Peak to Peak 2024 Puerto Rico

March 17, 2024

Today we walked around Old San Juan. We started with monuments and moved on to churches. We saw the church of Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish privateer (pirate), who conquered Puerto Rico. We also learned about the power of women in war while looking a statue, La Rogativa. #WomenSolvingMen’sProblems. On our walk around town we saw so many cats, but unfortunately we were unable to pet them. To drown our sorrows, we got delicious popsicles and went shopping. After a hard day of learning and shopping, we went to the beach for some sun and relaxation. Was so much fun! We got to all see Old San Juan and many historic sights. We are an amazing lunch. We got to swim on the beach and have some great free time doing karaoke and playing volleyball. Great way to start the trip 🙂 Last we watched an Anthony Bourdain documentary and learned a lot about Puerto Rico debt, history and culture.

March 18, 2024

Today was our first day of building the house! We learned the concrete recipe: 8 buckets of rock, 10 buckets of sand, 4 buckets of water, and two bags of concrete. After, we met Maria and had her amazing lunch of chicken, rice, and beans. The hike there was a little unexpected, but the meal made up for it! During the evening, we had a salsa dance lesson from Yara and we all had so much fun!

Today, we started our Global Works project. At first we spend the necessary amount of time fawning over the dogs. Then, we started the work with twisting the wires and moved onto shoveling and the bucket assembly line. We worked through the day and into the afternoon when we finally stopped for lunch and a well deserved break. Maria made our group a home cooked lunch with chicken, rice, beans, and salad. Once the sun set, we started salsa lessons. After a few stiff and awkward tries, the group was able to dance with and pass our partners around without hesitation.

We started our work at the house for the first time, and it was ROUGH but we got a lot done and will make the next few days way easier. After working out the house we went to lunch at Maria’s house and the food was AMAZING After that we went to the beach/stayed back and hung out at the house. After dinner we learned how to Salsa dance, and we KILLED it

Last night we learned a salsa routine! We got to dance with almost everyone which was a fun little bonding experience. Then this morning we put our skills to practice by having a pre-construction dance party!!

Written by various students in collaboration

March 19, 2024

Today, was the second day on the work site. We worked vigorously and quickly through the afternoon until lunch. Maria cooked us another amazing meal of pasta, meatballs, and salad. A relaxing swim in the ocean was offset with a stressful bet of how long it would take to get to the Caribbean Sea. The stress quickly died down when it was pointed out that we were currently swimming in the Caribbean. We returned later to the beach to enjoy the sunset with pizza and good company.

Today was our second day of working on the house! Before we went, we had our favorite breakfast so far (thanks Ricky!) of some french toast! This work day was a little shorter than yesterday’s, and we actually got to eat lunch on time! Today’s lunch was some spaghetti and meatballs with Maria’s amazing beans. After that, we all had some beach time! It was so relaxing going in the water after that work day. For dinner, we all went down to the beach and watched the sunset while eating pizza! We all had a blast!

Today was our 2nd work day and we did such a good job of working hard and fast! We finished by 12 and went to Maria’s house for pasta! The pasta was fantastic and we enjoyed it on the picnic tables upstairs! Then we came home and everyone went to the beach! We snorkeled around and found tons of shells. Then we came back to the house and cleaned up before we went back to the beach for dinner! We had pizza and wanted the sunset and it was a great day to end the day.

Today we went back to the house and worked hard again, but it was much easier today. After working and lunch we went to the beach for a LONG time, and saw a shark tooth and a crab claw
After the beach we went back to the house and chilled out, which was very relaxing. Once it was dinner time we walked back to the beach and ate pizza during the sunset, and took pictures which was nice ! Once back at the house we did Karaoke with pretty much the whole house which was a blast !

By the House of Boys & Girls

March 20, 2024

Today we finished up the work at the house and got to see what the finished project looked like and took a photo in front of it. it felt great to see how much our work paid off for the house, however we had to say goodbye to the puppies 🙁 One back at the house from lunch we had a bunch of free time which was mainly spent on the beach and in the sun. Once it was close to dinner we invited the global work people over for dinner at the big yellow house, which was super fun and we had a great reflection of our work and the meaning behind it. After that we had a little dance party with everyone as well which was super fun.

Today was the last day at the work sight. We started out bright and early with hopes of finishing quickly. After the movement of more cement blocks and finishing the roof, we went to enjoy Maria’s cooking for the last time. To complete the tradition, the next hours were spent relaxing on the beach. After the beach, a series of trips from the second level to the first, many of which involved carrying chairs and tables, made sure we were prepared to welcome the community members into the Big Yellow House. The community members enjoyed dinner, music, and dance with us before sharing a heartfelt and moving speech.

By: Team effort!

March 21, 2024
Today was the second to last day of our trip. We started out with a beautiful sunrise hike, which involved getting up before 6:00 am, but was worth it. After some riveting games of Uno and breakfast, the group set off to zip-line. The lines started out manageable and soon advanced to lines over 1300 feet. We were rewarded for our “hard work” with pizza and a different beach. The few and brave who entered the water enjoyed it, however the majority lounged on the beach and climbed the nearby rock formations.

Today we woke up and had an hour drive to our zip line adventure.
At the zip line place it took a while to get onto the first ride but once we did the views were INCREDIBLE and we had so much fun. The #7 zip line we did was by the farthest and none of us got stuck which was a major plus. After the zip line we had pizza at the place and got to watch some march madness which was also fun. Once we finished lunch we went to a new beach, it was cool to watch the huge waves come close to the shore line. After that we went back to the house where we spent our time outside and just talking with friends. We had our final dinner at the house and began to pack up for our trip home tomorrow !

Today we had a super fun day! We started out getting up super early for a sunrise hike off the beach where we looked at tide pools and snails. Then, we came back and had an awesome breakfast of french toast and headed off to zip lining. The zip lining was so beautiful and a super cool way to see the jungle. After zip lining we had a pizza lunch to refuel and went on to an incredibly beautiful beach where we continued to explore tide pools and the cool rocks. We then came back and went to the beach by our house followed by dinner and then the beach again at night! It was awesome last night and we’ll miss it here!

By: Everyone