Weston M.S. Peru 2024

April 10, 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Peru blog!
The trip got off to a great start from the moment we woke up around 7 AM. We got ready and had a delicious breakfast provided by the Melodia hotel. We said our goodbyes to Lima and went on our way to the airport where we took an hour and a half long flight to Cusco. After landing in Cusco, we loaded into the bus and headed to lunch at Estancia Andinas where we ate a delicious three course meal while listening to live music. After lunch we drove to a llama farm where we were able to feed and pet the llamas and alpacas. After the llamas and a quick bathroom break, we were on our way to the hotel. Arriving at the hotel, we each made our own pizzas and sat around a campfire where we made s’mores and had a great time talking about our expectations and what we hoped to get out of the trip, and how we want to grow after this experience, finally we signed our community contract. After a long day, we went to our rooms and had a good night’s sleep.

By Bea

April 11, 2024

Today we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast provided by the hotel. Breakfast had to be brief because zip lining awaited us. We were picked up by vans from the zip lining company and taken to the location approximately 45 minutes away from the hotel. After 20 minutes of gear checks and an hour of hiking we finally reached the first zip line. There were seven zip lines in total and the third one was by far the longest one stretching over half a mile. Zip line itself just as long as hiking, but I do not think anyone in the group was complaining about a little extra zip lining. When we got back to Basecamp, we had to leave pretty quickly for the town called Ollantaytambo. We had some time for shopping! Many people bought items such as alpaca fur blankets or hats and everyone got a great chance to show off their bargaining skills in Spanish. Lunch was at a restaurant conveniently named Ollantaytambo. At lunch, we met another guide from Global Works named James. James grew up right there in Ollantaytambo. He showed us around his hometown. Then we took a train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu. Dinner came after we checked into our hotel and settled down. A three course meal was provided to us and included many different options. Full and content, we went back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

By Jacob

April 12, 2024

Welcome to day three of the Peru trip blog! Today we woke up in our hotel in Aguas Calientes and had breakfast. After that, we got on a bus to Machu Picchu. The bus ride up the mountain was so beautiful. We arrived at Machu Picchu and we were all so excited. We hiked up a few flights of stairs and stopped to take scenic photos. We had all been waiting for this moment for a very long time. We continued walking down to the urban section of the ruins. Our guide told us about the architecture and the purpose of Machu Picchu. The ruins were so beautiful and it was a truly magical experience. After we had walked through all the ruins we started heading back down to the bus. Then, we returned to our hotel and had lunch at a buffet restaurant. We celebrated Dohun’s birthday with chocolate cake. Then, we spent about 15 minutes shopping in the market, by the train station, before our journey on the scenic Inca Rail. We saw couple of snow covered peaks. Then, we took a bus back to our previous hotel and prepared to meet our home stay families. When the families arrived, it was a little bit awkward at the beginning but everyone was trying their best to implement their Spanish and we think it went pretty good! Our respective families showed us how to make causa and it was delicious and fun. After that we reflected on our great day and went to bed.

By Oli & Hyde

April 13, 2024

Blog time!
Hola chicos! On day four of our epic Peru trip, we got to sleep in for once! Breakfast was at 8:30am so we could sleep more this time, and after that we were all starting to feel a little jittery. We were meeting our host families in an hour! Rebecca took us through some scenarios of what may happen in the home, and we worked through each and every one.
What to do? How to overcome certain inconveniences or simply how to face the situation with the best attitude. Then, it was go time. We met up with our families after the scenarios, and took some greeting photos. One by one we ventured off with our new hosts to spend the next four hours with them. For most it was awkward, the language barrier is tough to get around. But slowly, we started to warm up to one another. We shared a lunch then headed to our activity!
The group was split into two groups, and we would switch off activities. One group made ceramics first, then the other group made authentic Peruvian silver rings, then swapped.
Later that night, we headed back to our host families for dinner and games! We had a ton of fun today meeting everyone and creating great souvenirs.

By Maren & Flora

April 14, 2024

Coming soon! 

