About Us

Our purpose

IN ADDITION to sustainable tourism, we believe passionately that travel with us will help you boosts your happiness and satisfaction with excitement at preserving memories that will last an eternity.

We also know that traveling changes everybody and you will come back to your home with a greater appreciation for life, and for people. That’s our contribution of how travel can change the world.

Our tours empower villagers and their families

To create a new program requires time, money and involve risk it’s a lot of work. Some of our tour itineraries take places in totally isolate places, where tourism doesn’t exist, help from governments doesn’t arrive, the only income they have is selling their products as coffee, banana and other jungle plantations to cover expenses for the month. They need to walk for long hours to arrive to a dirt road to catch a track that comes once a week if the truck is not broken. They transport they goods to sell in a bigger markets with one goal on mind, making 200 soles (U$60) to buy suppliers for a whole month for their families. Every time we run an off the beaten path tour, we use the help of the locals, they help us to build roads to access our destinations, to carry heavy loads from one place to other and we teach them to become cookers and guides etc.

Being in contact with the presidents of the many indigenous villagers, we know small but important things that we can contribute so this small but important income will improve their local schools, education and health important needs that are basic in the jungle.

Our goal for 2025

We are organizing new tours into the rivers of the amazon jungle where most of the land belongs to the Machiguenga’s villagers but this is not recognized by the government authorities. Our BIG GOAL IS TO protect these areas so they can be untouchable for whoever come to exploit them.

Our office personnel

Our co-founder

It was a hiking trip in the Andes of Cusco at the age of 11 years in the early 1980s that ignited me Boris Rojas’s passion for travel. On his return he was so keen to share his experiences and helped locals and tourist alike to hike in the mountains of the Sacred Valley.

I have more than 27 years of experience working in adventure tourism in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Africa and in Europe. I had opened new rivers for commercial rafting in Peru and in South Africa, and also done competitions and won national championships in Peru and has participated in 2 Euro rafting cups with the Danish rafting team.

In 2001, I opened my own adventure travel company. RIVER EXPLORERS provides clients with excellent service as we aim for nothing less than high customer satisfaction and SPECIALLY the safety. All our trips are tailored to meet the wishes and needs of every client.

Our office staffs

Erika Acuña Molle,

Our Dedicated operations Manager is Erika, born in Quillabamba an small town in the rain forest. She has a university degree in tourism and more than 7 years working in the adventure travel sector, she is the best person organizing travel packages around Peru, Cusco and Machu Picchu.

Ylda Tupayachi de Rojas

The Manager of RIVER EXPLORERS is Ilda Tupayachi, born in Cusco and passionate about local Peruvian culture. She speaks Quechua the original language of our ancestors. She loves organizing trips, speaking with our guides and passengers listening carefully to their needs. As a local she hikes the Andes and have contacted many villagers whom are now part of River Explorers family.

Our guides

We provide trained experienced guides, all highly professional, and our staff also are superb chefs and know and understand local lore and history better than anyone. All our staff are hired because they are pleasant, affable people who do their job well. It is important to them that, when your vacation with us is over, you can’t wait to came back again. All our guides are university graduate members of COLITUR (Peruvian Graduate Board of Tourism) and AGOTUR (Peruvian Guide Association of Tourism) and are certified in First Aid / CPR / Wilderness First Aid and as Wilderness First Responders.

River Guides

The best in Peru and among the best in the world, our rafting guides take full responsibility for the quality of the entire operation and continually deliver a unique, satisfying, safe rafting experience. Our guides are not experienced only on rivers in Peru, they also have worked on rivers around the world such as Futalefu, Zambezi, Norway, United States, Canada and others. They are certified in Swiftwater Rescue III, SOLO, first aid advance, and some of them are rafting instructors, who certify other guides around Peru.

Trekking guides

Our certified, knowledgeable and professional guides live and breathe the outdoor adventure life. Our guides are either members of the COLITUR (Peruvian Graduate Board of Tourism) or AGOTUR (Peruvian Guide Association of Tourism). They use their extensive trekking training to safely lead you on different adventures, and to pursue personal outdoor challenges. All our guides are locals and English are the primary language spoken on all of our tours.

• Cooks: Mostly our trekking tours required an experience cook who is in charge to make happy the hungry hikers on our hiking trails. These awesome people are locals and some of them from the small villages located in the Inca Trail and some others come from Andean villagers in the Sacred Valley. Our cooks are expert making delicious food and they work is described by our visitors as: “the best food I tried in Cusco, huahhhh this is even better than a restaurant, delicious meals, can you share the recipe etc. who keep satisfying every visitor and they are certified in hygiene and took cooking lessons.
• Porters: Our porters play a big role in our Inca Trail tours; these are extraordinary people who may possible to complete this amazing experience. Most of our porters are from the Inca trail villages. River Explorers work firmly according to the Porters’ Law providing them all the necessary gear and a well-deserved payment for their job.

Mountain biking guides

Our guides are awesome local people with the single purpose of delivering once-in-a-lifetime mountain bike experience. They are qualified to take you on the type of trails that you may choose and skilled on high-performance bikes and their mechanics. They are passionate about mountain biking, about respecting the environment and local population and about sharing the region’s cultural, historical and cuisine highlights. Most importantly, our guides adhere to Big Mountain’s protocol for rider safety and rider service.

Tour leaders

Our tour leaders are very professional, friendly and dedicated to providing tours that you will never forget. This is a list of the guides who work with RIVER EXPLORERS.

RIVER EXPLORERS Information

RIVER EXPLORERS E.I.R.L. is certified by the Peruvian Ministry of Tourism,the only institution that certifies tour operators in Peru.

For the Inca trail tour operators need a special permit granted by the Peruvian Government Department INC (National Institution of Culture), which is the official entity controlling the access to The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu. RIVER EXPLORERS E.I.R.L. is certified to run any Inca trails available in Peru.

Since 2008 rafting tour operators need to have special certifications to operate rafting tours on rivers around Peru.