Rio Futaleufu rafting vacation in Chile

Environment

In the office here, we only use recycled paper and envelopes, we recycle all cardboard, envelopes, waste paper and other recyclable materials i.e. milk cartons, and we all cycle to work, and have taken advantage of the cycle to work scheme. We print on the reverse side of paper we receive from suppliers to save paper, we only have two energy saving light bulbs in use in the winter (none in the lighter summer days) and always drink fair-trade tea and coffee.

We are environmentally-friendly in as many small ways as possible, eg in our indoor office we prefer emailing instead of letter-writing, recycling everything we are able to recycle, and to make up for anything we cannot recycle (because the recycleman won’t accept it), and for this trip we plant one tree for every client. On our trips we do not leave anything behind where we camp – all rubbish is carried out and dealt with at the end of the trip, same with human waste. We leave places like we found them, (sometimes even nicer than when we found them!) Let’s face it, rafting is an environmentally sound way to travel, the only energy needed to propel the boats forward is provided by the river and your arms!

Community

Since 2006 we have been supporting the Huchuy Yachaq community project in a marginalised neighbourhood of Cusco. We set up the web site for no cost and donated USD 3000 in 2006 & 2007, USD 5000 in 2008. We send volunteers. The money we raised has refurbished community building, installed toilets and washing facilities, pays for a volunteer teacher, school materials for 120 kids, a part time psychologist & vacation workshops. We contribute USD 1000 a year for school materials for the community where the porters we work with in Peru come from. We are members of IGTOA and LATA. Both support charitable projects in destination countries. IGTOA is active in conservation, preservation & promotion of responsible tourism, in Galapagos. LATA has a foundation to support tourism related projects in Latin America, promoting a responsible and sustainable tourist industry.

To support the local communities, we buy our produce from them along the way, sleep and eat in locally-run establishments where possible, and interact sensibly with tribes on the riverbanks as we believe in positive cultural exchanges so as not to change their lives – this means trade not aid. Our camp in Chile uses only local people to run it (apart from some of the guides) we use only solar and wind power to generate power for the lights at camp, and toilets are the New Zealand composting type.