Traveling to Peru was an amazing cultural experience. For our service, we helped bring potable water to a community in the Sacred Valley. We did manual labor to dig trenches and lay down the pipes, with the help of the homeowners and members of the community. Seeing the whole community work together to bring water to their neighbor’s house was so interesting to me, because even though I am friendly with my neighbors at home this was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The community brought us in and treated us like family, and seeing how grateful they were that we wanted to help them was a truly humbling experience. The food was probably the best food I’ve ever had, mainly chicken or beef with vegetables and soup. I also had the pleasure of trying alpaca, which was amazing, even though I was hesitant to eat it at first. Overall, the relationships I made with not only my group but also with Peruvian citizens is not something I could have ever experienced at home.

I loved my trip with Rustic Pathways. They allowed me to enjoy so many life-changing moments. I was able to become friends with people that I would never have met without them. I still keep in touch with these people very often. The leaders were nice and made the trip so much fun. It's crazy to me to reflect on some of the amazing memories I made on my trip. From playing cards with friends in the Amazon rainforest to sitting on the roof of a school in the Andes, my experience was amazing. I am so happy that I went on this trip, and I cannot wait to go on another one with Rustic Pathways. I got to meet so many new people and learn about different cultures. I enjoyed playing with the little kids at the school while they taught us all the new words in Spanish.

This summer, I went on the Lake Titicaca Service Adventure trip with Rustic Pathways and I really enjoyed it. I decided on Peru because I always wanted to travel to South America. Throughout the trip, I was immersed in the unique and amazing culture of Peru. It was like nothing I had ever seen before in my life. Over my two weeks on the trip, we saw Machu Picchu, stayed in many different cities such as Arequipa, Puno, and Cusco. Along with this, we did service work in a small village on the beautiful Lake Titicaca. The trip was very fun, but my main reason for traveling was the service aspect. I love helping people out who really need it and Rustic Pathways really helps to connect you with the people who need it most. The village we stayed in was poor, but the people really enjoyed their lives there and were so happy to have us stay there because they knew they could trust Rustic Pathways students. Rustic Pathways, over the last few years, built a strong connection with this community and it was just amazing. Along with this, the leaders were awesome people. Both my leaders were people who I could easily go to for help. They seemed like less of authoritative figures to me, but more of friends. They really made sure that every student was enjoying the trip to the fullest. Also, I made many great friends with the other students on the trip. I found common interests with other students and actually hung out at home a few months after the trip. I enjoyed this trip to Peru so much and I wish I could go back. To anyone contemplating going on the trip, I would say to go for it. I was not very sure if this was the trip for me when I first signed up, but I stuck with it and it was one of the greatest times of my life. This trip opened my eyes to the world, gave me more independence, and overall helped me grow as a person

I took part in this program a couple of years ago, and it still is one of the best memories I have of my time in high school.

The program lasted two weeks, being a perfect combination of travel and hard volunteering work. The traveling part was absolutely stunning: Peru is an amazing country, and its people are amongst the most welcoming people I have ever met, always smiling and trying to make you feel at home. We had the opportunity to visit the city of Cusco, Machu Picchu, the Lake Titicaca and the city of Arequipa.

Our volunteering part of the program took place in locals' houses on the sides of the amazing Lake Titicaca. We were split into small groups (2-3 people), and each of these stayed for a week in the locals' houses, helping the community with their everyday activities, assisting them with the construction of modern-style toilets in the mornings, and teaching them english in the afternoon.
The warmth with which I have been welcomed in these guest houses is something I will never forget. They treated us as if we were part of their families, and I left the community feeling I received a lot more from them than what I gave them with my work.

During this experience I also made incredible friends with whom I'm still in touch, even though we live in the opposite sides of the earth!

My trip to Peru this summer was some of the best days of my life. My friend and I traveled to Peru for the first time and at first I was worried. My friend Lexi, has traveled with rustic before and this was my first time. As we landed from Toronto into Miami we were instantly greated by smiles and the kind airport staff that made both me and my parents less nervous about the upcoming travel. As my group and I landed in Peru, we were met by our program leaders who made the whole trip a great experiance. Every rustic staff that I had met during my experiance was kind, helpful and understanding. Throughout the whole trip the staff helped push us out of our comfort zones and helped to make the trip the best it could be. One of the things that I was most worried about the people, however the people that I have met have become some of my closest friends. As my group was small, we were able to become very close in the short amount of time which made it very hard to leave at the end of the trip. I am a picky eater and the food on the trip was not a challenge for me, where it most of the time is. Rustic made sure that the food provided had many options to choose from and the food always tasted great!! My rustic experiance this summer was by far the best travel experiance that I have had and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for adventure, service and new experiances.

Sacred Valley service is a life changing experience,
While in Peru our community service work was to dig trenches and lay piped that would soon be used to transport fresh water to local villages. Not only was it amazing to do physical work that would soon change live but it was awesome getting to stay with one of the families that would later be positively impacted by the work we were doing. Not only were we doing community service but we were hiking, camping, staying with host families, went zip lining and so many other out of this world experiences. I made so many long term connections in Peru and getting to meet and share experiences from people all over the world is amazing. I would 10 out of 10 recommend this life changing experience for anyone who is willing to go!

The community service is fantastic. You feel like you are truly making an impact and the results are instant. The villages and children are so cute and it is a once in a lifetime experience that you gave to take. My favorite memory from this trip was definitely playing with the children in the town. All of them after school play soccer in the fields and in the street and are extremely welcoming. We played with them all day until dinner and they were so kind. Even though there was this language barrier, it disappeared once we started playing with them.

This trip changed my life and the way I see the people and things I surround myself with back home. The part that impacted me most was helping at the Huayllampi boarding school. The children there taught me so many life lessons that I will never learn in school or from my family. They are the kind of life lessons that you will only learn when you have an experience such as this; seeing the people who live such simple yet meaningful lives, and becoming a part of a community such as the one in Huayllampi. One memory that will stick with me forever is travelling to the small village of Tupe in the Andes Mountains. This is the most secluded place i have ever been to. The people there live without cars, phones, computers, or even bikes. They walk 8 hours down the mountain to get to the nearest town. This kind of isolation is something that most people will never experience, and it is something that most people probably consider impossible. But the people that I met in Tupe were happy without the cars, phones, computers, and bikes that we consider so essential to our daily lives. After visiting this village, I had a whole new perspective on what I feel is important to me. I don't need to drive a car to be happy, and I don't need constant connection with the outside world through social media to be "up to speed." If anyone is ever on the fence about traveling with Rustic Pathways, they should know that these experiences are worth every penny that they cost. The counselors are such stunning people, with incredible and inspiring life stories. These counselors will keep you safe wherever you go. You will make friends and memories that last a lifetime. Traveling with Rustic was the best decision i have ever made and I cannot wait to travel with them again next year.