2025 Service Trip: Peru

SUMMER 2025 SERVICE TRIP:

CONSTRUCTION, INCA HISTORY, & MODERN LIFE IN PERU

In June 2025, ten Nordhoff L.I.V.E. students traveled to Cusco, Peru. Upon arriving in Cusco, we were greeted by our program guide from Maximo Nivel, a local organization that works with the community to identify needs, organize volunteers, and help to fund the construction of local projects. Maximo Nivel put our group to work at Un Mundo Mejor Para Los Niños Andinos, an after school learning center being built by a local couple in a high-poverty neighborhood on the outskirts of Cusco. The learning center will provide a safe place for local children to go after school while also providing access to expanded educational opportunities through its free English lessons for all students. Although Un Mundo Mejor is still under construction, the ground floor of the building was completed prior to our arrival, so our group’s goal for the week was to finish sanding, priming, and painting the classroom walls, so that the classrooms could become operational as soon as possible, even while the rest of the site was still under construction.

Over the course of our week in Cusco, our group completed the two ground floor classrooms, including creating murals inspired by Andean mythology in both of the rooms. While our focus was painting, some of our students also got the opportunity to work on the construction of exterior walls and the bathrooms at the learning center. After our week of service, desks and educational materials were moved into the completed rooms and the classrooms became operational, serving the local neighborhood children, the next day!

Throughout our time in Cusco, our group was able to partake in a variety of additional activities. The week we arrived in Cusco happened to be the week of the city's annual Inti Raymi festival, a celebration of the Inca sun god Inti that derives from ancient Inca tradition and brings in Peruvians from all the neighboring provinces to celebrate. In addition to witnessing Inti Raymi, our group visited a local animal sanctuary to see and learn about Andean bears, pumas, and condors, while interacting with the birds, llamas, alpacas, and monkeys at the sanctuary, went ziplining in the Sacred Valley, took a salsa dance class, went horseback riding to visit several ancient Inca sites in the Sacred Valley, and took a chocolate making class in Cusco.

After completing our week of construction in Cusco, we took a day trip to visit and hike Palcoyo, one of Peru’s famous rainbow mountains, which placed us at an altitude of over 15,000 feet. That evening we returned to Cusco and said goodbye to the family that had hosted us at our homestay all week, as we prepared to leave Cusco for a multi-day trek.

"While fundraising and dreaming about this trip, I never imagined that it would make a difference in the way I behaved at home, but coming back I found a newfound appreciation for the things around me that I didn’t realize I was missing. I’ve always understood that I am privileged, but until this trip I hadn’t really seen what that actually meant, and what life is like for people with less opportunities than me. It’s always been easy to put myself in a box and let bad feelings consume me but looking at and talking to the people in Peru, I realize it’s a privilege to even have the space or capacity to have those feelings at all. While preparing for this trip, everyone I spoke to said I’d come back a different person, and to an extent I believed that. I understood that I’d have different views on privilege and how I live my life, but I had no idea that it would resolve things within me that were completely unrelated to the trip. While hiking through the Andes, I was given time to think, and whether it was the nature or the nausea from the altitude sickness or the amazing group of people I had around me, I changed permanently and positively. This trip meant the world to my classmates and I, and thanks to this club I am a better person.”
Catalina Austin, Class of 2028

Early Sunday morning, our group departed Cusco to embark on the Lares Trek, a three day trek across the Andes mountains through many small Quechua villages. For three days, our group hiked (summiting at over 14,000 feet), camped, and learned about the life of the Quechua people today while enjoying the natural beauty of the Andean region. After three days of hiking, we ended our trek in the town of Aguas Calientes, which resides at the base of Machu Picchu. Early the next morning, we made our way to Machu Picchu, where we watched the morning fog clear from the valley below and explored the archeological site. After our Machu Picchu visit, we returned to Cusco, spending one more night in the city before heading home the next day