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…
Thursday, June 2. Today was dedicated to learning more about the history and lives of African descendants in Peru. We made a sad but insightful visit to a former slave plantation that grew sugar cane and later cotton, a crop that is still grown in the fields around…
Thursday, June 1. We took a 2-day field trip to a small community of Afro-Peruvians, descendants of the slave trade that had existed in Peru, just as it had in the U.S. A four-hour ride south of Lima, in the small community of El Carmen, we were warmly…
Saturday, May 27. Before heading out of new Caral to see the ruins of the 5,000-year-old Caral, we walked to the health center to learn about medical care in small towns (pop. 1,200) like this. Because of the limited services the health post could offer, an ambulance…
Friday, May 26. Today was part of a two-day field trip visiting two locations with a shared name but separated by 5,000 years of history. A five-hour bus ride took us past seemingly endless mountains of arid sand and stone, punctuated occasionally by lush, green valleys made possible by…
Tuesday-Thursday, May 23-25. This week included two afternoon field trips to study the history of art in Peru and the many, but lesser-known, indigenous cultures that preceded the Incas. And, as usual, the week included lectures and quizzes that, although not as picture-friendly as field trips, form an…
Saturday, May 20. On Saturday morning we had our main activity, working in bio-huertas, or urban gardens, where those in surrounding low-income neighborhoods use vacant lots to grow fruit and vegetables. A video, From the Earth to the Pot, describes several bio-huertas in Lima, including…
Friday, May 19. We spent Friday and Saturday in the Cono Sur, the southern region of Lima that, like the area we visited on Friday of last week, saw explosive growth in recent decades from massive influxes of people from the rural highlands. Most residents of Lima live in…
