Along with getting trekkers safely and securely round Peru’s many mountains, Maritza Chacacanta can be one of many nation’s loudest voices in sustainability. We sat right down to learn how she’s cleansing up Peru’s mountain climbing trails.
If you’ve ever been trekking in Peru, you’ll be accustomed to not less than two issues. One: mountain climbing these trails is difficult work, however your chief and group of porters make it infinitely simpler. Two: together with some fairly spectacular vistas, there’s a heck of plenty of garbage on the path. Like, literal baggage full.
Maritza Chacacanta has lots to do with each. As the deputy supervisor of Intrepid’s trekking division in Peru, Maritza is accountable for overseeing each trek within the nation. She supervises workers – over 250 male and 15 feminine porters, 25 cooks and assistant cooks and round 150 wranglers, who use horses to hold tools. She organises the logistical facet of Intrepid’s small group treks, like arranging permits and entrance charges, shopping for tenting tools for porters and speaking with suppliers to type out components for meals.
You might say she’s a girl with lots on her plate.
But along with *waves palms round* all this, Maritza additionally spends her time educating her ever-growing group in regards to the significance of the surroundings. Not littering. Picking up garbage once you see it. Recycling.
“We talk a lot with our staff about how important it is to take care of the environment,” Maritza says from her workplace in Cusco. “For us, the environment is Pachamama. It’s part of the Inca’s religion; an ideology that we respect our Mother Earth.”
Maritza has been trekking in Peru for 15 years. She’s walked the Inca Trail 500 occasions, and has explored the Lares, Quarry and Choquequiaro trails numerous others. Seeing how a lot litter is unfold throughout all these tracks spurred her to take motion. “I feel guilty, and I feel upset,” she says. “So picking up rubbish is something I can do for our planet, for Pachamama.”
Under Maritza’s steering, Intrepid was the primary tour firm to start out actually caring for the surroundings on Peru’s Inca Trail. Each porter was accountable for selecting up any garbage they noticed alongside the path and to type and recycle it after they returned to Cusco.
“It wasn’t easy, because porters from other companies started laughing at us,” Maritza remembers. “They’d say, ‘This is the company in charge of collecting our garbage!’ and they’d laugh and throw their rubbish on the ground. It was extremely insulting.”
Maritza labored exhausting to coach the porters, educating them in regards to the significance of preserving the path. She did such an excellent job, she acquired a letter from the federal government congratulating her on her work; in actual fact, it’s now legislation in Peru that no single-use plastics are allowed on the path, and her group of porters, cooks and wranglers are actually amassing garbage on trails throughout the nation.
It’s an enormous achievement, however one which requires ongoing work. At the start of every trek, Intrepid’s leaders and guides clarify to travellers that, together with carrying tenting tools, meals and provides, the porters may also be amassing any garbage alongside the path. They additionally hold garbage that’s produced by the group, together with natural matter and even cooking oil. “Often, our travellers start collecting the garbage as well!” says Maritza. “It’s so nice that they are also respecting our Pachamama.”
Along with educating her group, Maritza has additionally been working with native communities, explaining the significance of recycling. “We don’t really have this sort of education in schools, particularly in smaller communities,” she says. “If Peru is going to become more sustainable as a country, we need to involve the communities, and we need to educate people when they are children. They need to know how easy it is, and that it should be part of their daily life.”