The microentrepreneurial journey and post-pandemic goals of Indio Eco-tours

Chapada das Mesas National Park is a tourism destination hidden in Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhão, colloquially referred to as “Nordeste do Brasil.” The Park’s most mesmerizing attractions include abundant waterfalls, rock paintings, natural springs, trekking routes and natural sculptures formed by the Brazilian cerrado, a vast tropical savannah ecoregion. 

Local eco-tour microentrepreneur, Indo, looking down towards his home region

 

Guided by a local

During a recent 4-day trip to this region with a few friends, the front desk agent, in our small hotel in the local gateway town of Carolina, recommended that we try a whole day excursion at $30 USD per person. The agent nicely said: “Get ready, cause the day is gonna be long tomorrow. And don’t be late!”

The next morning at 8am a tour guide welcomed us and introduced himself as Joel Costa Filho, and asked us to call him just Indio, like the locals do. He has that nickname because his physical features resemble the indigenous inhabitants of the area due to his maternal lineage with indigenous Timbira people. The day tour with Indio was the highlight of that vacation, and my amazement with his entrepreneurial journey motivated me to write this post.

Joel was born and raised in one of the mountain communities far from the town. He told us that as a kid, he would walk from the mountains to go to school in Carolina. Back then, he never thought of working as a tour guide and never imagined that his region would be explored as a tourist destination. He told stories of his childhood, explaining that when someone in his community became sick, they would not have transportation to a hospital and instead relied heavily on traditional medicine. Eventually the sick person would be carried down the mountain to the town in a hammock by a group of strong men. Observing that situation repeatedly, he promised himself that one day he would own his own car.

Today Indio is a man in his thirties. He started working as a bellman in a large nearby resort, which is where he first began learning about tourism and hospitality management. He thought to himself “Why not have my own company and work for myself?” With that idea in mind, Indio saved money, bought his first car with a bank loan, took tour guide courses and started his first company named Indio Turismo. His business is a travel agency that offers tours and excursions to hidden places out of reach to most visitors. With few guides being able to drive over sandy roads only accessible with a 4x4 vehicle, he has a tremendous economic advantage. In addition, Indio knows the area like the palm of his hand, navigating without a map or GPS. He says, “the map is in my mind.”

The personal connection with a local guide makes or break the experience

Visiting hidden gems

The excursions last about 8 hours. He collects his guests in the morning around 8 am and returns them to their hotel at 4pm. With the commute taking about 2 hours in each direction, the days are long but the time is worth it. Indio knows everyone, everywhere, and everything encounters on the tour. He is often seen waving to people on the side of the road and telling jokes to people riding by on horses. He is obviously very connected to communities all over this region.

The first stop is at the waterfalls named Cachoeira Da Prata and São Romão. Each stop lasts about 1 hour. If you do not have a camera or if you are afraid to drop your phone in the water – not to worry – Indio will take photos for you and may even provide a waterproof phone case.

For lunch, he stops in one of the local homes and you can be sure that the food will be authentic. You have the opportunity to try a variety of local dishes including sundried meat, rustic chicken, native rice and beans, spaghetti and salads. As a Brazilian myself, I would say the taste is the real flavor of the roça, a Brazilian expression characterizing the taste of a good homemade food on a farm. The price is affordable but the only form of payment is cash since technologies such as internet and credit card machines are still not available there. He says that he always tries to help his community with his tours. For example, taking tourists to have lunch in local homes or encouraging his guests to buy handcrafted arts and snacks such as castanha (the nut from the cashew fruit), paçoca (candy made from peanut, salt, sugar and flour) or even sundried bananas on the way back to the hotel. One can readily find locals on the sandy roads selling their local products and souvenirs.

 

Indio Turismo 4x4 vehicle and his deep local knowledge are his strongest entrepreneurial assets

Entrepreneurial goals and resilience

This is not the only excursion that his company offers. He knows a seemingly endless number of routes, springs and waterfalls, so he is able to tailor the trips to the preferences of his guests – he is probably the complete opposite of standardized group tours.

Indio’s strategy for marketing his tours is by paying commissions to local travel agents and friends who work at the hotels in Carolina. He also makes use of Instagram to show his work, a technology far from what he knew while growing up in the mountains. He still has new ideas for the future and plans to implement them as soon as he can make the necessary investment to turn his dreams into a reality. He says his next endeavor may be called “A tribo do Índio (The Indian’s tribe).” His idea consists of planning a tour that engages his family and the surrounding communities who still live off the mountains, in a place called Serra das Éguas, so that they too can increase their incomes through sustainable tourism.

His family is somewhat reluctant to have visitors in their homes. They do not yet believe in the idea of eco–rural tourism and the benefits it could bring to their community. As the proposed excursion is described, he would create a tour where visitors get to know the inhabitants by staying overnight in one of the houses on the top of the mountains. They would engage with locals in diverse activities including the preparation of local food, for instance the rapadura (candy made from raw sugar cane in the form of a block), eat local fruits, drink fresh milk collected from the cows and observe how the yuca flour is prepared during the day. At nighttime, as the place has no electricity, he intends to light a bonfire so that the visitors can congregate and listen to local stories, songs and tales about his ancestors.

I contacted Indio again a couple of days ago to better understand the current state of tourism in the region due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I specifically asked about the main challenges he was facing when trying to implement his new ideas. Currently, the number of visitors has dwindled to almost zero after the coronavirus pandemic began. The state of Maranhão went into a government-mandated quarantine and the majority of flights and bus lines have been canceled. Secondly, he reported that it has been hard to secure loans from banks since those institutions do not provide access to capital for tourism development in the area. Thirdly, the local and state governments do not offer resources to implement tourism either. Most companies in the region, such as hotels and resorts, are owned by property owners who could afford to invest their own money into the business. Nevertheless, despite all of these adversities, he has not given up. He believes in the great potential that his community holds and he hopes that after the quarantine when tourists begin traveling again, especially nationally, he will be able to achieve his entrepreneurial goals.

Indio is an example of rural tourism microentrepreneurship as a great source of development both personally and professionally for people and communities who struggle with lack of community capital and income.  Both Indio and I hope that as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, tourism in the region will grow once again. These hopes have been reinforced with recent reports showing that Brazilian tourists are more likely to explore their own country by avoiding travels abroad.

Indio is very confident in what the future holds. He said he cannot wait to go back to his routine again, even if in a different way with increased sanitation measures in the months to come. Based on my own experiences, I shared some advice on how to implement his new ideas including the verification of new safety measures are in place where he plans to accommodate his guests, measures for cost containment, and the establishment of a tour marketing materials for him to share with the travel agents with whom he partners.  I, like most others, hope this pandemic will resolve quickly and I am excited to see the development that tourism will bring to Indio’s community again soon.

 

Written by:  Haluizio Damasceno, Tourism Management Specialist,
São Luís, Maranhão, Brasil