Patagonia & Torres del Paine vacation

Planet

1) Wildlife - We have a couple of endangered species in the area. Main one is a local small deer by the name of Huemul, and also a river duck by the name of Torrent Duck. We encourage our guests to enjoy them if visible at all time, but we give strict standards of how to behave in their presence if they happen to appear.

2) Waste - We leave nothing in the place of our camps, but organic stuff. All contaminating or non bio degradable stuff is brought back to town and disposed properly. We are very creative on how to minimize the bulk and weight to transport, as we need to use llamas (not horses) to do it.

3) We agree with our National park Administration not to allow any more fires in the National Park.

4) We encourage and support, though it was a challenge for us, to no longer use horses for load transportation as horses are the most important trail and soil erosion factor in the area.

People

1) A fair deal - We hire local trekking & mountain guides, either in Fitz Roy and in Paine, so they are argentinians in Fitz Roy and chilean in Paine. We support their training and development, for example, nominating them for Top Guide prize of some of our customers, sending them abroad to exchange experiences,or giving them access to new courses, either new technic courses, first aid revalidation courses, and so on.

2) Local crafts and culture - We always encourage guests to get to the local market places, we explain the basics of local handcrafts.

3) We fight for an open business format instead of exclusive concesions inside the National Park. In other words, we fight for the idea that everyone can work inside the National Parks, not just a few people that was lucky to get there the first (though we are pioneers in the area)

4) We support with money and man power the trails restoration work that the National Park Service puts in motion every year

5) We offer our camps facilities for schools and other non profit organizations.