updated 12:37 p.m. ET June 18, 2008

WARMIWANUSCA, Peru - Porters on the famed Inca Trail trek to the jungle-shrouded ruins of Machu Picchu recall the fleet-footed chasqui — Inca messengers who darted over the vast road network of South America's most powerful empire.

Chewing wads of stimulating coca leaves and trading quips in Quechua, the ancient language of the Incas, they sprint up the centuries-old, ruin-dotted path at dizzying heights in the Andes.

But instead of carrying news or fresh seafood delicacies from the coast, they haul propane tanks, camping equipment and four days of food for wealthy tourists from worlds away — all for as little as $8 a day.

Peruvian law permits only 500 people to set out each day on the Inca Trail to Peru's top tourist destination, Machu Picchu — and nearly 300 of them are porters. Many complain that they are underpaid for their backbreaking labor.

Tourism to the ancient Inca ruins is booming. Some 140,000 people — tourists, porters, guides and cooks — did the hike in 2007, compared with fewer than 20,000 in 1998, according to park director Fernando Astete.

If you go Charging slightly higher prices, several tour operators in Cuzco give their porters fair working conditions and take steps to protect the fragile ecosystem in the scenic Andean region where they operate. Be sure to book early for the classic, four-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, as park entry permits are currently sold out through September. Some recommendations include: Llama Path: Calle San Juan de Dios 250, Cuzco, 011-51-84-240-822. A relatively new agency founded by former porter Jose Antonio Gongora and his British wife Michelle. Provides friendly local guides and generous helpings of tasty food, along with excellent conditions and medical benefits for their porter staff. Standard four-day trek on Inca Trail, $420 (price does not include: sleeping bag rental, trekking pole, personal porter, tip). Peruvian Andean Treks: Avenida Pardo 705, Cuzco, 011-51-84 225701. A well-established U.S.-based tour operator offering group and custom tours throughout South America. High-quality, reliable tours with good treatment for porters and staff. A basic four-day trek on the Inca trail is $595 (includes personal porter, does not include sleeping bag rental, tip or trek permit, around $85). Peru Treks: Avenida Pardo 540, Cuzco, 011-51-84-222-722. A family-run agency specializing in Inca trail treks and cultural homestays in local Quechua-speaking villages. Excellent porter treatment. Profits support local community projects such as clothing donations and the construction of schools in two rural Andean villages. Four-day Inca Trail, $425 (does not include sleeping bag rental, personal porter, tip). Enigma Adventure Tour Operator: Jiron Clorinda Matto de Turner 100, Cuzco, 011-51-84-222-155. Spanish-owned agency offering Inca trail, mountain-biking and river rafting trips as well as alternative travel opportunities including ayahuasca therapy (a plant used to make a drink for healing ceremonies) and visits to traditional Andean weaving communities. Well-organized, responsible treks with good equipment. Standard four-day Inca Trail, $521 (does not include some camping equipment rental, personal porter, tip).

Peruvian law requires visitors to pay for a guided, catered tour, and what was once a backpackers' trek now costs at least $420.

But travelers be warned: pay much less — guides in Cuzco offer trips for as low as $350 — and the tour operator is likely cutting corners, at the expense of those who make the arduous, high-altitude trek accessible to so many — the Indian porters.

Despite the low pay, the jobs are highly coveted in the poor, rural Andean region.

"It's hard work, but without tourism there would be no jobs," Faustino Quispe, a porter with Continental Tours, told me when I caught up with him on a stretch of steep stone steps.

The pay is "very little, just enough for our families," said Quispe, a wiry man of 34 with a weathered face that makes him look closer to 50. The money helps supplement the food they are able to harvest from their small plots in the Sacred Valley.

The camping equipment slung in a blue tarp from his shoulders dwarfed my backpack, yet I struggled to keep up with him as he and his crew raced to set up camp ahead of their group of hikers.

A 2003 law mandated a minimum wage for porters roughly equivalent to $15 a day, with a load no more than 57 pounds. That created a slight improvement in porters' pay and working conditions.

"Everything has changed in the past 10 years," Flabio Letona, a porter on my trek with Llama Path tour agency, told me as we rested at our campsite on the trail.

Through a mouthful of coca leaves — chewed to ward off altitude sickness and fatigue — Letona told me that he started working as a porter in the 1990s and still hauls cargo on the knee-crunching 20-mile trail at the age of 55.

Letona, like many other porters, is from the Sacred Valley, where locals live humbly off small plots of land in the shadow of several major Inca sites. He proudly told me that his children learn to read and write in their native Quechua language at the local public school.

"Before, we were carrying 130 to 150 pounds and making 15 nuevo soles a day," he said, a sum roughly equivalent to $4.50 in the late 1990s.

But a fair wage and working conditions are the exception on the trail.

I caught up to Victor, 22, as he labored alone on the final ascent to Warmiwanusca, Quechua for "Dead Woman's Pass," the grisly name for the trail's highest point at 13,779 feet.

He refused to give me his full name because he said his employer — Inca Trail Peru — has fired porters in the past for talking to tourists about conditions and pay.

The Sacred Valley native said he was carrying over-regulation weight — 66 pounds — for $9 dollars a day and complained bitterly about not getting enough food.

MORE FROM SOUTH AMERICA

South America Section Front

Off beaten track in Peru South America’s wilderness lodges Heavy load for porters on the Inca Trail Brazil: Under the equator Tourism booms amid concerns in Peru Beating the crowds to Panama Carnival: A thrilla in Barranquilla Brazil's carnival: a revelers' guide Take your U.S. dollars to Latin America Buenos Aires gets first five-star gay hotel South America Section Front   Add South America headlines to your news reader: