Guides, Instructors, Facilities | Chasqui Treks Vermont

Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

Superlative Guides, Instructors, and Facilities

Peter Shear is a proud son of Royalton, Vermont, the owner of the world-renowned Chasqui Treks ecotourism company in Ecuador, a lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Vermont, and the founder of CASA-Interamericana, a non-profit dedicated to ecosystem regeneration, environmental education, ecological justice, and sustainable agriculture in Ecuador. Shear has over 30 years of trekking and guiding experience in the USA and the wildest areas and highest peaks of the Andes.

Amy Todisco, Hartshorn Organic Farm: Our guide for an authentic, customized, hands-on, food and farm tour experience on a real working farm in the Mad River Valley: education nirvana for foodies, health seekers, conscious consumers, and farm lovers.

Balance Yoga and Community Wellness Center: Elevating your experience, their expert instructors provide invigorating morning sessions, meticulously designed to awaken and prime your body, ensuring you move with ease and fully savor every spectacular hike. As a further indulgence, each hiker receives one scheduled full-body massage, perfecting your post-adventure rejuvenation.

SAVU Sauna at Madbush Falls offers a unique and luxurious sauna experience nestled in the beautiful Vermont countryside. The sauna itself is modern and stylish, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering stunning views of the surrounding landscape. Guests can enjoy the warmth of the sauna followed by a refreshing plunge into the adjacent mountain stream or a dip in the provided cold plunge pool. A perfect place to relax, rejuvenate, and connect with nature.

Madbush Falls is the Mad River Valley’s premier lodging choice for the sweet spot between affability, modernity, and rustic comfort.

From Vermont, to Ecuador...and back again:
The Chasqui Treks Story

Passion. Adventure. Solidarity. Honesty.

These are the cornerstones on which Chasqui Treks is built. They are what make us the best botique, customizable, tour operator in Ecuador --and now that my kids are grown up-- we are bringing these tenets back to Vermont to offer the best custom-designed Hiking, Wellness, and Foodie Tour the Green Mountain State has ever seen!

I have been working, living, farming, guiding, teaching, and raising my children in Ecuador since 2000 and the unbelievable beauty and diversity of my adopted country never ceases to amaze me.

Ecuador has seen a huge increase in tourism since 2000. But, like with any business, there are winners and losers. Too often, local communities, people, and ecosystems are the losers in the tourism game, with tour operators reaping profits while locals fight for the scraps of what should be sustainable, inclusive economic growth.

Chasqui Treks is different.

We work actively to foment true community tourism, helping locals take ownership of tourism programs. We can talk about ecotourism all day, but until the people who actually live in the pristine natural areas that attract tourists see concrete benefits, true ecological conservation will never happen.

Chasqui Treks donates 10% of all post-tax profit to CASA Interamericana, a small foundation working with communities in Ecuador to develop sustainable living alternatives and economic development projects: the establishment of a Spanish School and Community Tourism program, basic infrastructure for rural areas like bridges and constructed wetland sewage treatment systems, environmental and art education in schools, the promotion of sustainable agriculture techniques, subsidies for school transportation, and much more.

We train and hire local, native guides, drivers, cooks, lecturers, naturalists, and ecologists (and pay them the highest wages, by far, in the world of tourism in Ecuador).

We also recognize that there is an ecological cost to bringing tourists to Ecuador. That is why every single Chasqui Treks program and trip is carbon offset through the reforestation of native tree species. We work directly with Canopy Co, a local reforestation program. Chasqui Treks is the only tour operator in Ecuador that can claim to be 100% carbon neutral.

Chasqui Treks offers the best adventure and service itineraries in Ecuador, at a fair price, with a true commitment to conservation, cultural respect, and economic ethics.

Many clients have asked me how we offer better tourism programs for so much less. The answer is simple: We aren´t in it for the money! We simply love what we do, the people we work with, and the incredibly biodiverse part of the world known as Ecuador.

Now we are bringing this love back to Vermont!

We invite you to become part of our extended family of friends, neighbors, and world citizens dedicated to a sustainable future on this planet.

Yours,

Peter Shear

Owner/Founder

Chasqui Treks