Peru: Sacred Valley Service & Education, 2026
June 28, 2026
Hola familias,
Our first day went great! We started the day off with a delicious buffet of fruits and breads, then got a bus to the airport. After arriving at the airport we proceeded to our plane which took us to Cusco. We took a bus to the majestic and beautiful city center “plaza de armas” to eat some traditional peruivian food which consisted of ‘causa’ which is a dish of mashed potato stuffed with avocado then we had our main courses of a variety of meats. After eating we walked around the plaza and exchanged our money for soles then headed back to the bus. Heading up to our next spot we took in the amazing views of Cusco and the mountains around. We later arrived at an alpaca farm where we got to pet and see llamas and alpacas. Later during our visit, we got to see the differences between real alpaca wool and synthetic ones and look around the shop at the farm. Once we finished looking around the shop, we passed through the farm once more and got to see a pen full of guinea pigs. We then got back on the bus and took a dark but scenic ride to the town of Calca and arrived at our hotel for the night. We ate dinner as a group then had our nightly meeting to discuss our plan for tomorrow. The groups highlights for the day were getting to pet the alpacas at the farm and our delicious lunch at the plaza. We had a great start to our trip and are looking forward to the rest of our trip!
By Struan and Rhett
June 29, 2026
Hola papis y mamis!💪🏾😉🥵 Today we woke up crack of dawn LOL. We tumbled out of bed and made our way down to our delicious breakfast where we filled our bellies 🫃🏾with delicious fruits, eggs, bread, and coca tea. After breakfast we got ready and played some icebreaker name games to get to know our group better. Shoutout Tejas dominated the game, he’s the GOAT. Our next activity was taking over the town of Calca and meeting lovely locals. We split into groups and had a variety of places to see and tasks to complete. We went to the local market and got exotic fruits to fill our bellies even more🫃🏾. After getting familiar with the town of Calca and meeting some of the host families, we stumbled into the BIG bus🤪. We traveled 🚀 into the town of Pisac and ate some salivating empanadas. The flavors melted on our tongues. Then we shopped with the host families until we all dropped. (LITERALLY 🤪). Then we transported back to the hotel 🛏️ where we all hung out and played silly goober games.
Despues, we walked 15 miles to dinner 😫😩 where we sang Tejas happy birthday🫡🤪. After we trekked back we all snuggled up on the couches and talked about our awesome day. We went over the plans for tomorrow. We are actually so beyond blessed and excited to serve the local communities tomorrow!! 🎶 Here we are writing this blog to you, we hope all your dreams come true, because we will forever love you🎶 We miss you guys so much but I’m sure we are having more fun then you😉 #strawberry #happybdaytejas #cannotwaitformybirthday GOODNIGHT signing out✌🏾
☮️- CARLA and OLIVE💕💕💖💖💕🥶🥶🥶
June 30, 2026
Hi all of the Families! We miss y’all so much! This morning we woke up too early and for breakfast we ate cereal, avocados and eggs and bread which was pretty yummy! After that we took our long bus ride into Kajllarakay where we did service including building water structures and there were a lot of animals there like sheep donkeys and a lot of stray dogs. we also had to carry heavy structures. After that we took a bus to Urubamba and had a very delicious and funny lunch with lots of funny jokes. After that we took the bus back to Calca and learned how to make these beautiful rings that we will get to keep and bring home. Some people bought some jewelry like rings or charms for necklaces from Mario and his wife. While that was going on everyone was showering, playing soccer, volleyball, ping ping against Tajas who is a master and no body could beat him. We also had a nice bonding chat under a gazebo where we got to know everyone better and bond. Then we all met up and walked to dinner at the same place from last night, and all of our host families joined us for dinner and we got to find out which amazing family we will be with. (Ps The guac was sooooo good). During this time we all played with the kids and communicated in Spanish with them. Then we walked back to the hotel and had our nightly meeting where our leaders Carla and Olive lead the meeting. And now we are writing this blog but trying to do it quick so we can go spend time with the rest of the group before our 10pm curfew!☺️ We hope you all enjoyed hearing about our day, it was so much fun and we are all looking forward to the homestays.
