The Agrotourism Project

I have two jobs in the Urubamba region. First, I am working with an American NGO called ProPeru on this project. Secondly, and to be dealt with in another post, I am working with a Peruvian charity called Arariwa on some website translation and also with their microfinance work.

The aim of the ProPeru project is to achieve a sustainable incentive for tourists to visit Chichubamba in order for the village to profit from large number of tourists passing through the Sacred Valley region.

The incentive for tourists to visit is the opportunity to experience 'the alternative Sacred Valley tour’. That is, the chance to go into locals’ homes, chat to them and their families, and at firsthand see not only how they earn a living but what their life is like. The project will be sustainable if the villagers are able to consistently attract custom and conduct tours independently of ProPeru.

Chichubamba is a rural village adjacent to Urubamba. The tour usually consists of 5 or 6 presentations by the individuals working within the cooperative group. The group consists of 13 families, out of an estimated 120 families in Chichubamba. Each presentation lasts around 20 minutes. Presentations cover how the product is made, some history behind the product or the materials and an opportunity to interact with the product, whether by taste or touch. Finally, there is usually the chance to buy the product. The tour is charged per house, with purchase of products separate from this. The Cooperativo should be in charge of collecting the money from the tourist group. However, there is some confusion with regard to this at present, mainly because lack of numbers has not required anything as formal as a centralised payment system.

The tour is of local businesses that already produce goods as part of their daily routine, often simply for local consumption, by locals. In line with the increasing awareness of the potential revenue from tourism in the Sacred Valley area, the tours aim to capture the growing demand for cultural or ‘immersion’ tourism. Currently, there are two main sources of custom:
i) Sacred Valley tour agencies, for which a day’s tour around Chichubamba and a night in one of the two hostels can form part of a standard Sacred Valley tour program.
ii) One-off visitors who have seen leaflets in Cusco.

After a couple of weeks getting to know the project and the politics within in the village (which are enough to occupy another full post), I have come up with 2 main aims for my time here:

i) Produce a laminated handout for each presentation in English and Spanish. This has two functions:
- acts as an aide-memoire for the presenter (there is currently a consistency problem)
- removes the need for a translator for each tour, thereby granting the villagers more independence from ProPeru.

ii) Streamline the financial side of the cooperative. This includes:
- reviewing their pricing structure, which is currently flawed. For example, it costs 8 nuevo soles (/s) to cook a meal for 1 tourist, for which the tourist pays 9 for the pleasure. Local restaurants might charge anything from 15 /s upwards for the same type of menu.
- establishing a community project for the cooperative to invest in. This is to capture the possibility of a project sponsor in the shape of Intrepid, an Australian travel company, who are keen to increase their involvement with the group. The sponsorship is conditional however on the project benefiting the community as a whole, rather than just the co-op. For, what appear to be reasons of selfishness, the group have dismissed this idea. Therefore, sitting down and proposing a budget for the year will be a useful exercise for them, so that they might see how much they could potentially earn. Hopefully, if Intrepid can be tied in, this will benefit everyone.

En el mercado

The little girl sat on the floor by the market stall. It sold sandals made from recycled car tyres. She licked her plastic dinosaur sticker. Smoothing it down on the ground in front of her, she admired its positioning. A smear of dirt sat shyly across her cheek. Something was not right. She picked up the sticker once more and sucked it pensively. Then she got up in the unsteady manner of toddlers of her age and stuck the dinosaur abruptly on the glass pane covering the neighbouring jewellery stall. She waddled off contentedly and tripped over herself.

Meanwhile, ants flowed down the right hand side of the pane, their trail marked out clearly as a solitary line in the dirt that otherwise formed a glaze over the presentation case.

Bienvenido a Urubamba

The nineteeth century traveller, E.G. Squier had this to say about Urubamba,

A joy to behold, with its groups of trees and greem, walled gardens... Although only 2500 feet lower than the Cuzco Basin, the Yucay [Urubamba] Valley, protected on all sides, enjoys a much more benign climate, similar to that of Nimes and other parts of the south of France.

Both healthy and fertile, easily accessible from the capital, and with a vegetation unrivalled in the Sierra, this sweet and tranquil valley, surrounded by some of the highest mountains of the Continent, quickly became the favourite place of recreation for the Incas. The soil is rich and the climate, in spite of the fact that the Valley is enclosed by high snow-capped mountains, is soft and agreeable. A more beautiful place than this does not exist in all of the Andes. [Cf. Cochineal Red, Hugh Thompson]


My own first impression of the area, on the drive from Cusco, is one of intense colour. It is wet season here and the predominant colour can best be described as Windermere green. Although people assure me that it hasn´t actually rained today, there are numerous drops in the air that could definitely constitute rain, so I'm left wondering what rain really means here. The contrast with the red mud that seems to be found anywhere that isn't green (including making up the walls of houses) is fantastic.

Yet, these colours, as suggested, can be seen on any drive through a pretty part of England. Colour is the most striking aspect because of the attire of the locals. Their photogenic nature is so apparent it borders on funny. Though it seems there is a well-established school system here, children don't start until 6. Thus, a common sight is a local old lady in vibrant traditional dress, shepherding a small child dressed in similar gear, including very cute hats with ear flaps and tassles.

The drive, and chat with my taxi driver, also highlighted my utter lack of farmyard knowledge. The realisation that you don't know the word for a sheep is crushing. I have yet to see an alpaca, but there are donkeys, sheep, pigs aplenty and I had an in-depth guinea pig chat with Eduardo (the taxi driver) on the way down. I challenged him that there was hardly enough meat on them, but he disagrees.

Breathing is the tiniest bit difficult. For comfort's sake, I had to stop a couple of times whilst carrying my pack through the airport. However, Urubamba is lower than Cusco by 400m or so and it feels fine here.


(The above post was written before being given a rickety bike by my host family and discovering just how unfit I was to do any kind of exercise in this environment.)