Only twenty-four hours into summer break, I was back at Groton. Everybody on the Peru GEO—GEO an acronym for Global Education Opportunity—was saying their goodbyes to family and loading their luggage onto the bus bound for Boston Logan International Airport. Fast forward to our arrival in Ollantaytambo, our nineteen-day-long experience had begun.
Ollantaytambo is a village with Incan ruins that rests in the Sacred Valley of the Andes Mountains. Filled with excitement, laughter, and plenty of photos, our first few days there were spent in a hotel together. But we soon dispersed to live with our host families and were immersed in Peruvian culture. We ate traditional dishes, worked with our host families, lived among Incan ruins, and spoke plenty of Spanish. For those wondering—yes, we saw Machu Picchu. We visited on a rainy day, which made for a gorgeous view. We even vlogged a bit on my video camera.
Although present in Machu Picchu, the rain did not follow us to Cuzco, only our hunger to experience more of Peru. We satisfied this appetite at Inti Raymi from front-row seats—an annual Cuzco festival held on June 24 to honor the sun god Inti, mark the Incan New Year, and celebrate the winter solstice. But apart from traveling back to the U.S., the festival was supposed to be the last GEO adventure. Customs at JFK International Airport in New York had other plans.
We missed our flight back to Boston with the hour or so it took waiting in the customs line. Our next flight would depart in seven hours, so with Señora Vera’s glorious idea to explore New York City, the GEO had its last hurrah. Imagine a group of six jet-lagged teens and one energized adult wandering around Times Square. That was us. New York was an amazing detour that added to an already wonderful educational opportunity filled with prospering relationships, personal development, and improved Spanish. Reflecting on the almost three-week journey, I could not have asked for a better experience. But I could have begged for some more Imodium.