Peru Volunteer Journals

Global Volunteer Network currently has opportunities to work on a range of projects in Peru. Volunteers can become involved in childcare, teaching, construction, healthcare, cultural, and conservation/wildlife projects.

Peru boasts some of the most spectacular scenery in South America and volunteers will primarily be based in the city of Cusco, the historical capital of the Inca Empire. In contrast to its stunning geography, which attracts growing numbers of international visitors to Peru, poverty and unemployment remain high throughout rural regions and more than half of the population live below the poverty line.

Please visit the Global Volunteer Network website for more information about the Peru Volunteer Program.

« Older Entries

Day 7: Caplamandu

August 21st, 2010 by Chris Fry

After such an intense day of such hard graft me an the boys decided to give ourselves the weekend off so we went to Caplamandu which is a hotel/ resort in jacmel, the only one I’ve heard about so we hung out in the pool and headed to the beach that adjoined at the back of the resort.
Sounds like luxury but I’m quickly learning that it’s all too easy to work yourself too hard- dehydration can be a real issue, and I’ve felt heat exhaustion already so days like these are essential.

Posted in Haiti, Peru

Doing my best to Help Fix the World: July 31, 2010

July 31st, 2010 by Michael Broder

July 31, 2010: Doing my best to Help Fix the World
As I write this last blog post from Cusco, Peru, I am sitting at one of the 18 computers at Maximo Nivel on the day before I leave my home in Cusco. The other night my housemates and I were talking about how different the words “house” and “home” are. We decided that a “house” is just a shelter that a person is not emotionally connected to. On the other hand, a “home” is where ones family is and a place that holds a lot of sentimental value. I have stayed [...]

Posted in Peru

Navigating the Highest Navigable Lake in the World: July 30, 2010

July 30th, 2010 by Michael Broder

July 30, 2010: Navigating the Highest Navigable Lake in the World
I am sorry that this blog is so late but I only had one day between my trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca and my stay in the jungle. on July 19, 2010, four of my housemates and I took a bus to Puno so that we could explore the highest navigable lake in the world and the 2nd largest in South America, Lake Titicaca. Before we took our 10:30 pm bus, most of my housemates and I went out for Thai food, which was good, but I still miss [...]

Posted in Peru

Wise, Strong, Wealthy, Healthy: July 19, 2010

July 22nd, 2010 by Michael Broder

July 19, 2010: Wise, Strong, Wealthy, Healthy
Many think that all Peru has to offer the world is poverty, crime, and Machu Picchu, but everyone who thinks such things is so incredibly incorrect. Peru is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever traveled to, and it contains within its borders so much natural beauty that is unknown to most tourists and world travelers. I came here expecting to see Machu Picchu and hopefully Lake Titicaca and for the rest of the time to volunteer, but I have had and will have the opportunity to see so much more than I ever [...]

Posted in Machu Picchu, Peru

The Sacred Andes: July 12, 2010

July 14th, 2010 by Michael Broder

July 12, 2010: The Sacred Andes
There is so much to be said about the majestic, awe-inspiring, unbelievable beauty of the Andes. Although I have been surrounded by the mountains ever since I arrived in Cusco three weeks ago, I have not had the chance to really see how incredible they are until this past weekend when I visited Arequipa and the Colca Canyon.
On Wednesday night at 8pm ten of my housemates and I left Cusco on a double decker bus heading for the second largest Peruvian city known as Arequipa. My throat was hurting every time I swallowed, and I [...]

Posted in Peru

VAYA CUSCO!!!: July 7, 2010

July 7th, 2010 by Michael Broder

July 7, 2010: VAYA CUSCO!!!
On Sunday morning, about seven of my housemates and I went to the bus station a few streets away to buy the bus tickets that would get us to Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru and this weekends travel stop. The roundtrip tickets costed 60 soles, which is about $22, and the buses we are taking have reclinable seats that will no doubt be a great luxury during our nine hour overnight bus ride from Cusco to Arequipa. On the street where we live, in the neighborhood of La Florida, there has been seemingly endless construction ever [...]

Posted in Peru

Viva El Peru Glorioso: July 6, 2010

July 6th, 2010 by Michael Broder

July 5, 2010: Viva El Peru Gorioso
Cuzco, Peru, a land of dirty stray dogs, exhaust pipe pollution, late night muggings, colorful flags, amicable citizens, prevelent poverty, and cheap cabfare, is the place I have called home for the past two weeks. This is the city that resembles no place that I have ever experienced before. Kids play in the streets juggling and doing handstands while the red light holds traffic. They walk from car to car with their wet squeegies asking the plethora of cab drivers if they would like their windows washed. One would expect the boys carrying the cleaning materials [...]

