Read first hand experiences of students, teachers and program leaders while also learning about upcoming travel opportunities.
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Your service-learning experience in Cusco, Peru includes a journey along the Inca Trail and visits to amazing sights like Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes, Ollantaytambo, and many others. Service projects include helping children from underprivileged communities with homework and recreational activities, as well as teaching classes in English and other subjects. You will also participate in fun cultural activities like Peruvian dance lessons and cooking classes.
- Welcome to Lima!: Lima is Peru's capital and largest city. It is set against dusty cliffs on the desert coast, and is often shrouded in a dense sea mist, known as the garúa. Lima boasts a number of important historical sites, and features pre-Columbian temples and vestiges of colonial mansions, as well as quality museums. The historical heart of the city is the Plaza de Armas, a large and handsome square with a 17th century bronze fountain.
- Welcome lunch: We will enjoy a welcome lunch together.
- Dinner at a local restaurant:
- Journey to Cusco: Today we take an internal flight from Lima to Cusco.
- Orientation: We will have an Orientation Session to discuss the days ahead and help ease students transition into their study abroad experience by introducing them to their new host country's culture, language, and lifestyle.
- Sacred Valley: Journey along the Inca Trail with an excursion to the towns of Pisac and Ollantaytambo in the valley of the Urubamba. Explore the fortress of Ollantay. Named for the Inca chieftain who once ruled the area, it was the only site in the Americas to successfully withstand the Spanish invasion!
- Journey to Aguas Calientes: Travel by train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes.
- Machu Picchu: Explore one of the most beautiful and mysterious sights in the world. Enjoy a guided tour of the ruins, including the Caretaker’s Hut and Funerary Rock, the Temple of the Sun (Torreón); the Royal Tomb; the Royal Sector, a still-functioning water canal. Then enter the lower section of the ruins, separated from the spiritually oriented upper section by a central plaza. The lower section was more prosaic in its function, mostly residential and industrial.
- Lunch at a local restaurant: This afternoon we will enjoy a meal at a local pizzeria.
- Ollantaytambo: See this quaint village that is surrounded by Inca ruins and is considered the best surviving example of Incan city planning. The town is a lovely place to wander through with its stone buildings and maze of narrow cobblestoned streets that have been inhabited for centuries.
- Awana Kancha: We will visit the animal rescue center and discover the significant role textiles play in Peruvian culture. Learn how to spin, dye and weave the fabrics that identified social and ethnic groups, and recorded important events. Today, lunch will be provided while on tour.
- Return to Cusco: Enjoy a Walking Tour of Cusco and take in many Inca remains, charming streets and the colonial section of the city. During your walk stop for a visit to Qoricancha – Templo del Sol and Santo Domingo, which together form the most vivid illustration in Cusco of the traditional Andean culture’s collision with Western Europe, as the temple of one culture sits atop and encloses the other.
- Homestay: We will meet our Homestay families in Cusco (area), who will host us for the next four nights. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided whilst on homestay. Homestay may be substituted with hotel accommodation per the preference of the group. Tonight, dinner will be provided in a local restaurant.
- Service at Azul Wasi: The group will work with children from underprivileged communities in Cusco to create a welcoming and safe environment at after-school centers and transitional homes for at-risk youth. They will interact with the children by helping with homework and organizing recreational activities. Participants may also lead and teach classes such as English, painting, drawing, and music.
- Service Activities: Today we will take part in service activities in the local area.
- Peruvian Dance Lessons: Enjoy lessons in traditional Peruvian dancing. We will learn several dances including the famous Marinera Norteña, which represents a man's courting of a young woman.
- Service Activities: Today we will take part in service activities in the local area
- Cooking Class: Tonight we will both enjoy preparing and eating a traditional, local dish in a Cooking Class
- Service Activities: Today we will take part in service activities in the local area.
- Chocolate Museum: Located on the second floor of an old colonial building with great views of the Plaza Regocijo, you can learn about the history of chocolate, how it is grown and how cacao is transformed into the chocolate we know and love so well today.
- Journey back to Lima: Today we take an internal flight from Cusco to Lima.
- Miraflores District: Known for its shopping areas, gardens, flower-filled parks and beaches, it is an area of intense artistic and cultural activity that unfolds in its theaters, cinemas and art galleries. Miraflores is also home to a pre-Inca temple, Hauca Pucllana.
- Dinner at a local restaurant:
- Parque de la Reserva: The evening, spend time in the Parque de la Reserva and enjoy The Magic Water Circuit, which has the Guinness Book record for the largest fountain complex in the world, displaying 13 distinct fountains, many of which are interactive. All of the fountains are illuminated at night, many with continuously changing color schemes.
