About Tina Expeditions
Empowering Women, Discovering the Heart of the Andes
Meet Tina
A Native Quechua Guide with a Mission
My name is Ernestina Valeriano (Tina), and I am a professional tour guide from Cusco and a native Quechua speaker. I have 16 years of experience working as a local guide, mountain guide, and tour leader throughout Peru and occasionally in other parts of South America.
At the beginning of my career, I faced many challenges as a woman in a male-dominated industry where machismo still persists. Those experiences shaped me professionally and inspired me to create my own travel agency, focused on empowering women and giving them opportunities to grow and succeed in tourism.
Through my company, I want to offer more than just a visit to Machu Picchu. I invite travelers to discover the true heart of Peru—its living culture, local communities, inspiring indigenous women artisans, traditional cuisine, and unique stays in family homes or historic colonial houses that still carry the spirit of our history.
Our Mission
Empowering Women in Tourism
TRAVELING WITH TINA is to generate a positive change in travel such as creating jobs for more women and benefiting local communities, going beyond the traditional tourist perspective, involving more local people and remote communities that really need support.
Our Vission
Leadership in group tourism
Become the number one benchmark in Peru and South America for large group travel, creating unforgettable experiences with premium standards, human warmth, and perfect logistics.
OUR JOURNEY
From Local Guide to Women-Led Agency
As a tour guide working with different travel agencies, I discovered that there are not many opportunities for women. Travel agencies often prefer to work with men rather than women, even though we, as women, have more patience and can handle situations with great care and intelligence.
When I first started working as a guide, I was the only woman in the group. Over time, this improved somewhat, but there are still travel agencies that have not yet incorporated women into their teams.
The True Heart of Peru
Travelling to Peru is not only visiting Machu Picchu, it is discovering the history of living and feeling touching our culture, visiting local communities and seeing there are still women who are dedicated not just to taking care or looking after the children, but also to making art with beautiful colourful hand-woven fabrics, embroidery, pottery and so on.
Coming to eat the food made by indigenous hands, you will meet inspiring women like me, like you, on each trip. It will be a very different experience from other conventional travel agencies. Why not stay in a family home, or rest in wonderful colonial houses that still smell like history? That is the true heart of Peru.
