Michelle Scavone

Perusing the guardian travel blogs a little while ago, I found another post of interest. ‘Is it OK to visit Machu Picchu?‘ Rory Carrol asks?

The article basically goes over the environmental impact travellers are continuously having on the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu - but (for me) offers no real contention or hope for the future of the trail or the ruins.

So, I felt compelled to post the below comment - to which nobody has yet replied:

This issue is quite ironic in the sense that all the recent publicity about Machu Picchu’s overcrowding is encouraging more people to go there and see it while they still can - inadvertently contributing to the overcrowding perhaps.

I hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in June 2005 and booked a couple of months in advance to secure a place. However, while MP was one of the pulling powers that brought me to Peru, it isn’t the only attraction worthy of a mention.

On that note, if travel writers are genuinely concerned about the environmental impact of tourist footprints along the trail and at MP, but still acknowledge that Peru’s burgeoning tourism industry shows no signs of slowing down, they might do well to place a positive spin on this issue by highlighting alternative tourist attractions and encouraging readers to visit them, rather than putting people off Peru altogether: the Nazca Lines, the Peruvian Amazon, Lake Titicaca, Colca Canyon, Pisac & the Ballestas Islands, the northern beaches like Mancora…and these are just the popular ones. There are also plenty of other less-popular but equally enticing Inca trails and citadels like the Lares Trek, Salcantay and Choquequirao. The issue isn’t simply ‘go or don’t go’.

As for people visiting Peru ‘for the sake of it’ - travelling in Latin America isn’t like taking the bus from East to West London - it takes a lot of money and effort to get there. And it is well worth it.

The final sentence is in reference to an earlier commenter, who said something along the lines of: ‘I suspect half the appeal of Machu Pichu is saying one’s been there…There are dozens of more local world heritage sites to visit, but oh, maybe they’re just not as much fun to boast about? Of course it’s not OK to get on a plane to visit Machu Pichu, let alone the impact of what happens once you’re there.’

That is another argument for another day, but as an aside, I really dislike that sort of reverse-snobbery purported by supposed ‘hard core’ travellers who look down on other travellers if they carry a suitcase not a backpack, if they stay in hotels and not hostels, and if they visit places ‘for the sake of it’. Actually, who even cares what the motives of other travellers are? We all have our own reasons and we shouldn’t have to justify them (unless we are asked by immigration, lol). If we want to go somewhere, we bloody-well can! Provided, of course, that we are not damaging the environment, doing anything illegal, etc.