During our first few days of OG's first ever Explorations at Altitude program, we found ourselves in the office of Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras (DHSF, or Human Rights Without Borders) in Cusco, Peru on May 21. The theme of the program is environmental rights and...
I think we can all admit that when our plane landed in Cusco we were excited, but that initial taxi ride up to the hostel had us re-evaluating our physical and mental strength. It wasn’t even worth counting the number of stairs once we reached...
The third day offered whole new landscapes and climates; glaciers and shivers turned into jungles and dripping beads of sweat....
Did you know that Peru has more than 3,000 different varieties of potatoes, frogs able to suck their eyes into their heads to help them swallow food, and is home to the maca root (a natural Viagra)?...
Sea level. I miss it, how I take it for granted how easy my body is pre-adapted to such an altitude....
In Lima we were also introduced by our group leaders, Gordon and Meg, to ‘Puelas’, meaning a group activity of anything from silly games to deep discussions....
Kokama people inhabited the village and allowed us into their small community for a few days....
Spanish lesson número uno occurred outside the airport shortly after arriving, with our group leaders Lies and Liam showing us how to politely tell (or yell) "¡No, gracias!" to the hordes of taxi drivers waiting outside the main doors....
Here I was, a young and naïve pre-medicine student, expecting to “fix” Peru’s healthcare system; how foolish I was to simplify the situation....
I will not say that I went through a butterfly metamorphosis, but I sure did come home a different person, a better person, ready to go forward on the home front and make a difference in some way. ...
We landed in the city of Cusco with a great many sensations inside, enthusiasm for things to come… and terrible altitude sickness....
fter 28 short hours on a bus from Lima, 15 weary travelers arrived in Yurimaguas at the departure site of “La Lancha”, the river barge filled with fresh produce and local travelers which would be our home for the next three days! It only took...
I can’t believe that it’s already been a week and our time in Lima is behind us. Looking back, there is so much that we have done that it would be impossible to describe it all in one post. So, instead, I’ll stick to the...
The OG Amazon Adventure Crew spent our first week in Lima, the capital city of Peru, taking in the culture in as many ways as we could. We took almost-daily Spanish classes to finesse our language skills before adventuring into the streets of Lima....
So some intrepid backpacktivists are off to Peru, Yet you have no idea what they are going to do! Well in this witty ode, penned from our humble abode, We will do my upmost to try to explain it to you....