Posted in Peru

Am I the Tallest Man in this City?: June 30, 2010

June 30th, 2010 by Michael Broder

June 30, 2010: Am I the Tallest Man in this City?
The past few days have been pretty usual excpet a few things. First of all, it has been raining here the past two days- an unnatural occurence during Cuzco winters. When it rains it is cold because when the sun is blocked it gets so cold. In my volunteer house, my roommate Johaness and I have been living in the coldest room in the place. Finally on Monday night we got a space heater which works wonders. On Saturday the USA lost the futbol game to Ghana. Truthfully, I do [...]

Posted in Peru

Inti Raymi: June 24, 2010

June 28th, 2010 by Michael Broder

June 24, 2010: Inti Raymi
Thursday was the Incan festival celebrating the winter solstice, also known as Inti Raymi. Emily, Kat, and I woke up early to witness all of the festivities of the day, and we took a cab as close as we could get to Coricancha, the site of the initial celebration. Coricancha is an ancient Inca temple right across the street from the Maximo Nivel office. When we arrived there, people dressed in traditional Incan dress were singing, playing cool instruments, and of course dancing. In front of the temple is a huge field where allof the ceremonious [...]

Posted in Peru

Inti-Raymi Parte Uno: June 23, 2010

June 25th, 2010 by Michael Broder

June 23, 2010: Inti-Raymi Parte Uno
Ok, so Tuesday night was really hectic but at the same time very exhilirating. I grudgingly woke up at 7 am this morning to volunteer for the first time. It is so cold in the morning!!!  Anywho, I made my way to Maximo Nivel where I met up with Alyssa. We then walked together to Salome Ferro to volunteer. When we arrived we found out that all but three kids were in school every morning. Therefore, us being there so early in the morning was a little unnecessary and pointless. For three and a half [...]

Posted in Peru

First Night on the Town: June 23, 2010

June 25th, 2010 by Michael Broder

June 22, 2010: First Night on the Town
The last time I wrote you was after I had my tandem visit and just before my second spanish class. After that class ended, I visited my volunteer placement, Salome Ferro, with my co-volunteer from Wisconsin Alyssa. It is a fairly large and well-kept shelter that houses children whose parents cannot afford to raise them themselves. The location is about a ten minute walk from the Maximo office but its not bad at all. After visiting my placement for the first time, I walked with Alyssa to the Plaza de Armas, Cuzcos main [...]

Posted in Peru

Mucho Que Hacer: June 22, 2010

June 25th, 2010 by Michael Broder

June 22, 2010: Mucho Que Hacer
Yesterday was so much fun. Emily recovered for the most part from her altitude sickness and everything that happened yesterday was great. I was assigned to take spanish classes from 2-4 pm yesterday as I already told you. My class had three people in it including me so it was very very awesome. The teacher was great, and he taught us grammar and had us speak using the grammar we had just learned. It was a lot of fun and I felt a lot better about my proficiency in the language. After my classes I [...]

Posted in Peru

The Beginning: 6/21/2010

June 25th, 2010 by Michael Broder

June 21, 2010: The Beginning
The diamox is working and I feel fine. Emily is the one who didnt feel well. She feels better now but she is still adjusting. Everyone here is very nice, and I just received my volunteer placement. I am visiting the place at four. All I know is that it has to do with childcare. For the next six weeks I will be volunteering in the morning and at least for this week will be taking spanish classes from 2-4 pm. I am still at Maximo and didnt go home because my first class in the [...]

Posted in Peru

Arrival at 11,000 feet: 6/20/2010

June 25th, 2010 by Michael Broder

June 20, 2010: Arrival at 11,000 feet
I landed safely in Cuzco this morning, and today has been a very relaxed day. All of our flights amazingly were on time, and some actually got to the destination early. Right now I am writing this email from my roomate, Johannes’ (From Germany), laptop. We arrived in Cuzco at around 10am. Flying above the Andes from Lima was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. All around us were snow-capped and brownish gray mountains. When we arrived we picked up our baggage and met a few of the other people volunteering. Most [...]

Posted in Peru

Voy A La Selva

March 25th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

The computer at my house is very old and I pretty much only use it for facebook, to keep in touch with people here and to make plans. Thus I haven´t been checking my email very frequently, nor have I been keeping up with this blog.
Tomorrow at 5 in the morning I am going to be heading for the jungle. I had no desire to go when I first got to Peru. I had seen the jungle before and I was a little nervous about malaria, though they say that the altitude is too high for malaria. After hearing sooo [...]

