June 25-27. Two other students in sunny Arequipa are Dez and Alia, and they’re both doing work in education. In the mornings they each have separate jobs, Dez working at a Methodist elementary school assisting in English classes, and Alia teaching at a public pre-school with children 3-5 years…
June 25-27. Olivia and Joshua are two of the four students doing their service assignments in Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru. Situated on a plateau at about 8,000 feet above sea level it enjoys year-around comfortable temperatures, and every day it sees some blue sky. At…
Wednesday and Thursday, June 14-15. Here are a few pictures of the students who opted to hike to the “Sun Gate,” a nearby mountain pass with ruins overlooking Machu Picchu. Late that night we took a train back to Ollantaytambo, spent the night there, and then in the morning…
Wednesday, June 14. The bad part of visiting Machu Picchu in June is that this is the tourist “high season,” meaning there are more crowds to contend with. The good part of “high season” is the reason most tourists come now: it never rains and you are guaranteed uninterrupted…
Tuesday, June 13. We awoke in this Incan village containing some of the oldest continually-occupied homes in the Americas. After breakfast we made a 30-minute climb to the Pinkuylluna ruins, 3 curious-looking long buildings we had seen on the mountainside from our hostel. The students recognized that the ruins…
Monday, June 12. After breakfast with our families in Lucre and Cusco we headed through the Andean mountains for three stops on our way winding towards Machu Picchu: Chinchero: Although the remains of an ancient Incan temple and terraces are here, the main draw for us was a textile…
Sunday, June 11. Last night all the students were left in pairs at the homes of Mennonite families in Cusco or the village of Lucre. In the morning students had breakfast with their respective families and then went together to the Mennonite church in either Cusco or Lucre. The…
Saturday, June 10. During our first full day we visited four places with odd-sounding names — Tambomachay, Pukapukara, Q’enko, and Saqsayhuaman – which after the visits became identified with different Incan purposes, designs, construction styles, and histories. After a late lunch we then returned to our hotel…
Friday, June 9. We left early this morning for a 90-minute flight (vs. a 20-hour bus ride!) to Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire, whose name means “navel” (as in “the belly button of the Incan world”). While our lungs strove to adapt to the thin air…
June 4-8. We have safely returned from a busy week of travels in Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu. On Friday the students departed for their service locations on overnight buses. By Saturday they had all arrived at the homes of their new host families. The Blog entries will…
