South America Explore

Visiting South America has been such an amazing experience! I have met the most amazing people, both in my group, at the wonderful animal sanctuary and throughout the whole trip. I have experienced so much with these people and I am sure we will be friends for life!

I really enjoyed the first week, exploring Cuzco. We were lucky enough to experience the City in the month of Peru. There were parades, street dances and performances on all the time, which was so interesting to watch their culture and see the locals of all ages getting involved. We improved our Spanish, with the help from Ricardo, the best Spanish teacher ever! He tried so hard to make sure we had loads of fun and games while learning to make it the best possible experience.

The trekking week was very tough! I dont think many of us prepared for the struggles ahead, but with the support of an amazing group and some banging tunes, we made it to the top! It was so worth the struggle, the views were incredible!

I feel like the third week could have been organised a lot better! It was a lot of time travelling, which we expected, but when we arrived at the three different destinations there was nothing planned for us. 2 days in Lima was definately not needed as we werent really allowed to go and explore the city as it is suppose to be quite dangerous and not very touritsy. So stuck in a hostel for 2 days was not much fun, and I would have preffered to get straight on the next bus to Mancora to spend either an extra day there or in Cuenca. Maybe this is something that could be improved or changed on the trip.

The Jungle was a great week, helping out in the sanctuary. To have travelled with Raul through Peru and to arrive at the sanctuary that he built from scratch was amazing to see! He has been such a good leader and has helped us alot throughout our time here, it would not have been the same trip without him!

In terms of food money, I think the budget was way off. It was definately the bare minimum and we were constantly eating at cheap places so we didnt have to use our own money on food we thought would be provided. I would have liked to try some differnet traditional dishes but because of the expense of some of them, i didnt try them and stuck to the cheap budget.

Overall it has been a great trip and definately worth coming to South America to explore its wonderful scenery and culture!