Miguel is a native Peruvian and professional tour guide from Cusco with nearly 30 years of experience leading tours throughout Peru. Renowned for his extensive knowledge of the country’s rich cultural and ecological diversity, Miguel is dedicated to sharing the wonders of his homeland with visitors from around the world.
In 2003, Miguel was invited to lecture at Hampshire College in Massachusetts on the topic of cultural appropriation. He has continued to share his expertise internationally, including speaking engagements for Norway’s Outdoor Store Nomaden in 2017, the John Hopkins University–CENTRUM Virtual Peru Global Immersion 2024: Cultural Activity, and the Tuinen Star Tourism Superior Institute. He is also featured in the multi-award-winning film The Last Tourist, which explores the impact of sustainable travel.
A passionate advocate for ethical, sustainable, and regenerative tourism, as well as science-based practices, Miguel deeply values the positive role that thoughtful tourism can play in protecting sensitive cultures, peoples, and ecosystems. He dedicates his career to raising awareness among travelers, encouraging them to become responsible stewards of the places they visit.
Miguel is also the only former Peruvian porter on the Inca Trail to have trekked three of the world’s premier hiking destinations: Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, and the Inca Trail itself. Currently, he campaigns to raise awareness of the exploitation and mistreatment endemic to the trekking industry, particularly affecting porters and sherpas on iconic routes such as Kilimanjaro, the Inca Trail, Everest Base Camp, and the K2 Base Camp Trek.
His expert insights have been featured in renowned travel media outlets, including Lonely Planet, Fodor’s Travel, National Geographic, BBC Travel, and many other major news platforms.
Miguel is the co-founder of Evolution Treks Peru, a Cusco-based worker-owned travel company, reflecting his commitment to equity and sustainability in the tourism industry.
Company: Evolution Treks Peru
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Miguel Angel Gongora Meza: I was born in the mountains near Cusco, where the air is thin and the stories are older than the stones. My journey began as a porter on the Inca Trail, carrying loads that often reached 25 kilograms across rugged passes rising above 4,000 meters. That experience shaped my respect for the people who work behind the scenes of tourism. Over nearly three decades I have guided travelers through the Andes, the Amazon, and the desert coast, sharing the layers of history, biodiversity, and living traditions that make this country unlike any other. I have been invited to lecture on cultural appropriation at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, and later spoke at Johns Hopkins University during their Virtual Peru Global Immersion on cultural heritage. These opportunities allowed me to carry the voices of Andean communities far beyond the mountains.
I co-founded Evolution Treks Peru as a worker-owned company based in Cusco, built on the idea that those who carry the weight of the tourism industry should share in its rewards. Our team is made up of guides, cooks, and former porters who hold equal ownership and decision-making power. We operate trekking and cultural expeditions across Peru, from the Salkantay and Inca Trails to remote Andean villages that receive fewer than 50 visitors each year. We reinvest a fixed portion of our earnings, usually around 20 percent, into porter welfare programs, sustainable gear, and education for their families. This structure challenges the exploitative models that dominate high-altitude tourism, where porters often earn less than $15 per day while carrying loads that break their bodies.
Our work is rooted in protecting fragile ecosystems and honoring Indigenous knowledge. We cap group sizes at 12 to reduce environmental strain, and every expedition includes a cultural component led by local communities themselves, who are paid directly and fairly for their time. We measure our success not only in the 2,000 travelers we guide each year but in how many porters have been able to buy land, send their children to university, or transition into guiding careers. My commitment is to show visitors the richness of Peru while ensuring the people who make those journeys possible are treated with dignity and given the opportunity to thrive.
What was the initial spark that motivated you to take on an industry dominated by giants, and how did you identify a viable opportunity to compete?
Miguel Angel Gongora Meza: The spark came from the years I spent as a porter on the Inca Trail, carrying 25 kilograms of gear across passes that rise over 4,000 meters while watching companies charge tourists thousands of dollars yet pay porters less than $15 per day. I understood the trails intimately, but I saw how little dignity the workers received despite being the backbone of the industry. That contrast stayed with me through every expedition I guided, and I knew I could not keep contributing to a system that treated the people of the Andes as expendable.
I co-founded Evolution Treks Peru with the belief that porters, guides, and cooks could share ownership and decision-making power instead of being treated as temporary labor. We structured the company as a worker-owned collective where profits are distributed among the team and where 20 percent of earnings are reinvested into education, sustainable equipment, and porter welfare programs. This allowed us to compete with companies far larger than us because travelers began to understand that their money was reaching the people who carried them through the mountains.
What made the opportunity viable was the strength of our community ties. Many of our team members come from remote villages where tourism income can change the course of an entire family. As word spread, our small groups of 12 filled quickly, and within three years we were guiding over 2,000 travelers annually while maintaining fair pay, safe working conditions, and environmental protections. It proved that a company rooted in equity could stand shoulder to shoulder with the giants while protecting the land and culture that gave birth to this work.
Can you describe the most critical strategy or innovation you implemented to differentiate your business from the industry leaders and gain traction?
