Mariela Rurush comes from a Quechua lineage; her surname carries Andean origins and reflects a civilisational continuity rooted in the high mountain cultures of Peru.

She grew up accompanying expeditions, scientific teams, diplomats, and international climbers who travelled to the Andes under her father’s guidance. This early exposure to global visitors, high-risk environments, and intercultural exchange formed the basis of her operational and diplomatic instinct.

From a young age, she combined entrepreneurship with social service—running small ventures at school, volunteering as a translator for international medical brigades, and later working while studying through scholarships linked to the mining sector. This dual exposure to enterprise and social responsibility shaped her long-term vision of travel as an economic and cultural system.

She studied accounting, finance, economics, and legal studies at university level, while working in parallel across operational sectors. She later completed specialised studies in social entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford, translating social enterprise principles into structured tourism systems.

From childhood, she was exposed to scientific and exploratory expeditions in the Andes, including early encounters with leading researchers such as Lonnie Thompson, shaping a lifelong integration of science, territory, and access.

She is multilingual, operating across Spanish, English, French, Hungarian, and Quechua, reflecting both her Andean heritage and global operating environment.