An Ex-Human Rights Lawyer's Uncomfortable Questions for Adventure Tourism

In this episode Mitch Bach sits down with Marinel de Jesus, a former human rights lawyer turned tour operator.

She is filled with questions about the adventure tour industry:

Why do porters on the famous, touristy Inca Trail in Peru carry crushing loads for little pay and even less dignity? Why is it so difficult to find women adventure guides in so many parts of the world? What do indigenous communities actually want from tourism—and why doesn't anyone bother to ask them?

These are just some of the uncomfortable questions and themes she's carried with her as she's lived and trekked around the world. Originally from the Philippines, she became a human rights lawyer in Washington D.C., spending 15 years prosecuting child protection and mental health cases. Then her mother passed away—and she never went back to the office. But Marinel didn't just start a tour company. She moved into indigenous communities. She lived with Quechua porters in Peru and learned the dark truths behind the picture-perfect Inca Trail. She spent nearly 300 days in Mongolia during Covid, co-creating a nomad camp that started with tea and a blank piece of paper—not a business plan. She walked 100 days across Nepal with Mingmar, a female guide she searched for over a year and a half to find, proving that women belong on the Great Himalaya Trail.

This discussion challenges everything we assume about adventure tourism—the colonial narratives baked into our itineraries, the voices we never hear, the scripts we impose on communities who know how to welcome guests far better than we do. She makes the case for showing up with no agenda, listening before designing, and building something that matters more than scale.

Marinel's organizations:

1. Equity Global Treks (Brown Gal Trekker)
2. The Porter Voice Collective
3. Her vision for Himalayan Women Trail Leaders
4. Her film KM82 on the Quechuan Porters of Peru
5. The Khusvegi English & Nomadic Culture Camp she helped start in Mongolia

More show notes and resources on tourpreneur.com