Cristian Vera
Cristian (Cris) Vera was born and grew up in the colonial city of Cusco, Peru. He was the youngest of three brothers and a sister. He has been married for five years. Cristian studied archaeology at San Antonio Abad University for five years. He participated in official archaeological digs in the region of Cusco including Wata, Laqo – Sacsayhuaman, Pikillaqta and Tumibamba, as a trainee in the field. He has also volunteered in several other archaeological-related projects in Cusco.
He studied tourism at I.S.T.P. Antonio Lorena school in Cusco for three years, and furthered his training in the United States studying the tour and hotel management at the Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail, Colorado for 28 months. He developed several outdoor activity programs and was trained in hospitality for various high-end companies.
Sharing the rich Peruvian culture with visitors led him to choose tourism as a career, which has married well with his archaeological background. He began working in the travel industry in 2003 as tour escort and tour assistant, and has guided, including Big Five Tours & Expeditions travelers, where gained experience accompanying groups of travelers as he worked his way into guiding high-end guests from Cusco, Peru and USA in 2008.
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Javier Vera
Javier also born and raised Peru is our local tour guide in Cusco. He has a deep rooted interest in sharing and showing the culture of Peru which was born at an early age when he use to ride along with his father when he had to drive and assist relatives living abroad around Cusco. Those were during the days when tourism was practically nonexistent.
He attended catholic school for his primary education then pursued the Tourism program at the local university. He began working as an interpreter at Machu Picchu while he was still a student then after graduating, went on the lead tours throughout the Cusco region, mixing in Anthropology with the culture.
Today, Javier is now twice a father and still performing as a tour guide. Balancing his time between touring, family, sports, hiking, learning and teaching languages. His personal goal in life is to contribute to the education of his children, but also continue to showcase the culture of Peru to Big Five travelers through his eyes.
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Odon Medina Calsin
Odon was born in Cusco, Peru, and attended primary school at Francisco Sivirichi and secondary school at Ciencias School in the city. He went on to university at San Antonio Abad Del Cusco, where he earned a license in tourism. He worked as a language teacher in French and English before he began his career as a professional tour leader in 1993. He has a talent for language, speaking English, French, Spanish and Quechua as well as basic Italian and Japanese. He has escorted Big Five Tours & Expeditions’ travelers throughout Peru and regions of Bolivia. Odon also has a keen interest in hiking, nature, mysticism, history and archaeology that add distinctive elements to Big Five’s Peru adventures.
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