Ps from Ashley – hey Fam miss you guys, I’m having the best time and I don’t even miss my phone, haha. everyone is so nice and this experience has been so refreshing, the food is SO good and I’m going to be sad to come home 🙁 Tell skittles I say hi! Miss and love all of you guys make sure to tell the brothers I miss them too. #slay
Ps from Magnolia! I miss you guys so much I hope y’all are having such a fun time, I’m learning so much on this trip and trying really hard to learn Spanish haha but I’m so excited to call y’all and I want y’all to know that I’m doing great and not having a phone is so fun, other than the fact that I can’t text you guys. Anyways I love you mom and and pais!! ❤️❤️❤️💕💕
-Ashley & Magnolia
July 1, 2026
Hola families y amigos! Today was our last day staying at the Calca plaza hotel before living with our homestay families! The day started of with our daily breakfast, toast, fruits, cereal, and avacado (never gets old), and we got our suitcases ready to be checked out. After all that, we went to Senor de la Vara, a school for the disabled, and offered them a helping hand with our second service project. We were painting the rooms of the school using paint that would make the students there feel more comfortable and calm in being in a certain space rather than them being in a room with more flashy and uncomfortable/distracting colors. I have to say, painting those rooms was surprisingly relaxing and appealing! Painting really gave the opportunity to connect with each other and also build some great teamwork and leadership skills and coordination. Two hours later, we bid adieu to the students and teachers and made our way for lunch. Unfortunately, the restraunt’s gas line got cut off, causing a slight delay in preparing our lunch. But apparently, it was a kind of blessing in disguise! We got the chance to show off our acting skills! Everyone was given a sticky note with a certain scenario written on it which we could possibly run into with our homestay families. We then assigned roles to each other as the parent or the travel student. I gotta say, mustering up the courage to speak the scenario completely in Spanish in front of the crowd was impressive! All the groups really put on a show! After this we headed to the soccer field where Cameron and jose absolutely dominated. Then we went back to the hotel where we had our pre homestay meeting that was a little sad because we have to seperate for the next 5 days. But also exciting because we got to go stay with the homestay families. We then hiked forever to our homestay families really just 5 minutes for some of us though. And we all had dinner with our homestay families and hung out. Thats the end of our day. We love and miss you all.
Written by- Tejas & Derek
July 2, 2026
¡¡HOLA FAMILIAS!!!
Today was an amazing day because it Is CARLA’S BDAY 🎉🎉🎉 yayyyy we spent our first night at our homestays and ate a delicious breakfast (most had pan con queso o gelatina) then we continued our service project at the school and painted some more walls and cleaned floors!!! 😄 Then… We had a special surprise and a pinata 🪅 party for Carla!!! The students also performed a special thank you dance. 💃🏼💃🏼 Next we went back to our homestay and had some yummy lunch (Kira had a ton of chicken, rice, avocado, tomato, plantains and some more that I forget lol) At my house (Jade), we ate delicious chicken with rice and tigua 🙌. Afterward, we went back to the plaza and made personalized t-shirts with really cute designs. 🎉 We were then surprised once again with cake for Carla and some cuye (guinea pig) that was decorated with a crown and cape 👑. Next, our homestay family (Kira) took us to the market and we bought some delicious yellow dragonfruit 🐲. We went back for dinner and had another homemade chocolate torta (cake) 🍰 🎂 then we ate some Peruvian pizza on the couch watching the world cup and it was lowk a vibe. Ok that’s all we are having the best time ever love you all 💕.
!Adiós familia!
From your fav Kira y Jade
July 3, 2026
Hi mom!
Today we woke up and had breakfast. We had a variety of foods from steak to potatoes to bread and cheese. After that we met up at the plaza. Some of us went back to the school so we could finish painting. The rest of us went to the local soccer stadium so we could build benches. We eventually built two benches, and painted them as well. At the stadium we were able to explore the bleacher.
