaru (in the mountains behind Pisac), Sipascancha & Tocra (near Paucartambo on the road between Cusco and Manu just before the Andes drop down to the Amazon), Cuper Alto (a small community beside Lake Piuray near Chinchero), Humasbamba (also close to Chinchero) and Lamay (in the Sacred Valley between Pisac and Urubamba).
Highly recommended
Peru Treks is recommended in many guidebooks including South American Handbook (Footprint), Peru Handbook (Footprint), The Inca Trail Cusco & Machu Picchu Guide (Trailblazer) and Peru Guide (Moon handbooks), Lonely Planet Peru Guide, South America on a Shoestring, Rough Guide to South America on a Budget. A few years ago we were awarded the Best Travel Agency in Cusco by the Ministry of Tourism. Peru Treks have also been recommended in several articles in the New York Times and Independent newspapers. The Lonely Planet Guide to Peru describes Peru Treks as a "locally owned, ecoconscious company with experienced guides; it also invests in the ethical treatment of porters. Highly recommended".
We look after our porters
We want to make sure that you have a great experience on the Inca Trail, however it is also important that everyone involved in the operation of our treks is well treated and cared for and that the benefits brought by tourism are shared throughout the Peruvian communities. Since the beginning of 2004 all of our porters have been issued with free sleeping bags, rain ponchos, backpacks and suitable shoes. All of our porters sleep in a communal tent which has a waterproof floor and they have access to any first aid equipment if necessary. Since the beginning of 2006 we have provided free life insurance to ALL of our Inca Trail porters. Obviously we hope that the insurance won't be needed but it should provide our porters and families with peace of mind. We don't consider any of these items to be luxuries or anything special, we consider them to be the absolute minimum requirements for treating our porters fairly and like human beings. We cannot promise you that our porters are happy all of the time (they still have to work extremely hard for a living) but we can guarantee that our porters are well treated, fairly paid (in accordance with the Porters Law and requirements set down by the Ministry of Work) and have warm dry accommodation and plenty of nutritious hot meals to eat. Of course many other trekking companies will tell you this, but there are less than a handful of companies that genuinely care for their porters. More detailed information can be found on our Porter Welfare page.
Spreading the benefits of tourism through community projects
Ever since Peru Treks was first established we have been helping to spread some of the benefits brought by tourism to local communities by donating school equipment to village schools and ensuring that it is properly used. A large percentage of the profits made by Peru Treks go towards such community projects. (rather than just talking about helping communities we would prefer to be judged upon our actions. Information and photos of our most recent projects can be seen on our community projects page).
Our projects include:
- distribution of educational resources & sports equipment to remote schools (more than 230 school donations)
- distribution of second-hand clothing (nearly 50 distributions undertaken)
- distribution of warm blankets (new for 2016, to be undertaken by mid-July)
- donation of computers to schools (50 computers donated so far)
- construction of Checaspampa school
- donation to local NGO to construct kindergarten
- school promotional visits to Cusco, Machu Picchu & Lake Titicaca - 20-25 students & teachers from Tiracanchi every year for the last 10 years.
- Andean Homestay project
For more information about these projects please visit our web page Community Projects
Peru Treks & Adventure Tour Operator
Inca Trail to Machu Picchu Specialists, working to help the community
Office Address: Avenida Pardo 540 (in the corner of the small park), Cusco, Peru