GUIDING

Here is one paragraph from a friend's letter, concerning guiding in Alaska:

"If you operate as a for-hire individual, before you can even think about talking to a possible client one needs:

an Alaska Business License ($100)
$300,000 minimum liability Alaska guide insurance ($2500 cost)
a drug and alcohol testing program ($500 cost)
permits from Local, State, Federal & Private entities (as many as 20 and ranging in price from $350 each to $5000)
commercial vehicle insurance ($3000 if guest rides in your car)

The above are just a very few of the regulatory items required of Alaska guides and outfitters, tour operators, etc."

INSURANCE

Here are more comments, this time about insurance, from a friend in Brazil:

No operator in Brazil and most of South America is insured. Believe me .. none of them. Dealing with Americans, who are law suit conscious, and the state and federal laws in the USA and Europe ... we are required to provide a minimum of US$ 1,000,000 in 'tour operators liability'. This is not cheap .... but travelers tend to think 'Nothing will happen to me!'.

A recent story .... a cruise ship (big one) operating in the Amazon with American passengers ... launched a small boat to visit a local village. The boat overturned and hurt several passengers ... thank God none seriously. But, when the ship returned to Manaus several days latter ... there were literally hundreds of lawyers from the United states waiting at the dock ... they had read the story in the International Press. There are now several million dollars in lawsuits pending ... and several of my friends ... Brazilian operators are being called to Miami to testify.

Another story last year in the Pantanal .... a small operator ... several clients arrived the day before his tour started ... and went 'bar hopping' that night in Cuiaba. The next morning most arrived for the tour still drunk. One fell off the truck ... hit his head and died. The tour operator ... not insured ... lost his license for a year ... and had to pay to repatriate the corpse. The lawsuit instigated by the relatives in the States is still pending.

All this can sound pretty grim. In fact, it is grim. Society's laws just are not sophisticated enough to accommodate everyone, perhaps especially us very small-scale, locally based guides and hosts who want to make a living doing something meaningful, but who simply can't afford the kinds of costs outlined by the person in Alaska.

If you have insights you would like to share with others -- have them appear on this page -- drop me a line.