We want to make sure that you have a great experience on the Inca Trail and Alternative Treks to Machupicchu, however it is also important that everyone involved in the operation of our treks is well treated and cared for and that the benefits brought by tourism are shared throughout the Peruvian communities. All of our porters, cooks and horseman have been issued with free sleeping bags, rain ponchos, backpacks and suitable shoes. All of our porters and horsemen sleep in a communal tent which has a waterproof floor and they have access to any first aid equipment if necessary. We have provided free life insurance to ALL of our Inca Trail porters and Alternative Treks to Machupicchu, horsemen and cooks. Obviously we hope that the insurance won’t be needed but it should provide our porters and families with peace of mind. We don’t consider any of these items to be luxuries or anything special, we consider them to be the absolute minimum requirements for treating our porters fairly and like human beings. We cannot promise you that our porters and horsemen are happy all of the time (they still have to work extremely hard for a living) but we can guarantee that our porters and horsemen are well treated, fairly paid (in accordance with the Porters Law and requirements set down by the Ministry of Work) and have warm dry accommodation and plenty of nutritious hot meals to eat. Of course many other trekking companies will tell you this, but there are less than a handful of companies that genuinely care for their porters.