Inca Trail: Heavy load for porters

Tag : Weaving Equipment

The pay is "very little, just enough for our families,"said Quispe, a wiry man of 34 with a weathered face that makes himlook closer to 50. The money helps supplement the food they areable to harvest from their small plots in the Sacred Valley.
The camping equipment slung in a blue tarp from his shouldersdwarfed my backpack, yet I struggled to keep up with him as he andhis crew raced to set up camp ahead of their group of hikers.
A 2003 law mandated a minimum wage for porters roughly equivalentto $15 a day, with a load no more than 57 pounds. That created aslight improvement in porters' pay and working conditions.
"Everything has changed in the past 10 years," FlabioLetona, a porter on my trek with Llama Path tour agency, told me aswe rested at our campsite on the trail.
Through a mouthful of coca leaves -- chewed to ward off altitudesickness and fatigue -- Letona told me that he started working as aporter in the 1990s and still hauls cargo on the knee-crunching20-mile trail at the age of 55.
Letona, like many other porters, is from the Sacred Valley, wherelocals live humbly off small plots of land in the shadow of severalmajor Inca sites. He proudly told me that his children learn toread and write in their native Quechua language at the local publicschool.
"Before, we were carrying 130 to 150 pounds and making 15nuevo soles a day," he said, a sum roughly equivalent to $4.50in the late 1990s.
But a fair wage and working conditions are the exception on thetrail.
I caught up to Victor, 22, as he labored alone on the final ascentto Warmiwanusca, Quechua for "Dead Woman's Pass," thegrisly name for the trail's highest point at 13,779 feet.
He refused to give me his full name because he said his employer --Inca Trail Peru -- has fired porters in the past for talking totourists about conditions and pay.
The Sacred Valley native said he was carrying over-regulationweight -- 66 pounds -- for $9 dollars a day and complained bitterlyabout not getting enough food.
Unlike porters with other agencies, Victor didn't have a waterbottle and his dry, cracked toes jutted out from the end ofworn-down sandals, covered in dust from the trail.
Jorge Villasante, Peru's vice labor minister, acknowledges thatenforcing the 2003 law is a problem.
The Labor Ministry's inspections of the trail in June of 2007 foundthat some 80 percent of tour agencies were violating the law --their porters had overloaded packs, inadequate food rations andpoor sleeping conditions.
"Every agency reports that they pay their workers the minimumwage, but we know from talking to porters that many receive only $8or $9," Villasante said in an interview.
But Villasante believes weigh stations at the start of the trailand fines of up to $1,100 for tour operators that violate the laware slowly improving porters' conditions.
Jose Antonio Gongora, 39, founder of Llama Path tour agency,believes it is up to tour operators themselves to improve porters'conditions, rather than relying on what he calls a corrupt andinefficient government.
Gongora started on the trail as a porter in 1992, working his wayup the ranks to a guide, before founding his own agency in 2004.
Porters frequently carry 90 pounds because their employer knowsworkers at the weigh station, Gongora said.
He said the money from fines should be used to help exploitedporters.
"Why not force a company that is operating incorrectly to usethe fine to buy clothes for all of their porters?" Gongoratold me back in the Llama Path office in Cuzco.
Llama Path and SAS Travel were the only agencies I saw on the trailthat outfit their porters with matching sport-grade uniforms andhiking boots.
Llama Path porters were also the only ones I spoke to who receivemedical insurance. Porter Letona proudly told me that he injuredhis right foot hiking the trail last year but didn't pay a dime fortreatment.
In the past, when they got hurt working for other agencies, thecompanies would say "See you," Fredy Condori, 31, LlamaPath's head porter, said as he displayed his staff's medicalinsurance forms.
"The food was terrible," Condori said, recalling his pastexperiences. "In four days we didn't eat much and when weslept on the ground the water seeped through. It was adisaster."
Condori, who is the representative of Llama Path's workers in a6,000-strong porter union based in Cuzco, said such conditions arestill common on the trail.
Llama Path is trying to change that culture and turn the work of aporter into a stable, protected occupation. Gongora and Condorihave trained some 85 porters to hike on fixed rotations, boughtthem medical insurance and worked to improve food rations andsleeping conditions.
"The idea is to humanize the work" and to "provokechange in other agencies," Gongora said.
But such an operational shift isn't easy, or cheap. "Itrequires a lot of money," Gongora said, adding that Llama Pathwasn't able to change its operations and improve porter conditionsuntil this year, its fifth.
"For a porter there's no rain, no sun and no cold, so we haveto do all we can to provide them with the facilities and conditionsthey need," Gongora said.
If you go ...
Charging slightly higher prices, several tour operators in Cuzcogive their porters fair working conditions and take steps toprotect the fragile ecosystem in the scenic Andean region wherethey operate. Be sure to book early for the classic, four-day IncaTrail to Machu Picchu, as park entry permits are currently sold outthrough September.
Some recommendations include:
LLAMA PATH: Calle San Juan de Dios 250, Cuzco, 011-51-84-240-822, http://www.llamapath.com . A relatively new agency founded by former porter Jose AntonioGongora and his British wife Michelle. Provides friendly localguides and generous helpings of tasty food, along with excellentconditions and medical benefits for their porter staff. Standardfour-day trek on Inca Trail, $420 (price does not include: sleepingbag rental, trekking pole, personal porter, tip).
PERUVIAN ANDEAN TREKS: Avenida Pardo 705, Cuzco, 011-51-84 225701, http://www.peru-planet.net . A well-established U.S.-based tour operator offering group andcustom tours throughout South America. High-quality, reliable tourswith good treatment for porters and staff. A basic four-day trek onthe Inca trail is $595 (includes personal porter, does not includesleeping bag rental, tip or trek permit, around $75).
PERU TREKS: Avenida Pardo 540, Cuzco, 011-51-84-222-722, http://www.perutreks.com . A family-run agency specializing in Inca trail treks and culturalhomestays in local Quechua-speaking villages. Excellent portertreatment. Profits support local community projects such asclothing donations and the construction of schools in two ruralAndean villages. Four-day Inca Trail, $425 (does not includesleeping bag rental, personal porter, tip).
ENIGMA ADVENTURE TOUR OPERATOR: Jiron Clorinda Matto de Turner 100, Cuzco, 011-51-84-222-155, http://www.enigmaperu.com/ . Spanish-owned agency offering Inca trail, mountain-biking andriver rafting trips as well as alternative travel opportunitiesincluding ayahuasca therapy (a plant used to make a drink forhealing ceremonies) and visits to traditional Andean weavingcommunities. Well-organized, responsible treks with good equipment.Standard four-day Inca Trail, $528 (does not include some campingequipment rental, personal porter, tip).