After our benchmarking service project, we all headed back to our host families for some astounding lunch. I had some chicken and rice with some eggs and potatoes in cheese sauce. After that we chilled with our host families for a few hours and played games and talked with them! Then we all met up at the plaza to go to make some custom pottery. When we arrived at the pottery place we were then split up into two groups, one group made pottery and the other designed and stenceled cups. It was truly an exciting experience!
After the messy but creative Pottery experience, we walked down Calca’s main road and went to our individual homestays. Dinner was great – warm food while watching an intense match between Cape Verde and Argentina. We went to sleep early to get ready for a long trip tomorrow.
Bye mom!
By Alex, Dilin & Cameron
July 4, 2026
Hi families,
Today we finished the service portion of the trip, in Kajllarakay. The theme for today’s service was “a day in the life of Quecha civilization”. We got to help with the work that these communities do to support their living, which meant harvesting corn and shaving the kernels off the cob in order to make it suitable for other purposes like cooking and food for animals. We also helped tend to the animals and sort foods like beans and more corn. On the long but scenic bus ride to and from Kajllarakay, we got to choose songs to put on a playlist and listened to music for the first time, which was a lot of fun. We brought packed lunches from our host families, and tasted chicken and fresh potatoes from the community. After the bus ride home, we had time to explore the city. We explored the town’s market and shops, got ice cream, and played soccer at the local field. Once we got home to our homestays, we watched the world cup and played games before going out to dinner with our homestay family. Personally, my family took us to a Peruvian restaurant where we had rice, chicken, potatoes, and soup. Once we got back home, we stayed up late watching shows and finally settled in for the night after a long but fun day.
By Harlan & Soren
July 5, 2026
Hola familias! Today we all spent the day with our home stay family doing things of their or our choice. My family started out with a delicious soup with rice chicken and potato. After eating we got ready to take a beautiful hike to a rock clif overlooking calca. Standing up there looking over this small city surrounded by mountains had to be one of the most beautiful views I’ve seen. Wrapping up my amazing hike we had an amazing lunch consisting of a green pesto pasta and chicken. Next we went out for some ice creams rolls and watched the world cup game Brazil vs Norway. Lastly we met up with all the families at the hotel to share food and memories and share our speaches with our homestay families. – Struan
Hola! For our final day with our homestay families, we had a day in the life of a calca resident. After a late night of watching Avatar: the Last Airbender with our host dad Luis, myself and Soren woke up early for church at the local Mormon church. We saw Magnolia and Carla at church and after catching up, we left to get some sweets at a nearby shop. Next, while walking to the market to get groceries, we saw Struan, Harlan, and Cameron for a brief moment before departing to the tamale stand. After our family finished their errands, we went to play soccer at a local indoor field for a couple hours. We went back to the house after soccer, where the families god mother and a couple of missionaries joined in watching the Norway/Brazil World Cup match. We hung out with our host siblings Jose and Luisiana for a while after the game and soon left for dinner with everyone at the Hotel. After many heartfelt speeches, we traveled home and finished our night with sweets and an unfortunate world cup win by England. – Rhett
July 6, 2026
Hola mamis y papis!! We all woke up AND had our last brekky with our host families. Then we all ended up at the plaza where we all cried as we said our goodbyes 😩 then we all jumped into the bus that transported us to Ollanta. We trekked up a huge hill, then walked around and we went into a store with SO MANY GUINEA PIGGYS Yay!!! After that it was time to eat. We got to the top of Everest, then we all had a delicious lunch followed by coffee before walking down to the train station 678 miles away. We sprung ourselves into the POLAR EXPRESS (train) and snuggled with our neighbors as we embarked on our 2 hour journey to MACHU PICCHU. Upon our Arrival we took a car. SIKE why would we ever drive when we can use our shriveled legzzzz. We then Made a quick turn around and you guessed it we walked to dinner. Then had dinner and watched the USA lose against Belgium but are we surprised?? So excited to wake up tomorrow to set Sail to ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD!!! Which made the long day worth it. Love you all, please get up AND move your body today like we did.