Posted in Peru

Puno continued

February 27th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

When we got to the Island of Amantani in Lake Titcaca Erika, Liz and I were appointed Senora Victoria as our Mom. Her house was very beautiful, much nicer than the house where I am staying in Umasbamba. The tour guide had told us that the families were going to give us hats to help them to differentiate which volunteers were staying with them. Our mom pulled out a bunch of hats, but was then trying to get us to buy them for s/.25.00…we could buy similar ones in Cusco for s/.8.00. This was very confusing for us, we though [...]

Posted in Peru

Un retour tout en plumes!

February 22nd, 2010 by Anastassja Nikitine

Voilà deux mois que l’école était fermée…. et que j’avais déserté les lieux.
Aujourd’hui, j’y suis retournée, ai retrouvé les professeurs et la directrice Irma… en train de faire la cuisine, des travaux au sol et puis de s’occuper des enfants en même temps.
Il y avait beaucoup de volontaires aussi, quatre compagnons venant des Etats-Unis et de Hollande.
Les murs étaient colorés de soleil, de petits bonhommes et de dessins faits par les enfants récemment. ça sentait le changement, les petits pour la plupart étaient nouveaux, les anciens étant partis dans le royaume des “plus grands”. Lalla, ma grand-mère m’a envoyée pleins [...]

Posted in Peru

Umasbamba and Lake Titicaca

February 15th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

So I have officially spent a week in the very small town of Umasbamba. Turns out it is just outside of the Sacred Valley near I town called Chinchero, at an elevation of about 14000 feet. As a result it is very cold..I was not very happy about this at first. I had read and read all of the literature from Maximo Nivel and Global Volunteer Network, to make sure I was packing correctly, and they never said it would be freezing! So the first couple days I was miserable, I have a hard time understanding what they are saying [...]

Posted in Peru

Umasbamba tomorrow!

February 4th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

So I am leaving for Umasbamba tomorrow and I am sooo excited!! I have made plans with 2 people from my house: Josh and Liz, to go to Puno next weekend. I am very much looking forward to going, and that means that I will only be a week without a real shower in Umasbamba. Puno is a small city on Lake Titicaca. It is supposed to be really boring so they say not to spend much time there. We will take a bus overnight, from 10p-4a and when we get there they will take us to a hostel where [...]

Posted in Peru

Le Danseur

February 1st, 2010 by Anastassja Nikitine

Il s’appelait Charly

Et vivait dans un paysage
Qui ne portait pas de jour,

Et vivait sur une plage
Qui n’avait pas de sable.

Il s’appelait Charly

Et dansait là, dans la discothèque

Sur une scène un peu sage
Au travers d’une peau brune,
Et de nombreux tatouages.

Il s’appelait Charly

Et vivait dans une maison
Grande comme un lit
Et glissait sur un parquet
souple, et infini

Et il avait la peau rouge
Et les yeux noirs
Des mains dansantes
Et des habits de voyou,

Un corps qui dansait
Qui ne voulait plus voir
Un corps qui partait
Qui ne voulait plus boire

Il s’appelait Charly,

Et touchait toutes les filles
Sur [...]

Posted in Peru

Spanish/Quechua Lessons

January 29th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

So I´ve decided to switch my spanish lesson to private and Jordan recommended that I take them with a teacher named Gorge who also speaks quechua!! I am very excited about starting those lessons next week, but they are going to be from 12-1 so I won´t be able to stay at the clinic for as long Maybe I´ll go back in the afternoon some days with Jordanna.
The 4 people from my house that were stuck at Machu Picchu came home today!! They had some interesting stories to tell, and I expect to hear more at dinner!! They [...]

Posted in Peru

Not Going to Umasbamba Until February 5

January 28th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

Maximo Nivel is strongly advising no one to travel outside of Cusco this weekend, and thus I am going to be waiting another week to go to Umasbamba. Jordan, my project coordinator, said that the road that they normally take to Umasbamba is destroyed but that there is an alternate route that would take a little longer. She also told me that the village is near a lake and she is worried that if Umasbamba were to get as much rain as Aguas Calientes, the lake would overflow and the adobe buildings would by destroyed. So for safety reasons, [...]

Posted in Peru

State of Emergency

January 27th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

I am supposed to be going to Umasbamba on Friday but I don´t think that is going to happen because of the recent disaster. As a result of the immense amounts of rain, which is apparently the most in 25 years, there has been floods and mudslides all weekend. There were about 2000 tourists stuck in MachU Picchu this weekend, including 4 people that I live with. We haven´t heard from them so I hope that they are ok. The government is supposed to be evacuating them by helicopter while simultaneously bringing them food and water. The [...]

