Tourist reportedly paid nearly $160 to reach a rural road near Mollepata for a 'Sacred Canyon of Humantay' that a trek operator says does not exist
BBC Travel reported on 29 September 2025 that a trek operator in a rural Peruvian town overheard two unaccompanied tourists planning to hike alone to the 'Sacred Canyon of Humantay'. The operator says the tourists showed the operator a screenshot of a confident, adjectival description, that no such canyon exists, and that one tourist paid nearly $160 to reach a rural road near Mollepata without a guide or a destination. The article implies an AI chatbot as the source of the description but does not name the tool used by these tourists, and gives no date.
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026