Linking Culture and the Environment

170 Community Perspectives in Sustainable Tourism
Chiquian, too, has had its tourism champions although some interviewees
feel that their motives were not entirely altruistic. Roberto Aldave, considered
by many respondents and interviewees to have put Chiquian on the
map for its excellent opportunities in adventure tourism, was personally
involved in early documentary film-making of the Cordillera Huayhuash in
the 1970s. He also initiated the regionally important festival ‘Ecoventura’
(Eco-Adventure) in May 1994. Ecoventura essentially reopened the
Huayhuash to trekkers and climbers after years of terrorism activity had virtually
decimated the local tourism industry. For Aldave, it was an ideal venue
to promote the area for outdoor activities such as trekking, climbing, horseback
riding and mountain biking:
[Ecoventura] was an incentive for bringing visitors to Chiquian. The City of
Huaraz has always had attention, like their Alpine Week . . . so we had to
compete with them. [Ecoventura] was formed for cultural, adventure and
ecotourism motives. . . . We wanted to promote Chiquian so that money
would be invested in it.
Chiquian and nearby communities were also given the opportunity to show
their unique customs, historical sites and other tourism possibilities. Although
the original Ecoventura enjoyed some degree of success both locally and
nationally, a bitter dispute in 1996 between the Ecoventura founder and the
new Chiquian Municipal Council resulted in a takeover of festival management
by the municipality.
Many respondents assert that tourism efforts in Chiquian favour those
already involved in the local industry, such as established guides with
connections to non-local agencies. In the late 1990s, some Chiquian residents
working in the nature-adventure industry attempted to organize themselves.
In 1997, local guides, porters and donkey drivers joined together with the
Municipality of Chiquian and the newly created Tourism Commission to
form The Cordillera Huayhuash Mountain Climbing Provincial Association.
Still, the association was established not only to ‘improve tourism service
quality’, but to lend support to non-tourism initiatives as well. One interviewee
notes that perhaps the local government thought its scope would be
too limiting with tourism as the sole objective. Many feel that travel agencies
from Huaraz, Lima and Europe have overly controlled local tourism development.
Some state that Chiquian residents with experience in trekking and
climbing are often bypassed in favour of those from nearby mountain
communities.
Solidarity and support
The two communities differ substantially in their respective level and
intensity of community solidarity of support for the local tourism industry.
Taquile islanders have historically and even passionately defended their
rights in a collective fashion. An example of their solidarity occurred during
a 1990 fight on the Puno docks when travel agencies tried to wrest control