The Chocolatada is an eagerly anticipated annual event and longstanding Peruvian Christmas tradition. Every December, local organizations, companies, and municipal governments give out sweet bread (usually panetón), toys, and enormous pots of hot chocolate to Peru’s rural and disadvantaged communities.

Perhaps most excited for the annual holiday event are the children from these communities. Many come from miles away to receive their fruit cake-like slices of panetón, steaming cups of hot chocolate, and Christmas presents.  

The event brings hope to these rural communities and lets them know that they are not forgotten. In other words, the Chocolatada delivers the true meaning of Christmas – joy, love and sharing Christmas cheers to communities in Peru.

For nearly a decade now, Kuoda has been hosting a Chocolatada for the weaving community of Umasbamba, a place we pour our hearts and resources into on a year-round basis. If you have traveled with us on a private Peru tour, there’s a good chance you visited Umasbamba’s Andean Children’s Learning Center or attended a weaving workshop with the village’s talented weavers.

The Chocolatada is our chance to give back and celebrate the community that continues to open their doors so generously to our travelers throughout the year. Their unique traditions and way of life need to be celebrated, supported, and maintained. Our truckload of toys, panetón, and an 80-liter pot of homemade hot chocolate is our way of showing them just how much they mean to all of us at Kuoda.

This past Saturday, we hosted our annual Chocolotada in Umasbamba. Games were played, gifts were given, and plenty of panetón and hot chocolate were consumed by all. It was a Chocolatada to remember and one that left us already eagerly anticipating next year’s event.

For more information about Kuoda Travel’s philanthropy projects, please visit kuodafoundation.org and get in touch with your Kuoda Travel Designer today to include meaningful travel experiences like this one in your custom Peru itinerary.

Perhaps another perk to Peru travel is the ten-year ban on GMO crops and foods. Beginning in 2012, the ban was put into effect to prohibit the import, production and use of genetically modified organisms in Peru. The law provides for a fine in the millions of nuevos soles (Peru’s national currency) and the seizure and destruction of the genetically modified product. The law’s purpose is to protect Peru’s famed biodiversity and to support local farmers, who are often growing crops from heirloom seeds and using agricultural methods that rely on diversity to grow crops. Thanks to this ban, you’ll have the chance to see this incredible diversity of Peruvian food products in the markets and on your plate throughout your private tour of Peru.

A Background in GMO’s and Peru

Many of us are already familiar with the controversy regarding GMO’s, or genetically modified organisms. For those who are not, a GMO is an organism whose DNA is altered to contain one or more genes not normally found there. Most often, the genome is altered to increase production, resistance to diseases or pests, or nutritional value of the resulting edible vegetable or fruit.

However, when a GMO organism, such as Monsanto’s BT corn seed, is introduced into a country with as many heirloom varieties of seed as Peru, the result can be the loss of the original variety as the GMO organism will cross-pollinate with the first organism, resulting in a vegetable that no longer retains the hardiness, nor the reproductive characteristics, of the native variety. If GMO organisms were to be permitted in Peru, for example, the giant heirloom corn variety, known as Yuracklallhua, the Giant Cusco corn*, could quickly be eliminated as it crossed with GMO corn.

*Ask your Kuoda Travel Designer about including a visit to Hacienda Sarapampa to learn about Giant White Corn, an important product of the local Sacred Valley economy.

Protecting Peru’s Biodiversity from the Unknown Risks of GMO’s

Alejandro Argumedo of the ANDES Association in Cusco notes that Peru is one of the world’s ten most bio-diverse nations, and as such, it needs to be protected from organisms that could get into the seed pool and alter that fact. He says that rather than looking to GMO organisms to solve problems of diseases and pests, Peruvian farmers should use other techniques, such as growing a diversity of crops. He notes that, “Once there is contamination, there is no going back.”

Antonietta Gutierrez, a biologist at the National Agrarian University, states that the law is not “against anything. It’s a law in favor of biosecurity. The idea is that there should be a responsible way of using technology, so that it helps us develop resources and at the same time, doesn’t destroy what we already have.”

