Miguel Angel Gongora Meza
Evolution Treks Peru Founder & Director
Miguel Angel Gongora Meza
Evolution Treks Peru Founder & Director
Miguel is a native Peruvian and professional tour guide from Cusco with nearly 30 years of experience leading tours throughout Peru. Renowned for his extensive knowledge of the country’s rich cultural and ecological diversity, Miguel is dedicated to sharing the wonders of his homeland with visitors from around the world.
In 2003, Miguel was invited to lecture at Hampshire College in Massachusetts on the topic of cultural appropriation. He has continued to share his expertise internationally, including speaking engagements for Norway’s Outdoor Store Nomaden in 2017, the Johns Hopkins University–CENTRUM Virtual Peru Global Immersion 2024: Cultural Activity, and the Tuinen Star Tourism Superior Institute. He also appears as himself in The Last Tourist, the award-winning documentary on the impact of global tourism, alongside voices including Jane Goodall and Bruce Poon Tip.
A passionate advocate for ethical, sustainable, and regenerative tourism, as well as science-based practices, Miguel deeply values the positive role that thoughtful tourism can play in protecting sensitive cultures, peoples, and ecosystems. He dedicates his career to raising awareness among travelers, encouraging them to become responsible stewards of the places they visit.
Miguel is also the only former Peruvian porter on the Inca Trail to have trekked the world’s four premier hiking destinations: Everest Base Camp, K2 base Camp via Gondogora La Pass, Kilimanjaro, and the Inca Trail itself. Currently, he campaigns to raise awareness of the exploitation and mistreatment endemic to the trekking industry, particularly affecting porters and sherpas on iconic routes such as Kilimanjaro, the Inca Trail, Everest Base Camp, and the K2 Base Camp Trek.
In recent years, Miguel has also become a recognized voice on a different and increasingly urgent subject: the risks of AI-generated travel misinformation. After personally intercepting travelers following a completely fabricated AI-generated itinerary near Mollepata, he became a central source for BBC Travel’s investigation into the phenomenon — a story that was subsequently picked up by Futurism, Yahoo News, and outlets across multiple countries and languages. He returned to the same subject months later for Condé Nast Traveler, describing how he had separately overheard a group of anthropologists on the Inca Trail repeating entirely invented “local legends” they’d sourced from an AI chatbot.
His expert insights have been featured in renowned travel media outlets including:
- BBC Travel — “The women porters making history on Peru’s Inca Trail” (2021)
- BBC Travel — “An ethical guide to hiking the Inca Trail” (2025)
- BBC Travel — “The perils of letting AI plan your next trip” (2025)
- Condé Nast Traveler — “Dumbphones, Smart Glasses, and More Tech Trends That Are Shaping the Way We Travel”
- National Geographic — “On the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, Peru’s first women porters make history”
- National Geographic en Español — “Conozca a las primeras mujeres porteadoras de Perú” (2018)
- Lonely Planet — “Responsible trekking in Peru: What you should know about workers’ rights for porters”
- The Telegraph — “How to have the perfect holiday in Peru”
- Fodor’s Travel — on the Inca Trail closure announcement and its impact on trekkers and porters
- Fodor’s Travel — “Do You Have Any Idea How Rough the Conditions Are for These Travel Workers?”
- Resonate Travel — “Meet the Peruvian Porters Leading the Way to Workers’ Rights”
- WHYY’s Peak Travel podcast — “The Porters of Machu Picchu”
as well as many other major news platforms across English, Spanish, and Portuguese-language press.
Miguel and Evolution Treks Peru were also named a winner in the Travel & Hospitality Awards’ 2024/25 Americas program, recognizing the company’s porter welfare policies and gender equality initiatives.
Miguel is the co-founder of Evolution Treks Peru, a Cusco-based worker-owned travel company, reflecting his commitment to equity and sustainability in tourism.
