Empowering Women
In these days of women’s empowerment around the world, Peru has fallen very short when it came to empowering Peru women. Especially in our villages and poorer areas, Peru women have been traditionally expected to be quiet and obedient. Peru Women are generally less educated, expected to marry young and raise their children. Very sadly Peru women are mistreated every day and do not feel confident enough to speak up or get help.
Empowering Peru Women and Opening the Door to Women in Tourism
Our Peru Women Porters Visit Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu as Tourists
For an entire weekend, our employees become clients…and their eyes and hearts open to their own history, seeing their traditions come alive.
Alpaca Expeditions employs at least 350 male porters and about 20 female porters. 150 of our male porters have visited Machu Picchu with us so far. We include everything – logistics, entrance tickets, guides, food and lodging – all paid by the company.
On February 16-17, 2019, Alpaca Expeditions took our first group of female porters on this trip. These women are ground breaking in this male dominated industry and they have led the way for other women to find employment in all jobs of tourism. These women have conquered all of our treks working the Inca Trail, Lares, and Salkantay. This is not an easy job, but they do it with so much pride and happiness – you notice their smiles right away. This is just a small step for us to acknowledge how amazing they are: our super ladies and thank them for being such an inspiration and important part of our team.
Watching these Peru women walk inside Machu Picchu for the first time was incredible. They have a different energy and emotion and it’s very clear how impressed they were immediately. They were not only so overwhelmed by being inside Machu Picchu citadel, they also were so proud for people to see them and ask them about being a female porter.
We first invited Peru women onto our team of porters in January 2018. We assumed it was too hard of a job, only men can do the job. We were so wrong. Of course having female porters introduces new challenges for us as a company. While they are learning this new trade from us, we are learning so much from them and trying to make Alpaca Expeditions a home for them. We hope to grow the number of women in the company and look forward to a day where we are truly 50/50. A few have started training to be a chef and later this year we hope to have a few female trekking chefs in our groups.
We started Alpaca Expeditions not only to do a better job for clients, but even more so for the local people here in Cusco. Our team is as important as our clients. We provide every single one of them with all of their uniform, including jackets and boots, for free. Each gets a down sleeping bag and sleeping pad for treks. All equipment they need is given for free as well as food.
All of our porters – men and women – come from Andean villages where life is more difficult. We go directly to their villages with goods for their families including medical equipment, food, even sports equipment for their children. They are such an important part of our company and we try to show them our gratitude every single day.
As a company, we are so excited that we made their childhood dreams come true to visit the most important place in our history, Machu Picchu.
Alpaca Expeditions Equipment
Why does Alpaca Expeditions focus on helping porters?
We could not be the company we are today without our porters. It is not possible to offer the level of service we offer without the help of these men and women. They work SO hard, doing every set up, cooking every meal, carrying everything necessary, just to let a foreigner visit their homeland. We don’t think it’s only for visitors – it’s for us. Alpaca Expeditions owner and many of our guides started as porters in this business and know exactly what these individuals give to us to do the job…and what they leave behind at home.
Why is empowering Peru women so important to A.E.?
Peru is still a country where machismo is very strong. We are behind the times it seems in women equality. But perhaps we can be a leader and change this. We already see a few other companies in Cusco adding women to their workforce and hopefully this will expand. Women should be allowed and encouraged to do any job they feel up to doing. Helping their family with more income is something that brings them joy and pride.
How many female porters visited Machupicchu?
At this time, 15 women with their children. We hope this number keeps growing in the future and that more and more women can do this job and we can make happen anything for them.
TRIPADVISOR RECOGNITIONS
Our goal at Alpaca Expeditions is to create the best experience for all of our clients. We create journeys that are to be remembered for a lifetime. Journeys you can be proud of and can share with everybody around you.
