Tourism work is still thin on the ground here. The women in his community would like to do more with artesanía — traditional handicrafts — but there's no real market yet to sell it into. The handful of people already working in tourism are locals, at least, in a region many young people are otherwise leaving for lack of jobs and agricultural support from the government.
Dollarization has made everything more expensive over the past several years. Combined with inflation and population growth, land and housing prices have climbed steadily. His community manages by living as cheaply as it can — avoiding luxury purchases, taking on extra jobs where needed.
The tourists who do pass through tend to buy imported goods over local ones, artesanía and food being the main exceptions, since there simply isn't much else locally made to offer them. In the city, traffic and noise have grown noticeably since tourism arrived; the village itself remains quiet. The government is currently improving roads, electricity, telephone lines and water — work aimed, he notes, at the still-modest trickle of tourists who visit.
It is important that local people participate in decision making regarding tourism, like the indigenous women's organization does.
What he'd like to see is real investment — in product quality, in training, in support for developing local attractions — channelled through local government rather than left to chance. He's wary of large tour operators gaining a monopoly here, since that would squeeze out the very people tourism is supposed to benefit. Better information for visitors about what the area actually offers would help too.
“We should take care,” he says, “not to lose our cultural norms and values along the way.”