SHOUTOUT Magnolias mom HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY😍🚨🫰💜
By Olive y Carla 🎉
July 7, 2026
Hi familias! It’s Magnolia and Ashley here. Today was the day we had all been waiting for… Machu Pichu! First though we woke up and had a good breakfast with a lot of options including avocado, cereal AND Fruitós. Next we started our adventure to Machu Pichu. It started with a 5 minute walk to a 25 minute long bus ride that was very scenic. This very windy road took us up to the entrance of Machu Picchu where we first had to pay 2 solos per person to use the bathroom. Then we started the tour of seeing Machu Pichu, one of THE 7 new WONDERS OF THE WORLD (as of July 7, 2007, so technically we saw it on it’s 19th birthday 😌) We toured it for around 2 hours and had some amazing tour guides and we got so many gold photos, yay! When we finished we rode the bus ride back down and immediately went to this delicious buffet while watching the Argentina vs. Egypt game which was so insane (it ain’t OVER yet) and it was such a good game, everyone was so hype. After lunch we went back to the hotel, got our bags and left to the train! The train had so many beautiful Views, we we’re literally on the Amazon PRETTY much. After the train we got on a bus to Cusco and listened to our playlist and all sung along which was so wholesome and fun. We got to our hotel in Cusco and the hotel Is so cute and like a cottage kinda. A bit later we played some games and ate pizza. That pretty much sums up the day! Miss y’all so much and so excited to see y’all soon!
Ps from Magnolia, i miss you guys so much AND I’m so exited yall un a free days i dont think yall understand AND please have safe travals, i love you guys so much!!!
Ps. From Ashley miss u guys! I’m having so much fun but i can’t wait to see you all this weekend even tho ima miss all the amazing people o have met on this trio, hope yalls traveles AND work for J has been good, i think phone calls are tmmr so hopefully I’ll talk to one of yall tmmr. Love AND miss u all especially Skittles! 🫰❤️
By Magnolia & Ashley
July 8, 2026
Hola familias y amigos! Reporters Tejas and Derek here, serving a fresh plate of the weekly news! After our grand visit to Machu Picchu, we had a good night’s sleep in our new hotel, and the next morning, a fresh start. We had a unique kind of breakfast today, having bread with elderberry jam and butter along with a side dish of fruits. Shortly after, we headed to what might have been the second best destination of our trip: the Chocolate Museum. There, we split into groups and did a workshop, learning and doing the process of converting cacao beans to the chocolate we know and love! After that, we picked it what flavor chocolate we wanted, and took a mold to make our own chocolate bars (milk and dark are the best). After reaping the rewards of our hard work, we made our way across the plaza to lunch, where we had the best chicken and fries! Soon after, we went back to our hotel room and rested for a while, gearing up for the next part of our adventure! We started heading to the market and when we got there we were quickly disappointed. The market was being closed for cleaning and so we had to go to another one. These markets were great also so it wasn’t that big of a letdown. We went to 2 markets and then we made our way over to a street with a lot of vendors where we shopped for 30 minutes. We then made our way over to dinner which was japanese food. Derek had the best food because he got California rolls which everyone agreed were great. (This is Derek btw) The food took a while to get ready so we played some chess and uno. We were at the japanese food place for 3 hours but it’s okay because Derek was absolutely rocking some dance moves. We then we’re walking back to the hotel and the girls thought it was a great idea to get nail polish. We got back to the hotel and the girls are painting nails now. Anyways gotta go get my nails painted. Peace out fam and friends.
Tejas & Derek
July 9, 2026
HOLAAA FAMILIA!
Today is our last day together 😓, but we’ll finally see you all 🎉. Our day started with a delicious breakfast, then I (Jade) did Derek’s makeup and he looked amazing! Then we went out and walked for a long time to go to an incredible museum! After that, we walked even more 😔 to a market with lots of cute things 🙂↕️ (and of course we bought a lot of things) next we went to a super fun zumba class!!!!!! 💃 We all got a nice workout in and had so much fun.
Then we went home and all got nice and fancy for our last dinner 😭 it was a delicioso chinese dinner. Lastly we had our final evening meeting and all were very sentimental as we shared how much we have changed, grown, learned, and become better people. We will miss this group incredibly much I love everyone.
Best,
Kira AND Jade
