NEWS from Peru

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Porter Health and Welfare

Peru opens its sacred city of Caral to tourists

BOOKING THE INCA TRAIL? We recommend you check out the Inca Porter Project which provides a list of suggested questions for when you are booking your Classic Inca Trail from your home country
If you are interested in a sustainable Inca Trail, we highly recommend paying a little more and going with a reputable company! We recommend Llama Path because we know that they treat the porters well!

GOOD PERU NEWS IN ENGLISH - we often read the regularly updated news on the Dos Manos newspage.

We recommend the Thorntree as a useful place to get up to date advice or comments about situations in Peru.

LATEST NEWS

From the 1st August 2006, the price of entry to Machu Picchu will be 118 soles (approx. $35US) for an adult ticket!

Price HIKE on the Salkantay trek!

From July 1st, 2006 INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura) is charging a 120 sole entry fee for the Salkantay trail! Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu.

This whopping entry fee (approx. $40US) does not include entry to the ruins of Machu Picchu (approx. $25US) meaning that the two combined entry fees add up to $65US, more than the combined Inca Trail/Machu Picchu entry fee!

STOP PRESS!!!! The South American Explorers Club says the following in their latest newsletter: Tourists charged for Alternative Inca trails
This year, the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC) have decided to introduce a fee for the following treks: Salkantay, Choquechirau and Espiritu Pampa. Rumour has it that the cost for Salkantay and Choquequirau will be 120 soles and for Espiritu Pampa, 217 soles. These fees have not been officially confirmed.

Our comments continued: At the current time, there is some confusion as to whether tourists should pay the fee! Travel agencies operating in Cusco have still not yet been "officially" advised of the fee although a INC representative is collecting it in Mollepata prior to the Salkantay trek beginning! Moreover, agencies have not passed on this cost to their passengers (because they were not aware of the entry fee being introduced) so passengers do no want to be lumped with an EXTRA (HUGE) cost at last minute! But then, is it fair that agencies wear such a cost?

Travel operators and interested citizens in Cusco argue that it is unfair of INC to introduce a phenonemally HUGE fee (when last year it was NOTHING!) when they currently provide no services (eg. rubbish collection or toilets)! A fee of even $10US would have been more reasonable and realistic than a $40US fee!

It seems it is a blatant "money grabbing" action to cash in on the large numbers of tourists now doing Salkantay as they cannot get places on the regulated Inca Trail!

It is extremely ironic that even though the Inca Trail is highly regulated, there are no restrictions on the Salkantay trek leading to environmental degredation.

If you are doing the Salkantay trek in the near future it is advised that you contact your agency as to whether you will be required to pay this entry fee!

In the opinion of the well travelled staff at Apus Peru Adventure Travel, if you can't get a place on the Inca Trail, stay away from the increasingly touristed Salkantay and try one of the unique tours found at True Adventure Tours.

Porter health and welfare Copied from SwissaMissa on the Thorntree (Lonely Planet).

For those of you concerned about the health and welfare of the porters on the Inca Trail, today's edition of Cusco's daily newpaper El Sol ran a disturbing article entitled "Exploitation on the Inca Trail Continues." It claims that only ten percent of the 250 legally operating tour agencies comply with the law when it comes to adequate pay, proper gear and nutrition for its porters and, disturbingly, a total disregard for the limitation of weight carried. The legal limit is 20 kg = 44 lbs and, the article claims, loads up to 35 kg = 77 lbs are being put on the backs of porters who are getting paid less than half of the mandated 160 nuevos soles (approx. USD 50) for the four day trek.
I don't doubt even for a minute that the agencies being recommended most on the ThornTree are part of the ten percent who are in full compliance with the law and would not put their reputations at risk, but I do want to bring this very real problem to everyone's attention. Consider the health and welfare of your porter (without whom you simply could not do a four-day trek carrying only your day pack) and DO NOT DEAL with the shadier tour operators who offer bargain basement prices. Also, if you suspect or actually know of any obvious mistreatment of porters you might want to report the offenders to the Sindicato Único de Porteadores de la Red Turística del Camino Inca del Santuario Histórico de Machupicchu.

In and of itself this shows the porters' plight even without mentioning lousy tippers. It also shows that there is a union of sorts, the above-mentioned Sindicato Único de Porteadores de la Red Turística del Camino Inca del Santuario Histórico de Machupicchu, but try to organize a labor strike in a country where exploitation is the order of the day and where there are 10 applicants for every job opening! It also shows that tour operators brazenly lie to you about a porters' wages being 100 soles for the 4 days. They obviously expect you, the tourist, to make up the difference, however they must be clear about this when they sell you the package. Therein lies the problem.

Peru opens its sacred city of Caral to tourists
Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Sacred City of Caral, the oldest city in the Americas that has changed the history of Peru and the world since its discovery in 1994, is now open as a prime destination and archaeological treasure for tourists who visit Lima. As a result of the work done by the Proyecto Especial Arqueologico Caral-Supe (Caral-Supe Special Archaeological Project), the Sacred City of Caral is now open for tourists and will continue to undergo a series of restorations that will provide an added value to the existing and future tourist circuits in the region.

The Sacred City of Caral, built over 5,000 years ago, is not only the oldest city in the Americas but also third overall after Mesopotamia and Egypt, followed by China and India. This historical treasure, located in the Supe Valley, is just two hours north of Lima and easily accessible by the Pan-American Highway. Although Machu Picchu, located in Cusco, has gained considerably more attention around the world as the capital of the Inca Empire, many do not know that the Sacred City of Caral was the first political state formed in Peru 4,400 years prior to the Incas.

The Caral civilization was ruled by a hierarchical system with differences in rank and position in society; this is evidenced in the unequal distribution of wealth and occupational roles. Tourists who visit the area will be able to see how this system influenced the Caral way of life when they tour the residential and public housing areas, pyramids, sunken circular plazas, temples, altars, and more.

Due to the civilization’s organizational structure, they were able to flourish in specialties such as astronomy, medicine, engineering, trade, music, textiles and basket weaving. Agricultural cultivations were also an important part of the Caral daily life. Coloured cotton was the Caral product of choice for trade especially when it came to anchovies and shellfish arriving from Aspero, the first fishing town in the Americas, one of 19 contemporary settlements of this civilization. Other contemporary settlements to Caral are Kotosh in Huanuco and Piruro in the Maranon Valley; Huaricoto and La Galgada in the Santa Valley; Las Haldas in the Casma Valley; El Paraiso in the Chillon Valley; Bandurria in Huacho and Culebras near to the Culebras Valley.

The Sacred City of Caral receives visitors from all over the world. Caral received 7,338 visitors in 2003, 15,265 visitors in 2004 and 21,068 visitors in 2005. With the support of PromPeru, this number is expected to rise in the coming years.

Michael Verikios - Wednesday, July 05, 2006