As pioneers of community-based tourism both in the Choquechaca Valley near Cusco, and in select locations along the Great Inca Trail, we know a good community-based tourism program when we see one. Case in point Santiago de Okola, a dazzling gem on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

One of the highlights of our latest Great Inca Trail expedition through southern Peru and Bolivia was our visit to Santiago de Okola. Inspired by this visit, we caught up with Stephen Taranto of our Bolivian partner Sendas Altas to find out more about the project.

Section Type: standardWidthImageS

El Dragón Dormido seen in profile with its head resting by the lake. (Photo: Kevin Floerke)

In the beginning

Stephen first visited Santiago de Okola in 2008, while scouting locations for a winter course he was preparing for Arizona’s Prescott College entitled “Agro-Ecosystems of the Central Andes.” After “pitching up unannounced,” he discovered that Okola wasn’t just perfect for his college course – the community, which has been farming the same way for millennia, is a vital vestige of agrobiodiversity – but also that some of its members were keen to get involved in tourism.

From there the pieces of the puzzle quickly fell into place. Stephen (who had also been working on a grant from the Fundación PROINPA to see how tourism could be used to promote agrobiodiversity and conservation) added Okola to his shortlist at the same time that he and his business partner Tomas Sivila started talking about how they could use their local travel company to support the community’s interests in developing a community-based agro-tourism project.

Section Type: standardWidthImageS

Don Vicente from Santiago de Okola community (Lake Titicaca) and Valentin from Choquechaca Valley (Sacred Valley). (Photo: Kevin Floerke)

Okola was chosen among four potential communities for several reasons. Its convenient location was a major factor. As were its dramatic scenery, fascinating archeological sites, native vegetation, and indisputable agricultural heritage. What sealed the deal was the fact that the community itself had come up with the idea of catering to tourists. All of these ingredients have proved vital to the program’s eventual, albeit gradual, success.

Slow progress

Determined to do things right, Stephen and Tomas looked to other community tourism initiatives for inspiration and went to great efforts to make sure every single member of the community was given the opportunity to take part in the project. “We really tried to avoid creating tension within the community, but still it happened,” says Stephen, before adding that over time, many of the initial tensions have been resolved by the creation of an official community tourism association (the first such legal entity in Bolivia).

Section Type: standardWidthImageS

A member of Santiago de Okola's tourism association. (Photo: Kevin Floerke)

Other challenges included the fact that many community members were too busy (with farming, fishing, life) to invest hours of (often unpaid) work to the tourism association – especially in the early days when tourists were few and far between. Quality control is also an ongoing focus as part of the idea is that each homestay should be a bit different – but Sendas Altas also has to be able to guarantee a certain standard to its clients.

Section Type: standardWidthImageS

El Dragón Dormido and Lake Titikaka on the background. (Photo: Kevin Floerke)

Good things come to those who wait

While Stephen underestimated how hard it would be to get tourists to choose to visit Okola instead of established destinations like Copacabana and the Isla del Sol, in hindsight he credits some of the project’s success to the fact that it has grown slowly and organically. If tourism had been overly lucrative it could easily have usurped the very practices (farming, weaving, fishing) that it was designed to protect.

Eleven years and several grants later (in total Stephen has secured the project around $125,000 in grant money), not only has the village matured as a tourist destination, but its inhabitants have become adept hosts who are better attuned to the wants and needs of foreigners. Grants have been used to build a museum (filled by getting students from the local high school to ask local elders for donations, resulting in a fascinating collection of old ceramics, textiles, and farming and fishing implements) and a community center (80% done, pending another grant!). Grants have also assisted in developing project members’ skills in running workshops, guiding visitors up the Sleeping Dragon, and the basics of hygiene and housekeeping, improving the administration of the project and setting up the legal entity.

Tied with the grants have been academic research projects – six or seven in total – which have both deepened the community’s understanding of its past and burnished its tourism potential. While building the trail to the top of the Sleeping Dragon, Sergio Calla, an archeologist from La Paz, was brought on board to carry out an inventory of sites and advise on the least impactful places to establish the trail. His inventory, carried out with undergraduate students from a local university, discovered numerous ritual sites on the mountain, helping to establish Okola’s reputation as a spiritual destination among Bolivians (95% of Okola’s 3 000+ Facebook fans are local). This popularity among locals as well as foreigners, says Stephen, should ensure the project’s sustainability.

Section Type: standardWidthImageS

The view of the Inca road as it climbs to Sisasani. (Photo: Kevin Floerke)

Calla also identified traces of the Qhapaq Ñan (what we at SA Expeditions call the Great Inca Trail) and a couple of interesting structures including a tambo (Inca way station), and a big column that served as a distance marker/milestone in Inca times. Neolithic arrowheads – dating back ten-thousand years – have also been found in Okola.

What next?

Sendas Altas is confident that the project has reached a point where it is now sustainable. Stephen and Tomas have made a conscious decision “to step back but not let go” over the past two years and this has encouraged project members to take on increasing responsibilities for managing their association. “It’s a teeny tiny thing,” he says, “but we are proud of it and we know the community is as well.”

Credit to Kevin Floerke for all the images used in this blog.