As you may have seen or heard in the New York Times and on CNN, the Peruvian military is battling a resurrected Shining Path insurgency, which thrived in the 1980s & early 90s. Recent reports have the Shining Path associated with drug trafficking and violence in Peru today.

Narcoterrorism and tourism: The Shining Path in Peru

We feel that it’s important to clarify some of this and how it affects travel in Peru. Since we are based in Lima, Peru, we are acutely aware that the Peruvian military’s number one priority is to stamp out guerrilla activity in rural Peru, and has been doing so since August 2008. So far the violence has been contained to the most remote Andean and Amazonian regions of Peru, to be more precise the name of the provinces are Huanta, La Mar and Tayacaja (areas that never receive tourism). For us in Lima and Cuzco, business continues uninterrupted. To give you a better picture here’s a map of Peru so you can see where the isolated violence is located:

In terms of Aracari clients in Peru or those with future travel plans that include Peru, we want to assure you that services in the tourist areas are being rendered without any problem. We encourage you to continue to visit Peru, and of course we will continue to monitor the situation since our clients comfort and safety is our priority.