A different kind of journey to Machu Picchu with Enrique at Mountain Lodges of Peru

Written by Rebecca Woolford, Senderos

In a region where tourism is concentrated near Machu Picchu, the neighbouring more remote communities who boast breathtaking natural beauty and rich cultural heritage have historically been overlooked by tourism. 

Honouring the natural competence of Andean women in being hospitable and aware of the many challenges these remote communities were facing, including extreme poverty, Mountain Lodges of Peru created ‘Yanapana NGO’ in 2006. An initiative which focuses on empowering and supporting women in local communities.

Keep reading to uncover the Salkantay Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, rich in Andean culture, moving through 15 different habitats and supporting remote communities, it’s the definition of experiential travel that places ‘purpose’ at the centre. 

Senderos’ stories celebrate the positive impact sustainable tourism can bring to communities, and Mountain Lodges of Peru does just that.

Enrique Umbert, Owner of Mountain Lodges of Peru supporting a reforestation project. 

It was your late father who was the visionary behind Mountain Lodges of Peru, right? Take us back to when and where it first started. 

“You’re right, my late father was the visionary behind Mountain Lodges and it came into being through chance and I believe destiny. 

My father was born in the south of Peru. Born in the early 50s he was made to believe that progress only happened on the coastline not in the mountains. He later went on to study in the US and travelled the world as a skier, and hiker, returning back to Peru fuelled by inspiration from his experiences. In the Alps he witnessed progress in the mountains, and wondered if it couldn’t be replicated in the mountains in Peru. 

In the early 2000s my brother Felipe and I were both studying, tourism and hospitality was my focus and finance was his. A family friend was also interested in getting involved. So, in 2002 we took our first exploration into the mountains which is where Mountain Lodges of Peru is located today. 

During this trip we found that tourism was concentrated in the immediate vicinity of Machu Picchu. All the neighbouring communities of Machu Picchu and of the wider region of Cusco were unaware of tourism and unengaged. They were also living in extreme poverty at that time, this was in stark comparison to the immediate vicinity of Machu Picchu which was more prosperous. 

These neighbouring communities were host to a richness of natural beauty and cultural heritage which was overlooked. So, we proposed to them a vision of elevating people from poverty through the development of sustainable tourism over a period of 20 years. Those isolated communities went on to become our trusted partners in adventure tourism and are still with us today.”

Enrique with his brother and late father in Peru and local Peruvian women welcoming guests to their accommodation.

Most people know of the Inca trail and Machu Picchu. However, the Salkantay Trail is far less known. What can you tell us about its wonders and the unique experience you curate for guests?

“During the Inca Empire there were over 25,000 miles of Inca trails, spread throughout South America. The world famous Inca Trail is such a small part of the story told by travel and tourism companies which is curious because it’s a small part of a much bigger story. The Inca trail is 26 miles out of the 25,000 miles of trails created. 

In sought after sites like Machu Picchu we need to balance out the Instagram culture of taking pictures of places because they are aesthetically pleasing, and instead capture its depth of cultural heritage. 

Our approach at Mountain Lodges of Peru was to create experiential trips. We started by asking questions like: How should this trip make you feel? When someone leaves to return home from such a trip what’s changed?

There are several elements that I believe influence the experiences our guests encounter, resulting in a unique formula. 

There’s an aspect of vulnerability, of stepping out of your comfort zone with our trips, even if you’re an experienced hiker. They’re not necessarily physical steps, it could be related to culture that brings you out of your comfort zone. Safe in the knowledge that people are guided by leading experts of course, these opportunities to move beyond your comfort zone are profound.  

Another aspect is spontaneity. It’s one thing to experience spontaneity in a well-developed destination, if you allow spontaneity in more remote places where there are authentic expressions of nature and culture that’s where the magic really lies. 

The other aspect is the rich relationship our guests experience with their surroundings and environment, both in relation to people and place. Because of the length of time we’ve spent here and the relationships we’ve created with our neighbours and the community as a whole, our guests have exclusive moments. There are activities that we do arrange in advance, whether that be food, or music related. But there is also the unexpected that comes into play. 

For example our guide could be passing through a village and a conversation might spark with a member within the community sharing how a landslide happened in the region and that tomorrow there is a big community gathering and effort. Spontaneously the guide shares this with the group of walkers and there is this natural exchange.” 

An award winning film by GLP films – The Ultimate Trek to Machu Picchu

“Adventure travel takes many forms but exploring somewhere by foot is probably one of the more contemplative ways to experience a place. It allows you the time and space to think. It allows you to be with yourself. It allows you to be with others immersed in your surroundings and nature. 

The Salkantay Trail is a very significant section of the Inca Trail. The Salkantay mountain is the second highest mountain in the region of Cusco after the mountain Ausangate. In Andean religion or mythology, duality is an important aspect, you always have the male and female dualities and so in the region of Cusco, the Ausangate mountain is the male duality and the Salkantay mountain is female, highly revered by the Inca civilization. 

The Inca trail that connects the Salkantay trail with Machu Picchu was a royal trail. During the Spanish conquests most of the stones that marked this royal route were eradicated and Andean religion was replaced by Christianity. The route was commercialised as a trading route which brought in mules and horses and these stone paved trails were no good for these working animals so what happened is the local settlers started taking the stone from the Royal Inca path to build their homes. There is such depth and history here. 

