Participation in Peru builds upon the foundation we’ve established in and around Urubamba, in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, since 1999. VISIONS high school volunteers become ambassadors to our many Peruvian friends. You’ll be fast friends with Nico, our Projects Liaison and driver; with Neyda, our incomparable cook; and with many others who have worked with us since the first summer.

We live in Urubamba, a modest town of about 8,000 residents in the southeastern Andes, approximately one hour from Cuzco in the Sacred Valley. The area was much favored by ancient Peruvians for its mild climate, fertile lands and the Willcamayu or Sacred River. All around us is visible proof of the Incas’ sophisticated knowledge of hydraulic engineering and deep love of nature. Today, these aqueducts, irrigation canals and the dams of the Willcamayu River still stand alongside the imposing terracing and centers of worship of Pachamama (Mother Earth).

Your home is a large house with a courtyard where you live with your leaders (staffers). There are gender-separate rooms with beds and mattresses; you bring your own pillow and sheets. We have showers, bathrooms and laundry facilities.

Five days a week, after breakfast, you will head off to work on your chosen community service project for the day. We typically work a five-hour day with shorts breaks and at least one hour for lunch. A rotating group of three or four students and one staffer stays back from projects each day for what we call “home base” crew.  The crew tidies up and cleans our living space, collects the mail, prepares lunch, and later helps Neyda, our cook, prepare for dinner and cleans up afterwards. The home base crew might also join in a work crew in the afternoon.

After work we make time for other activities, such as strolling Urubamba’s shops and markets, shorts hikes and sightseeing, playing soccer with neighbors, showering, and just relaxing. After dinner most evenings, we set aside time to gather together. This is a time we use for reflection as a community of volunteers. Once a week, everyone has the opportunity to call home.

There will be constant opportunities to explore and learn about the Inca, Hispanic, and Quechua cultures of Peru and to mix and mingle with the community. The people with whom we work every day are Spanish-speaking, and many also speak Quechua (the Incan language), and so you will hone your language skills with them and community members throughout your stay. You will participate in consecration and blessing ceremonies for the projects we undertake. Through regular internships you can learn traditional pottery, weaving, and jewelry making methods from master crafts people. We will visit bee keepers and humble farmers in mountainside villages above Urubamba.

You will explore Machu Picchu and other ancient Inca ruins and hike to the Maras Salt mines and other historic wonders in the Sacred Valley. You’ll spend time in Cuzco, where you will see exquisite cathedrals with beautiful paintings and gold leaf adornment and find remnants of Inca walls, arches, and doorways. We will go to the market in Pisaq, the oldest continuously functional marketplace in all of the Americas. We will visit small highland villages where life is still lived in ways that have lasted through centuries.