Thoughts before travellling to the communities

I should write something now. I have lots on my mind; however, most importantly as always is food. You would think after two weeks of traveling to some top-notch ecotourism lodges, I would be more eager to share my experiences and my new thoughts on our community project. The truth of the matter is I am super overwhelmed, as is Lauren, my ecotourism partner. After staying in well-established and respected lodges and talking to experts in the field, we have concluded that our project is not on the right track to sustainable success. It’s true that the ecotourism partnership agreement between the communities and our nonprofit only has been so for over a year. But there are about a million things the project still lacks after a year of work.

Most importantly is established safety. Before coming to Peru, I knew that the region where the project is taking place was hard hit during the 1970s and 80s by the narco and guerilla wars staged by the Shining Path. Even though the Shining Path has been virtually eliminated, pockets of them exist throughout the region. That does not worry too much,(Still do NOT tell my mother) since their sporadic attacks are against Peruvian police authorities. What worries me is that this has not been discussed in greater detail in the project, especially as we try to bring more tourists to stay at the hostel. There is an expectation that adventurous tourists do not mind the overnight bus ride to Satipo, and then a 2 hour collectivo up the mountains to the cloud forest of our community. However, many Peruvians(taxi drivers, tour guides) we have spoken to about Satipo mentioned things like coca leaves, rural poverty, and the continuing drug trafficking in town. Ok things like that do not settle well with me. It is hard to assume that international travelers would still want to make the hike to the area without the guarantee of safety; luckily Lauren and I are traveling with the Lima-based project coordinator, so that makes me feel better.

Guaranteeing safety is just another item to put on our long checklist of items to complete within 6 weeks. Other items include establishing a clean water source, and safe, good food for tourists- things that we will need to find for ourselves once we are there. (**Hard for me to imagine as I am writing this from inside a Starbucks in the nicest neighborhood in Lima, while contemplating which restaurant to go to for lunch. FYI I think we are going to get chifa- Peruvian Chinese food***) Hmm the next 6 weeks are going to be the polar opposite of what we have been used to for the last two weeks- no more three course meals, no preplanned tours, and English speaking tourists. I am super excited! For real! I think… ugh not a good time to doubt myself. I, a big city girl, can handle taking on such a big project like this in two communities of a population of 102 in total. Si puedo.