From an environmental or natural point of view, the Salkantay trail traverses 15 different ecological floors. You begin in an alpine setting as you approach glacial mountains, then you’re down in the cloud forest and then you look up and you see the snow cap peaks, before reaching the crown jewel that is Machu Picchu. 

A biologist shared with us, ‘Peru hasn’t got big diversity, it has mega diversity’ and this is something our guests experience on this trail. Because you have different ecological floors you have diverse expressions of culture along the route which brings another element to the experience.”

Guests enjoying the views in the lounge and comfortable bedrooms at Mountain Lodges of Peru

Mountain Lodges of Peru works closely with Yanapana, a non-profit with a mission to reduce extreme poverty in the Andean Highlands. What can you tell us about it? 

“Yanapana means to help or helping hands. Yanapana, Peru was founded simultaneously to Mountain Lodges of Peru.

It wasn’t an afterthought or an add on to the business, we envisioned this impact work with Yanapana from the very beginning. We didn’t want our relationship with the environment and the local communities to be something we did in the ‘leftover time’ we had. Yanapana counterbalanced the business aspect and focused us on what mattered.  

We immediately set out to identify what the main issues were in these neighbouring communities living in extreme poverty. The first challenge we discovered was about women and children’s nutrition, education and health needs. The second was the role of the Andean woman and how that then affected the children and played into the social fabric. 

So, we collaborated with sponsors and partners to build a school and created housing for students who had to walk three hours just to get the chance to go to school. We built small farms nearby which created its own produce, and brought in small farm animals like chickens to help provide nutrition to the kids attending school.

When we first started Mountain Lodges of Peru 25 years ago the role of women was restricted to the household and taking care of the small farm animals. As far as having any political participation or having a voice it was non-existent. In fact, in many of the communities we engaged with at first didn’t allow women into the community assembly, they were made to sit outside. In other communities, they were allowed to sit inside but had no voting rights. 

And because these women were not income generators, the men who were the sole income generators, sometimes exercised power and leadership with domestic violence. Many of the children were encouraged not to attend school and instead stay home to contribute to the family farm. 

Historically speaking in these remote areas whenever travellers passed through women were the ones opening the door of the household and inviting people in. The hospitality gene is innately in women as caregivers. Honouring women’s natural competence in being hospitable and aware of the challenges they were facing we approached our neighbours and said, ‘hey, we’re looking for staff and we’d love to provide training to the women.’ 

There was some scepticism about our intentions from the men. The group of women which agreed to be a part of the training were taken to a lodge in another part of Peru for a couple of weeks. I think five days in, the local men got together. Upset and anxious, despite being aware of the project and accepting the benefits it would bring, we formed a committee to reassure them and validate that the women were indeed in training.  

When the women returned after training they were able to generate a second income for the household. Holding respectable positions from front of house and mountain guides to housekeeping, the professionalism they embodied started to influence how their male counterparts saw them. Progressive change was unfolding in front of our eyes. We didn’t set out to disrupt the social fabric, but these seeds that you plant and nurture start to grow. Some of the neighbouring communities started to invite women previously excluded inside the assembly room, still not able to vote in some of them, but committees formed by women also started to emerge. 

Weaving and jam associations were also created, 20 years ago there weren’t as many as there are now, and these ripple effects started to spread. Women feel empowered, start to organise themselves and inspire neighbouring communities on what they can do.

There’s been about 120 women that have participated in the training and/or associations to date. The largest training group that we’ve had were around 30 women.”

Peruvian Women from the local communities waiting outside Huacahuasi Lodge, Mountain Lodges of Peru

Beyond the incredible social impact work you also co-sponsor a tree planting initiative which inspired an even bigger project. Which area did you focus the planting on and why?

“The reforestation program was centred around the Salkantay river basin which serves many farming communities. Because of the effects of climate change the glacial setting which surrounds the region is changing the behaviour of the river basin.

One of the mitigating activities was to reforest the area, but it’s not been easy in the sense that familiarising and educating communities about reforestation takes a lot of time and the positive impact of such a project takes time to show. 

We were fortunate to receive sponsorship from an entrepreneur who decided to sponsor the project alongside us. It was the pilot project to what is now a government initiative called A Million Trees for Machu Picchu. 

One of the incredible things that happened in regards to the project is that some of the local neighbours understood the importance of this natural regeneration and donated part of their land for reforestation. And that’s unheard of in farming communities, people guard the land with their lives. 

Every time we open the project up to volunteering from local schools we get a busload of students keen to be a part of making a difference. We also invite our guests to plant trees and to make a donation to the project that allows us to plant 50 trees. We’ve planted about 150,000 trees so far.” 

Comfortable accommodation awaits guests at Mountain Lodges of Peru  

What’s next for Mountain Lodges, Peru?

“Peru was hit hard not only by the pandemic, but 2023 was a tricky year for everyone and we’re still recovering. We do however have some exciting projects in the area of Cusco in which we are developing innovative ways of exploring sites like Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. And then there’s another project in an area which is unexplored. It’s an area just a stone’s throw away from the Sacred Valley, Inca Trail and Machu Picchu where there’s more than 30 indigenous communities currently living.

There’s so much to explore. There’s so much to learn. There’s so much to do. We see tourism as a vehicle to support development and incorporate new communities who are currently unengaged in the benefits of sustainable tourism.”

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