Machu picchu??? My heart sank..

My heart sank when I saw this picture. The official limit per porter is 25kg/person, as the load is weighted at the start.

25kg!!! It is not even 25 kg on a flat path! I believe that this will be the minimum as it seems there are many ways to load them more! Gosh!! Are we talking about humans or cows??

This photo is already making me so queasy. Will I be able to withstand actually seeing it happen? Will I be helping them when I go? Or will I contribute to more problems? Pay them well--> social instability when they earn much much more than anyone else. What will a simple man do when he suddenly has so much money? I shudder at the thought.

Pay them little-- exploitation exploitation!! Whether you pay more or less, I have no idea how they came up with 25 kg as the "law". That is still back breaking! I remember my 25 kg day hike. Flat road. After a few kilometers, the 1.5 litre plastic water bottle started to feel heavy. After a while, I was dying to finish drinking it to lighten the load, and yet did not dare because that means I would have no more water!

And can I trust those companies talking about porter welfare? Can I trust a company which say the main problem about bringing more food is the weight??

Weight or no weight, you got to eat means you got to eat. So what if you bring one more porter, just to carry the food? How does one more porter in the group determine profit or loss when they earn so little? Why don't they earn less profit and carry more food? 1 porter's pay is so little! Even poor me could afford to pay an extra porter all by myself, for 4 days!!

This is sick!!! And this info is supposedly from a company which has above average welfare! Argh.

This article, Inca Trail - Through the Eyes of a Porter is a nice account, but can we just take everything the porters say at face value?