By Aidan McCann, Reporter
Spanish teacher Sarah Powell and a group of seven students traveled to Peru over mid-winter break. The group ranged from freshmen to seniors and was joined by another high school group from Brooklyn.
The students from Vashon flew into Lima, the capital of Peru, where they met the group from Brooklyn. Over the course of the trip, they spent time in Cusco and Machu Picchu and traveled around the Sacred Valley.
“The people in Peru were very nice, and they had really good food throughout the country,” sophomore Jake Harrah said.
Powell leads a trip every year to a different Spanish-speaking country, including destinations such as Costa Rica, Cuba and Spain. Powell said she tries to choose countries that will provide a range of rich experiences, and places where the group doesn’t have to spend a significant amount of time in transportation from place to place.
“The transportation was really good,” Harrah said. “We had a tour bus, and took planes and a train to get between cities.”
One of the most valuable parts of the journey for Powell is meeting new people from other places in the world, and learning to work together for the common goal of a successful trip.
The two groups did a couple of ice-breaking activities, then packed into the bus together.
According to Powell, while trips of this sort are wonderful experiences, they don’t make a big difference in student’s proficiency in the language.
“We got to practice ordering food a lot, and we tried to bargain in Spanish,” Harrah said.
The primary takeaway of such trips has been the understanding of foreign cultures and learning about other people’s way of life and even political systems.
While Peru is a relatively safe travel destination, the abrupt shift in everything from language to cultural norms can be a shock for students. Simply the vast population of a foreign city can be enough to bring about discomfort.
Powell said that because the trip was very organized, the only real danger that they faced was bad tap water. The water couldn’t be used for brushing teeth, drinking water or anything that involved ingesting it.
While nobody got sick during the trip, one student was bitten by a dog. It was nothing serious — however, it gave the group a scare.
“It was an adventure, walking through [Cusco] with all that going on,” Powell said.
The group returned to Cusco the last day of Carnival, a celebration that includes a city-wide water balloon fight.