Why We Do It

Like most first-time visitors to Peru, our initial contact was with the south of the country - arriving in Lima and then taking in the much-loved highlights of Nazca, Arequipa & Colca Canyon, Lake Titicaca ... and of course, Cusco and Machu Picchu. 

It was only having decided to settle in Lima that we ventured up north ... and fell in love with Peru, all over again! 

It is PeruNorth's opinion that Northern Peru has all the necessary ingredients - stunning scenery, fascinating ruins, unrivalled bio-diversity, wonderful hospitality - to be a must-visit destination, just as Machu Picchu has become.

Our goal is to educate potential visitors and to facilitate comfortable travel through the region, in order to enable a wider cross-section of people - not just the adventure traveller - to enjoy its delights. 

We firmly believe that tourism is one of the best vehicles to promote local development, while simultaneously protecting the environment.

Parts of Northern Peru, especially her Amazon region, are some of the least developed in South America, so by bringing English-speaking tourists, there is an obvious economic benefit to hotel owners, guides, restauranteurs etc.

This tangible financial plus is combined with a more subtle enhanced sense of worth for the local environment and traditions, seeing them being enjoyed by overseas visitors. 

A potent symbol of the transformative potential of tourism is when - in the vast Amazon basin - a hunter becomes a guide, and uses his extensive and intrinsic knowledge of the rain forest to inform rather than predate.

We know this to be the case with the staff on a number of Amazon cruises and at jungle lodges. 

We appreciate that tourism can generate less-than-ideal development, especially when directed at large numbers of visitors, but by necessity and choice PeruNorth will be working with local suppliers, who have a vested interest in their community's human and environmental resources.

At last count, we had paid for services provided by around 50 different Peruvian-registered businesses, ranging from cruise ship owners to family-run guesthouses to local transport agencies. And we are always on the lookout for new ones.

Put simply, when on a PeruNorth tour, your guide, driver, waitress, boat man, chef, handicrafts and food will all be from the area, and the vast majority of the money you spend will stay in the area. 

By partnering with local businesses, and sharing best practices gleaned from 20 years in the tourism industry, we help them develop and grow in a sustainable manner, with mutual benefits for all concerned. 

Finally, by showing fragile environments, such as the little-known Dry Forests of Lambayeque or Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, to interested and educated visitors, we will be creating ambassadors for the region who return home with a heightened understanding of the extant realities and ecological pressures.