April 15, 2024

Today was an extraordinary day! We started very early this morning. Everyone had to be at la plaza at 7:30 AM. We took an hour and a half bus ride to an indigenous community in the mountains called Kajillarakay. When we arrived, we were greeted with songs and drums by the locals. After the greeting the locals were so kind and gave each of us a hand made string bracelets. After the kind greeting, we were split into small groups to help paint and mix concrete for the locals. Although it was very hot and very tiring. We continue to work hard, because we knew how much it meant to the community. We then gathered in a circle with everyone where we found out we would be doing a surprise activity. We would be put into couples and sent off with a single family to see what they did on a daily basis. The family’s did various things from husking corn to sorting through Lima beans. Once we were done with the family activities, we walked up to a lunch spot while the locals sang and performed a ritual for us. Before we ate lunch at this very scenic spot in the mountains, we had a once in a lifetime experience in which we got the chance to partake in a ceremony where we honor “Pachamama,” the Peruvian Mother Nature. It was a very interesting event because we got to see it in person which was very cool because most of us have never don’t anything like this before. After the ceremony, we had a traditional lunch of potatoes, cheese and an herb sauce. After eating, we had a closing ceremony where each one of us danced with a local while others played music on a drum. We said our goodbyes to the people then got back on the bus to drive to a very cool place down the road called Moray. This spot was an agricultural creation by the Incas where they used altitude to grow different plants and vegetables. After getting our photos, we got back on the bus and continued our ride back to Calca. We did our journal and one very valuable activity where we learned the importance of our opportunities. This activity taught us about how we have a lot more opportunities than the locals at Kajillarakay and how we should never take these opportunities for granted. To end this day we all had ice cream near la plaza. After finishing our ice creams, we all returned to our homestays for the night.

By: Oli & Jackson

April 16, 2024

Hola amigos! Today we started the day with a delicious breakfast with our host families. Then we walked to a school for disabled children, and helped out by painting some of the walls. We had different designs and many different and in powering quotes. To keep the kids with a positive mindset. Here’s a quote that stood out. “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. “- Joseph Campbell.

It was a great way to start the day and bring some joy to people’s faces.

After our fun project we headed to our host families for lunch. We hung out and played games with them until we had to go. After lunch, we went to one of the host families houses for t- shirt printing. Everyone picked out a t – shirt and a design. Today was all full of painting and patients. We had a ton of fun doing this project and everyone enjoyed spending time with one another.

Then we headed back to our families to get ready to go to dinner. Our last hooray! Everyone got ready and headed to dinner. People chatted and ate their food. Played games with the kids and overall had a great time with everyone. We said our finally goodbyes as many people were in tears because this moment and this week we spent together. We will never forget. We all needed the time to gather ourselves and get some rest after a few days of hard work and growing ourselves out of our comfort zone.

Tomorrow, we say our last goodbyes to our families. These 4 days with our host families will be one of the most memorable and most inspiring times of our lives. Everyone went back to their homes to sleep away a final good night!

By: Flora & Maren

April 17, 2024

We woke up and packed up to go leave Calca. Then we arrived at la plaza, and we took our last pictures with our families, and said our last goodbyes. We left on a bus to Cusco, and before we made our final stop, we stopped at a Cuy restaurant. Some people liked it, but some people did not. We finally all got back on the bus and headed towards the market. Once we arrived at the Pisac market, we picked people’s names out of a basket, and we had to spend 40 soles to buy gifts for them to show them later at tonight. We also shopped to buy souvenirs and some people also bought some souvenirs for their families. After that, we finally got back on the bus and arrived at Cusco where we went to our hotel, had an amazing lunch and we got ready for chocolate making. We arrived at ChocoMuseo, and we taught on how to make chocolate. We also learned a lot about chocolate and chocolate making. After finishing making our chocolate, we went down to a dance studio and learned salsa dances. We arrived to the first place we had lunch in Cusco called Andina Restaurant and had a really great dinner there. After we finished dinner, we walked back to our hotel and gave out gifts that we bought for each other. Finally, we all went upstairs and slept

By: Lucas & Ron