Peruvian scientists have agreed that the safety of GMO organisms is still unknown and that studies to determine the risks of growing and consuming these crops are still in their early stages. They hope that there will be advances in understanding before the end of the ten-year moratorium that will help Peru determine how to go forward. Peru is the first country in the Americas to ban the import and production of genetically modified foods.

Experience Peru’s Biodiversity on Your Peru Holiday

For now, Cusco Giant Corn, purple potatoes, and other crops that have a lineage dating back thousands of years can still be found at the many outdoor markets in and around Cusco and other regions of the amazingly bio-diverse country of Peru. See Peru’s incredible biodiversity for yourself on a customized Peru vacation with Kuoda Travel.

Contact a Kuoda Travel Designer today to start planning.

We are happy to announce that Kuoda Travel was recently selected as a Stride Preferred Operator on leading tour and reviews marketplace, Stride Travel. Stride is the largest reviews site for tours and adventure trips with reviews on itineraries and tour operators.

The selection of Kuoda Travel as a Stride Preferred operator supports our rigorous industry standards for quality, professionalism, customer service, and responsible travel.

Kuoda Travel is now among an elite group of worldwide tour operators who have received this distinction from Stride Travel. We are always looking for unique ways to bring Kuoda Travel’s amazing collection of tours to more people, while ensuring that our customers can rely on the top notch customer service they expect from Kuoda Travel.

Our collaboration with Stride means that in addition to the Kuoda Travel website, inspiring tours such as Signature Peru & Beyond, Discover Southern Peru and Peru Adventure Tour are now searchable and reviewable on Stride. It is easier than ever to find great travel experiences in Peru. This transparency ensures our clients will book their next Kuoda Travel tour, knowing they found the perfect trip for their travel style.

Interested in learning more about a custom luxury Peru tour? Contact the Peru travel experts at Kuoda Travel.

Thanksgiving has officially arrived and it has us reflecting on all of the good we have to be grateful for this past year. For us here at Kuoda Travel, Thanksgiving is all about the incredible families we’ve served and new friendships made in the process of creating a custom luxury tour to Peru for each client. Yes, we are a Cusco-based company, and maybe Thanksgiving is just another day on the calendar here, but for us, just having the opportunity in getting to know so many amazing families, couples, and individuals and their stories is a dream come true. After many months of trip planning and then watching that personalized dream Peru vacation unfold right before our eyes, we feel like honorary Americans ourselves about to dig into our very own Thanksgiving feast with family and friends.

On a first note, we would like to take this opportunity in personally thanking all of you who have trusted Kuoda Travel with your once-in-a-lifetime travel experience in Peru this past year. It’s truly been an honor for us to serve you and share this beautiful country with you. It fills our hearts with joy to know that we’ve contributed to something you and yours will cherish for the rest of your lives. So, thank you for giving us the pleasure of your business. We hope to craft many more memorable custom South American vacations for you in the future whether that’s here in Peru or in the other amazing nearby countries we offer.

Although Thanksgiving is an American national holiday, it’s a celebration that feels strangely familiar to us. It’s probably because many of its values and traditions are things we cherish daily here at Kuoda Travel. Our highest goal is to create enriching travel experiences that bring people together for a time of laughter, joy, and good times, where the day-to-day stresses and routines of life fall away and are replaced by moments that become the stuff of memories, treasures in the mind for years to come. We create this for guests by getting to know them on a deeper more personal level. They become like family to us by the time they arrive to our beloved Peru to embark on their memory-making adventure. Thanksgiving and what this day means at its very core is who we are and how we operate. Overall, we are grateful for many things but, most of all, we are grateful for the relationships with have built over the last almost 14 years.

We’re aware of the current difference of interest that have come to light over the last year in U.S. but the genuine beauty of this day falling when it does is the opportunity it provides to bring everyone back together, even just for one day of voluntary amnesia, where politics and self-interest fall to the wayside. We wish you nothing but joyous moments with loved ones and all of the sweet memories sure to follow. Because, after all, family and the good times you share together are what matter in life. Thanksgiving has a funny way of bringing what’s really important to the surface.

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving! We look forward to sharing this Thanksgiving and the ones to come with guests we have the good fortune of crossing paths with, past, present, and future.