If you’ve been pioneering adventure tourism across the Peruvian Andes for half a century, you’ve earned the right to throw a bash. But when you’re Explorandes—famed for their boots-on-trail grit, carbon-conscious ethos, and deep reverence for Pachamama—there’s only one way to celebrate your 50th birthday: with a pilgrimage. A proper one. Mountains, messmates, and meaningful moments under a sky so clear it feels like a benediction.

Founded in 1975 by Alfredo Ferreyros—part adventurer, part philosopher, part accidental tourism icon—Explorandes has spent five decades doing what most companies only pretend to do: walking the talk. Or, more accurately, hiking the sacred paths, breathing the thin air of high passes, and championing sustainability long before it was fashionable.

To mark their golden jubilee, the team kicked off a multi-day carbon-neutral FAM trip earlier this April, beginning with a hop from Lima to Huaraz. There, altitude met attitude as a hand-picked crew of industry folk and media types laced up their boots and headed for the wilds of the Cordillera Huayhuash and the Great Inca Trail.

“We wanted to begin our 50th year with some of our closest friends in the industry,” said Martín Romero, Explorandes’ general manager and partner, while hoisting a biodegradable coffee cup at 4,000 metres above sea level. “And what better way to do that than by walking through the landscapes we’ve spent decades protecting?”

And walk they did—through ghostly glacial valleys, ridgelines where condors cast shadows, and beside ruins older than reason. There were campfires, cracked jokes, a blister, and one or two questionable attempts at playing panpipes. But that hushed, reverent silence mostly descends when humans remember they are guests in a much older story.

The Explorandes FAM group is travelling along the Great Inca Trail.

The trek ended, fittingly, in Peru’s Sacred Valley, where Explorandes pulled out the ceremonial stops. Guests gathered against the backdrop of golden light and Andean silhouettes for a traditional Pago a la Tierra (payment to the earth) ritual. Think of it as the ultimate thank-you note to Mother Nature—written in smoke, song, and sincerity.

A rollicking knees-up followed, complete with music, storytelling, and a heartfelt awards ceremony recognising the company’s key allies across five decades. “It’s been an extraordinary journey,” said Ferreyros, reflecting on a career that began not in tourism, but with plans to start a printing press—only to be lured, gloriously and irreversibly, into the world of adventure.

Today, Explorandes remains one of Peru’s most trusted and awarded tour operators. It is known for blazing the Great Inca Trail well before it appeared in glossy travel brochures and for keeping its commitment to sustainability as solid as a granite outcrop in Huascarán National Park. The company holds B Corp certification, favours local guides, and has long prioritised partnerships that benefit Indigenous communities.

Fifty years in, and the firm isn’t slowing. If anything, it’s just hit its second wind.

Because in the Andes, as every hiker learns, the most challenging climbs often lead to the best views. And Explorandes? They’ve earned the view.

For more about Explorandes and their half-century of sustainable travel, visit www.explorandes.com.

By Anne Keam

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