Marisol Mosquera

Founder & CEO, Aracari Travel

We first met Marisol when we were at CNTraveler, and always appreciated her little scoops on Lima’s coolest restaurants or alternatives to Machu Picchu or the best small boat for navigating the Galapagos. Now that spring is in full swing in the Southern hemisphere, we’re thinking about how we can squeeze in a trip to her part of the world.   

Tell us about you and your company.

I founded Aracari in 1996, one of the first to specialize in luxury travel in the northern Andes, especially Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and the Galapagos. We are based in Lima. I was born in Peru, but my family left when I was little and moved to Spain. In the years after, I internalized a nostalgia for Peru, especially because my grandmother remained there—I remember her bringing us egg-yolk-yellow potatoes when she would visit us in Spain.

Later when I was living in London, I worked for a decade as an investment banker dealing in Latin American stocks, and I started going to Peru for business. I realized that tourism could be a big catalyst for development in the country, which had suffered years of political and economic instability. When things stabilized in the ‘90s, I went back. It was just intuitive—I wanted to return and support the country of my birth. In hindsight, it was pretty crazy to leave my job to start something that didn’t yet exist.