Inca Summer Venture

  Peru

• Cusco: 
Cusco
• Lima: 
Lima
• All Other Areas in Peru: 
Huaraz,  Machu Picchu,  Incan ruins

Dates: Please enquire

Description: From Inca ruins to primeval jungle, snow-capped peaks to salsa clubs; Peru has something spectacular to offer everyone. This Venture includes Spanish language tuition, an epic expedition and a unique opportunity to live and work alongside a Quechua community.

Cultural Orientation & language School, Cusco, Peru:
Weeks 1 & 2.

Our language school in Cusco is a not-for-profit organization, established to teach local children English, there-by improving their future employment opportunities. The fees we pay, subsidize the local children to learn English. Mornings are spent in your tutor groups, leaving the afternoons free to join the Amigos project working with disadvantaged children.

There is also time to visit some of Cusco's many museums and galleries and to wonder at the Inca stone work, evident throughout the town. At weekends there's white-water rafting and mountain biking to blow the classroom cobwebs away.

For Spanish speakers it is possible to join Inca Summer Venture at the start of week three, omitting the language school.

Development project, High Andes:
Weeks 3 & 4.

Now's your chance to use your language skills! We team up with local botanists and contribute to the conservation of the Polylepis tree, indigenous to the high Andes. Not only do we work on conservation projects, but also with the Quechua communities, the modern descendants of the Incas. This involves work in remote Andean communities who live beyond the reach of wheeled vehicles.

Expedition, Andes to Amazon, Peru:
Weeks 5 & 6

Now for a change of pace! Flying deep into the heart of the Amazon jungle we use the rivers as highways, to travel to a "land before time". We visit the indigenous communities of the Amazon, who still live by traditional codes, in remote scattered stilt-villages. The humid conditions are perfect for the other residents of the forest: super-size plants, with wildlife to match. And at the end of each day, there's a welcoming hammock with your name on it.

Returning to the highlands of Cusco we prepare for our main trek; the Inca Trail. Following the footsteps of the Incas, along their original pathways, the trail leads up and down ... and up some more, until, on the fourth morning, we reach the Sun Gate. Here is the "lost city of the Incas"; a fitting finale to our Peruvian experience.

Highlights:
* Learn Spanish, and practice it on the children of the Amigos development project
* Join the Quechua's fight to preserve the Polyepis tree, high in the Andes
* Raft the Amazon and mountain bike across the Andes
* Visit the indigenous communities of the Amazon jungle, by dugout!
* Watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu; the greatest wonder of the world

Cost in US$: $3790 for 6 weeks

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants.

Participants Travel to Peru Independently Or in Groups

Typically Participants Work in Groups of maximum of 16

Application Process Involves:

• Written Application

Post Services Include:

• Exit DebriefingAbroad
• Re-Entry Debriefing at Home

VentureCo Worldwide's Mission Statement: To provide 3-phase travel experiences that are inovative, imaginative and enjoyable. Phase 1: Language school and cultural orientation. That leads to: Phase 2: the volunteer developement project That leads to: Phase 3: the expedition that explores the neighbouring lands and environments of the host region.

Year Founded: 1999