Today we had our own version of Match Day, when the SSTers learned where they would be going for service and what they would be doing. The energy level was high as each opened an envelope revealing information about the next six weeks. Without further ado, here’s the lineup:…
The dance class with Pedro The past few weeks Peru SSTers have sampled a variety of Peruvian art forms. From the oil paintings and wood sculptures of the Museum Pedro de Osma in Lima to the traditional dance performances at the Qosqo Center of Native…
greeting patients and parents Our recent visit to Hospital María Auxiliadora was a chance to get an inside view of how health care is delivered to poor Peruvians. The range of medical facilities in Lima is broad: For those with insurance or the ability to pay, private…
Our service opportunity this week led us to Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II, an orphanage south of Lima that is home to 73 children between the ages of 4 and 17. Casa Hogar’s website tells the story of how Joseph Walijewski, a…
Our plan was to arrive at Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise, so we met for breakfast at 4 a.m. and were on our way to the bus stop by 4:30, armed with cameras, water bottles, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We weren’t the…
a break for tea We spent several days visiting towns and archeological sites in the Urubamaba Valley, also known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas—a beautiful rural region north of Cusco dotted with small towns and farm fields surrounded by spectacular mountains. First up was the…
playing with kids near the village of Huacarpay Cusco is perhaps the most popular stop on Peru’s “Gringo Trail,” so we did our best to get out of the well established tourist areas and get a better sense of what life is really like in this beautiful…
Pointing the way in Pikillaqta, the ancient Wari city south of Cusco Just outside Cusco are three particularly interesting archeological sites that we were able to explore during our recent travels. We started at Tipon, a 500-acre complex of hillside farming terraces and water channels carved in…
In Cusco's Plaza de Armas Our week of travel started in the Andean city of Cusco, a UNESCO world heritage site considered to be Latin America’s archeological capital. By the 15th century Cusco was at the height of its importance as capital of the vast Inca Empire,…
We recently visited the nearby huaca (sacred place) Pachacamac, a museum and huge archaeological site just south of Lima that dates as far back as 200 A.D. and remained in use (by various groups for various purposes, but most often as a religious center) for more than a millennium.
