Amazonas Explorer

We provide a career progression opportunities - porter to waiter to assistant cook to cook. Wilo our guide, Ernesto our storeman, David our driver and Alex our office cook, were all once porters who worked their way up. We pay porters more than the wage stipulated by the authorities. We pay them at the end of the trek. They do not have to come to Cusco, or wait to collect their money. Porters are contracted by a designated Head porter and payment is made directly by the Head guide, thus avoiding any intermediaries or other possible conflicts. We pay the porter's Inca Trail fee and do not take it out of their wages. Inca trail rules set a maximum load for porters - 20kg of company equipment and 5kg of personal equipment. We abide by this and it is enforced by the Inca trail governing body at several weigh stations on the trail. We provide a large communal tent with carry mat floor for porters to sleep in. It is not the clients' dining tent. We provide our porters with plenty of good food. This is not the same menu given to the passengers, but it is nutritious, abundant and what they are used to eating. They have their own cooking facilities so do not have to wait for the clients to finish eating before they get their food. We provide the porters transport from Ollantaytambo to the trail head. We also provide them with return train tickets (with designated seat allocation) from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo. We do not deduct this from their wages. We only use registered Inca trail porters (as Inca trail rules stipulate) - these have to pass several forms of ID, character reference and a letter of good health and to have attended an Inca Trail Porter Awareness course. We provide accident insurance and work contracts for each period of work porters do for us. They are all freelance. We provide each porter with a uniform, a back support, a carrying frame and footwear. (Please note the porters often prefer their sandals.) As good quality camping equipment is unavailable in Peru, we encourage clients to donate any excess outdoor clothes, sleeping bags etc directly to the porters. Tipping porters is also encouraged and guidelines are provided at the pre-departure meeting. The tip is administered by the clients with assistance from the head guide whose tip is completely separate. Amazonas Explorer holds an annual, end-of-season, porters' party and football tournament. Our tree planting is done above our porters' villages. The porters are proud to participate in caring for their future.