Posted in Peru

It´s definitely the rainy season!!

January 25th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

Last week was very busy…as soon as I got here they put me to work. I still love working at the clinic and my spanish is going well. This weekend ended up being a very lazy weekend though.
We went out on Friday to a place called Incateem. I have met 4 girls that have become my little group to hang out with. Tatianna and Jordanna are from California, Ashley is from Rhode Island and Sophie, my roommate is from New Orleans. We are all about the same age, and have all just graduated college. We got to [...]

Posted in Peru

L’hôtel Bleu

January 25th, 2010 by Anastassja Nikitine

Il y avait un hôtel bleu
Là-bas dans la ville
Au milieu des bips et des rues
Quelque chose qui était fragile
Et puis un peu perdu.
Il y avait un hôtel bleu
Là-bas dans la ville
Au milieu de l’espace
Quelque chose de mince et de beau
Et qui prenait un peu de place
Il y avait un hôtel bleu
Là-bas dans la ville
Au milieu de cette danse
Quelque chose qui coulait comme de l’eau
Et qui chantait un petit patio.
Et qui sculptait une mer,
Qui rêvait une terre,
Qui s’endormait parfois aussi,
Dans ses murs à la couleur de ciel
J’ai vu un hôtel bleu
Aux chambres frêles
À la lumière de perle
Un hôtel avec un jardin
Avec [...]

Posted in Peru

Soaking up the sun in Chile

January 20th, 2010 by Kelsi Nichols

My last night in Cusco was pretty quiet.  Gloria made a Chinese-style noodle dish that was absolutely delicious, and she gave me less than the rest cos I coul never finish her meals, and I turned out to be the only one who did finish this one.  I gave her the Kiwi stuff I got from Andrea, she was pretty stoked with the plastic tiki when I told her it’s a symbol of protection.  Pepe didn’t come home until late as, I didn’t even get to say goodbye.  We watched the Watchmen after dinner.  It was really long and I [...]

Posted in Peru

Day 2 in Cusco

January 19th, 2010 by Samantha Coleman

Soo as some of you know, it took me a little bit longer than planned to arrive here in Cusco. My flight out of Dallas got delayed an hour and a half and I missed my flight from Miami to Lima. The airline put me up in a very nice Marriott resort in Miami that had 5 golf courses, one of which was a PGA Tour course. Then my flight to Lima was great, I was in business class and spent most of the flight sleeping. My luggage did not arrive in Lima, so a spent some time trying to [...]

Posted in Peru

La blanche ville

January 15th, 2010 by Anastassja Nikitine

Les jours passent, s’en vont dans le fleuve des souvenirs.
Cusco est un peu anémique dans ses montagnes. La lumière vive d’Arequipa me manque. Son espace, ses terrasses cachées sur les toits, ses jardins pleurant des palmiers… Ici la poussière se fait lumière, là-bas, le soleil fond et se fait sable.
Je me souviens aussi du monastère de Santa Catalina, peuplé de bleu, de jaune et de rouge à la matière de terre sur les murs.
De ces appartements à ciel ouvert, où la nature rentre dans la prière, dans les ombres et les chemins du silence.
À ces grandes salles où les tableaux [...]

Posted in Peru

Witnessing a birth in Cusco… at last!

January 15th, 2010 by Kelsi Nichols

It was a very quick one.  This lady´s 3rd baby.  Born at 1100, after about an hour of waiting, then maybe 10 mins of full on labour, a little boy, very healthy and strong, slithers out in a gush.  They give birth sitting mostly upright over a stool with the middle missing.  I drew up the vitamin K injection, while they measured him, and he peed on them lolz.  There were a couple of times my heart kind of squeezed and I thought I might cry or something silly like that haha, but it was all good.  My first birth [...]

Posted in Peru

Still alive in Pisac

January 14th, 2010 by Kelsi Nichols

That was exciting.  We decided to go to Pisac after work, which is a little market town in the Urubamba valley which has pretty good prices.  We had lunch first, which took up an hour of our 3 hours we had before classes etc, so we thought we´d take a taxi out to save time, instead of the bus.  We hail a taxi and ask how much it will cost, and the guy tells us 30.  So we jump in, it takes about the same time as the bus or maybe longer to get there, and we pull up in [...]

Posted in Peru

« Older Entries

A Global Volunteer Network Initiative: http://www.volunteer.org.nz