PERÚ it may concern

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...