OVERVIEW
Every member of the Inca Jungle team was selected for a specific reason. Our guides for their knowledge, their communication skills, and their ability to manage a group of twelve people across four days of variable conditions without losing either their calm or their sense of humor. Our support staff for their reliability, their physical capability, and their commitment to the standards we maintain at every stop on the route. Our operations team for their organizational precision and their understanding that a missed detail in the office becomes a problem on the trail.
What connects all of them is a genuine connection to this landscape. Most of our guides grew up in Cusco or in the communities of the Sacred Valley. Most of our support staff come from the towns along the route. When they explain something about the cloud forest or the Urubamba River or the agricultural systems visible from the trail, they are not reciting information they memorized during training. They are sharing knowledge that was passed to them by the communities and landscapes they belong to.
- OUR GUIDES
All Inca Jungle guides hold certification from AGOTUR, the Regional Association of Tourist Guides of Cusco, which is the official government body responsible for guide licensing in the Cusco region. Certification requires completion of a formal training program, examination in history, ecology, first aid, and guiding practice, and demonstrated proficiency in at least one foreign language.
Beyond the minimum certification requirements, our guides complete an internal training program specific to the Inca Jungle route that covers the ecology of the cloud forest, the history and culture of the communities along the route, wilderness first aid including altitude sickness recognition and management, bicycle and equipment safety inspection, and river safety for the rafting section.
Our guides are bilingual in Spanish and English as a minimum. Several members of our team also speak French, German, Portuguese, or Italian, and we do our best to match language capabilities to group composition when booking allows.
Every guide on our team has completed the full Inca Jungle route as a participant before leading their first group. This is not negotiable. We do not send anyone to lead a trek they have not personally experienced as a traveler.
- OUR SUPPORT TEAM
The support team that operates on each departure consists of a driver and vehicle for all transportation throughout the tour, a bicycle mechanic present on Day 1 who rides with the group and manages any equipment issues on the descent, a rafting guide certified in swift water rescue for the Day 2 river section, and a cook who prepares meals at accommodation points along the route on tours that include cooking services.
The support team operates largely invisibly from the traveler’s perspective, which is exactly the intention. When the bikes are in perfect condition at the top of the descent, when the rafting equipment is laid out and fitted correctly before anyone steps near the water, when dinner is ready at the accommodation before the group arrives tired from the trail, it is because the support team has been working ahead of the visible action throughout the day.
- OUR OPERATIONS TEAM
The operations team based in our Cusco office manages bookings, passport documentation for Machu Picchu ticket purchases, accommodation reservations, equipment logistics, guide scheduling, and client communication from the moment of first inquiry through to the return to Cusco on the final day. They are available by phone, email, and WhatsApp and respond to inquiries within a few hours during business hours and within 24 hours at all other times.
If you have a question before your trek, a concern during it, or feedback after it, the operations team is your point of contact. They know the route, they know the team on the ground, and they have the authority to solve problems rather than just log them.
