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This week (February 23 - March 1) is our annual Peace Corps Week in which members of the Peace Corps community are encouraged to share their experiences with others, back home and abroad, as a renewal of its commitment to service. This year there was even a video competition which challenged volunteers to create a short video that answered the question: What do you wish Americans knew about your Peace Corps country? Though I didn't feel confident enough in my skills to whip up a video about Peru, I have felt much more conscious and appreciative of my Peace Corps experience this week as well as thinking about what exactly my service means to me and my community. As a way of sharing my experience with all of you back home, I have the perfect way you can get involved in a project my fellow volunteers and I are working on at the moment. The volunteers in my region, La Libertad, in coordination with local agencies in the community w...

In his thrilling conclusion to The Perez Family in Peru, Michael J. recounts our kick ass trip to Machu Picchu. Enjoy! One of the biggest and probably most obvious attractions for us to see in Peru was Machu Picchu. We had seen the pictures and read all about it and were very much looking forward to capping off our trip to Peru with a visit here.  Machu Picchu is one of the “new” Seven Wonders of the World. It is considered the most spectacular archaeological site on the continent. Apparently, aside from a few indigenous Quechuas, nobody knew of Machu Picchu’s existence until Hiram Bingham, an American historian, came across it in 1911. From Ollantaytambo we took an early morning train ride, about an hour long, to the town of Aguas Calientes.   This is where you would typically take a bus ride up the mountain to the “entrance” of the Machu Picchu “park”. Aguas Calientes - Isn't there a bus around here? Isaac, Nathan’s younger bro...

Here’s the fifth installation in The Perez Family in Peru series, written by the very talented, Michael J. Perez, as travel through Cusco and Ollantaytambo, slowly making our way to our final destination, el Gran Show if you will, Machu Picchu. Enjoy! After our 10-hour luxury train ride from Puno, we arrived in Cusco, took a cab and checked into Los Niños Hotel.   This was a really cute place with nice rooms and a courtyard that we could hang out in, read, have coffee, breakfast, etc.   Unfortunately, this was my second go-around with an “internal excursion” and I didn’t get much sleep that night but, luckily, I didn’t wake Chris up. Check out the hipsters (aka Jamie and Marlee) enjoying beverages and reading in the courtyard On our first full day we walked around quite a bit of the town on a long hike checking out some sites, including churches, buildings, plazas and a few markets along the way.   We also found another...

As of November 23rd, I officially completed my first full year of service as a PCV and it was crazy hard! I mean, I knew it was going to be hard when I applied to be a volunteer two and a half years ago but I guess I'm struggling in different ways than I thought I would. The past few months have been emotionally draining and I felt the need to come home. Luckily, my parents were down with the idea and brought me home to spend Thanksgiving with the family. It was one of the best weeks of my life! I was dubbed "Queen of the Week" and enjoyed american treats, two winning 49er games, mom's cooking and dad's french toast, kayaking with my cousins, the beautiful scenery of Pacifica (which I never fully appreciated until now), running in the park with my mom, walking the dogs with my dad, watching my sister get her driver's license, shopping sprees, hot showers, safe tap water, refrigerators, the annual House Quake gig at Bimbo's, chats with my niece who didn...