College Student Review of Huancayo 8-day Trip

I went to Huancayo with a group of 5-6 other girls when I was a sophomore in undergrad. It was my first time visiting South America and hopefully won't be my last. One of the biggest mental hurdles I had to overcome was the sheer amount of travel time, which ate up over an entire day of the journey. The 8hr plane ride followed by an 8 hr bus ride was tough, to be honest, but it was well worth it once we got going on the projects and activities. I experienced activities such as OR shadowing, visiting a remote area and setting up a pop-up clinic to take blood glucose readings and administer dental fluoride treatments, visiting an orphanage of young girls who had been abused by their families and teaching them about self-esteem and conversing with them in Spanish, and also learning different suture stitches on a pig's foot. I know these experiences can be tailored more closely to the interests of the group so don't be afraid to communicate what you'd like to see or do! Besides those activities, we had free time to explore around our homestay and we got to see some really cool little parks with amazing architecture and artwork that made for some cool pictures, in addition to the beautiful mountains, glaciers, and lagoons we saw on a hike on a mountain. Overall great trip and it's been a few years and I'm still raving about it!