Organising adventure tours in South America requires considerable experience and a network of local contacts across the continent.
Members and associated partners of the Andean Trails team you are likely to come into contact with on the ground are Tullio Sanchez and Jesus in Peru – Lima and Cusco. Our expert local guide in Huaraz is Rodolfo, UIAGM qualified.
In Argentina, we work in conjunction with many local partner companies that handle the operational side of the tours: including Zoe, Gabriel, Pablo and Oscar among others. In Bolivia, we have Osvaldo our expert mountain guide, and Scarlet, Julia and Jaira on the ground sorting out logistics. In Chile we have a number of expert local partners, Jenny, Frank, Ernesto to name but a few.
In Ecuador and on The Galapagos Islands we work together with a number of local experts including the ever popular Emma, Lucero, Paulina and Javier.
These are but a few of the local companies and local guides we work with. We will be adding more and more of our lovely staff to this page, so check back for more!
Jaira Rivera
Jaira – how and why did you start to work in Adventure Tourism?
Twenty nine years ago my parents started this company of adventure and solidarity based tourism. The motivation was for a very simple reasons; both my parents are children of the former dictatorship and both are socialists. Their ideas were forged in the liberal and hippie movement of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. The company aimed to unite the private, indigenous communities and environmental sectors by following responsible ethical and cultural codes.
As pioneers in community tourism and ecotourism, we bring comfort to the adventure traveller; Bolivia – incredibly beautiful, adventurous and perfect in all its chaos.
People who travel here love the Bolivian people, and finding places where the hand of man has not taken control.
Alberto Broi Figari
Alberto – what is your motivation at the time to work in Adventure Tourism?
My principal motivation in adventure travel is to challenge the mind and body in the great outdoors.
This is the most exciting thing – swimming on the beach, trekking and climbing in the Andes, exploring the jungle, sailing rivers or cycling.
Then sharing these emotions with people who want to know the country where I was born and that I love – Peru!
Osvaldo Cortez
Osvaldo – what would you recommend Andean Trails clients to do and to visit in Bolivia?
Being specialised in mountaineering, I would personally recommend starting discovering Bolivia with a visit to the Lake Titicaca area.
This spot combines interesting cultures and scenery, ideal for those that want to sample a slice of the history of Bolivia.
Next, the Condoriri area, which features snow-capped peaks ideal for people who don’t have much climbing experience but at the same time want to get up close to glaciers.
Meet more of the team!
Alberto Navarrete
Ramiro Donoso
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Get in Touch
+44 (0)131 378 5593
+44 (0)131 554 6025
info@andeantrails.co.uk
The high point was a sea lion swimming with us whilst snorkelling off Cape Rosa amongst the lava ‘tunnels’. We have a video of this taken by the snorkel leader playing on our digital frame at home. The low point were the Avianca flights out and back to Galapagos from Ecuador mainland – an airline & staff that really don’t care about you! The day tours were all excellent – sometimes the description was a little vague – for example the Volcano tour on Santa Cruz was a 5 hour 10 mile hike on muddy paths and uneven lava fields, with only a couple of short stops, that needed a good level of fitness but was pitched as a 2 to 4 hour ‘walk’. Food on some tours was a little basic and not very vegan whilst on others it was superb, e.g. the vegan vegetable rice served on one of the boat tours. The highlights were the snorkelling trip to Cape Rosa tunnels and the visit to the Bartolome Island, plus the small plane trip back from Isabela to Santa Cruz. The guides were all very knowledgeable and friendly – William and Martin stood out. We feel we benefited the local people. We had lots of feedback from locals thanking us for staying on land rather than going on one of the boat cruises What we would do differently is probably fly between islands rather than taking the speedboat – and perhaps fly to a third island as we had long enough there to spend three days on a third island (Cristobal?) We chose Andean Trails because it felt like a focused agency that specialised in the area and we liked Kat!
Prof Bob
We had a wonderful time in Galapagos. We really appreciated the guide we had: he gave us so much information, he made us feel safe and took us to the most spectacular snorkelling sessions. I can’t describe any low points. Everything went very smoothly: starting from Quito airport, the welcome in Baltra, the boat and the whole crew. The crew did their best to accommodate all our requests and desires. The only thing I would do differently next time is choose a longer holiday :).
A Calinici