Miguel Angel Gongora Meza: When I co-founded Evolution Treks Peru, the strategy that set us apart was turning the traditional hierarchy of trekking companies upside down and giving ownership to the very people who carry the industry on their backs. Porters, cooks, and guides became shareholders, not seasonal labor. Every expedition we run contributes a fixed 20 percent of profits into a shared fund that pays for their education, high-altitude medical care, proper gear, and retirement savings. This model shifted the economic balance from a top-down structure into a shared system where every person involved in the work gains direct benefits from the success of the company.
We created strict welfare standards that went far beyond industry norms. Every porter carries a maximum of 20 kilograms, earns more than double the legal minimum wage in Peru, and receives health insurance and paid leave. These policies were not common on the Inca Trail, where most workers were treated as disposable. Within three years, our retention rate reached over 90 percent, which gave our expeditions continuity and depth of knowledge that competitors struggled to match.
This structure became our identity and our marketing without needing to spend heavily on advertising. Travelers who joined us understood exactly where their money was going, and many returned or referred friends, which grew our bookings from under 300 clients in our first year to more than 2,000 annually. Competing against companies with far larger budgets required more than matching their services. It meant building a system rooted in fairness so powerful that it drew travelers who wanted their journey to uplift the very people who made it possible.
How did you handle the resource disparities such as funding or market access when going up against much larger competitors?
Miguel Angel Gongora Meza: When I started Evolution Treks Peru, we had almost no capital and no access to the marketing networks that large tour operators controlled. What we had was a collective of experienced porters and guides who were tired of seeing their work undervalued. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on advertising, we put our energy into building an ownership model that gave every worker a share of the profits. Each expedition contributed 20 percent of its earnings to a communal fund for education, gear, and healthcare. This created loyalty inside our team and trust among travelers, which became more powerful than any paid campaign.
We relied on transparency as our form of currency. Every traveler who booked with us could see exactly how much of their payment reached the people carrying their gear, cooking their meals, and guiding them across the Andes. While larger companies were spending $50,000 or more each year on international trade shows, we invested under $3,000 annually in community-based storytelling and direct referrals from past travelers. That decision allowed us to stay independent from corporate distributors and still grow from fewer than 300 clients in our first year to more than 2,000 annually.
We handled the lack of market access by making our guides and porters our ambassadors. Many of them speak Quechua, Spanish, and English, and their stories about their lives in the highlands became the strongest bridge between our company and the world. They spoke directly with journalists, NGOs, and universities, which gave our collective global visibility without the gatekeepers of traditional marketing channels. This gave us reach without the financial burden and helped us compete with companies that had ten times our budget.
What was the biggest setback or direct confrontation with an industry giant, and how did you turn it into a turning point for your success?
Miguel Angel Gongora Meza: Early in the life of Evolution Treks Peru, a major international operator tried to block us from accessing prime campsites on the Inca Trail. They controlled large volumes of permits and used their influence to push small companies like ours to the edges of the schedule, assigning us only the least desirable slots. Our groups were being forced to start the trail at 2 a.m. to reach campsites before dark, while their groups had the best slots reserved. It exhausted our team and created safety risks on high passes above 4,000 meters. Losing those permits would have meant losing our income entirely, so it was a direct attempt to push us out.
We responded by uniting our entire team of porters, guides, and cooks into a formal workers’ cooperative. Each member became an owner, which gave us legal grounds to negotiate as a single block. We presented the Ministry of Culture with a petition signed by more than 80 licensed guides, showing how the permit allocation system favored companies that paid their porters less than $15 per day while we were paying more than double that amount. It took five months of meetings, paperwork, and public pressure, but the ministry eventually introduced a rotational system that distributed permits more evenly.
The moment we gained equal access to those campsites, our business transformed. Our bookings tripled in the following season, jumping from under 300 travelers per year to over 900, because travelers could now enjoy the best sections of the trail with a company that treated its workers as owners. What had begun as an attempt to erase us became the reason we were able to prove that fair treatment and top-tier experiences could thrive side by side.
What’s one mindset or principle that kept you grounded while taking on industry titans, and how can other founders adopt it to compete?
Miguel Angel Gongora Meza: What kept me grounded was remembering that my duty was to the people walking beside me, not the companies standing above me. When I carried 25 kilograms as a porter on the Inca Trail, I saw how invisible we were to the industry that profited from our labor. Years later, while building Evolution Treks Peru, I measured every decision against a simple question: would it bring dignity and security to the people who make these journeys possible. That principle gave me clarity when competitors tried to undercut our prices or dominate our routes. I refused to reduce wages or overload porters just to win more clients, even when it meant slower growth.
Holding to that value created trust inside our collective. Every porter, cook, and guide knew they would be paid fairly, receive quality gear, and have a voice in decisions. It cost more upfront, but it built a team that stayed together season after season. Today more than 90 percent of our staff return each year, which gives travelers a depth of cultural knowledge that money cannot buy. That stability became our strength and helped us grow from under 300 travelers to over 2,000 annually without sacrificing our ethics.
Founders who want to compete against larger rivals can do it by grounding their company in something immovable. For me it was human dignity, but for others it can be any principle that they refuse to compromise, no matter the pressure. Large competitors can outspend you on marketing, but they cannot replicate the power of a team united by purpose. When your people believe deeply in the mission, they will carry it further than any budget can.
