Leadership and Community Engagement: Peru

307 Days until departure
June 2, 2026 - June 11, 2026
Trip ID: Parish-Peru-645

Tour Itinerary print itinerary

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Day 1 Hola Lima
Meet Camps International staff and transfer to your hotel
Day 2 Lima--Cuzco
Fly to Cusco
Cusco city walk
Daily reflection and group discussion
Details: Fly to Cusco
Cusco is the storied capital of the Inca dynasty and gateway to the imperial city of Machu Pichu.
Details: Cusco city walk
Enjoy a walking tour of Cusco and take in many Inca remains, charming streets and the colonial section of the city. See how the multiple cultures of the area collide, with sometimes surprising results.
Details: Cusco Cathedral
The Cusco Cathedral houses a an excellent collection of colonial art as well as archeological artifacts and relics. Symbols of the Incas can be found in the cathedral, such as a jaguar head carved into the cathedral doors.
Details: Plaza de Armas
The Plaza de Armas is Cusco's main square, and has been an important gathering spot since Incan times.
Details: Korikancha Temple
The  Korikancha Temple was the most important temple in the Incan Empire. Once filled with golden statues and gold wallpaper, the Spanish described it as "fabulous beyond belief" when they saw it. The stone walls still stand today.
Details: The Convent of Santo Domingo
In 1680, the Convent of Santo Domingo was literally built on top of the Korikancha Temple.
Details: Daily reflection and group discussion
"We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey On every evening of the program, we will set time aside to update our Reflection Journal and share thoughts and impressions that have come to the fore in the course of the day.
Day 3 Cuzco--Camp Moray
Travel to Camp Moray
Camp Moray orientation
Tortilla-making class
Group discussion
Details: Travel to Camp Moray
Camp Moray is situated on a beautiful high plateau (3,600m) close to the world famous Sacred Valley of the Incas. This unique wilderness camp gives you a true taste of what it is like to live in the Andes, with spectacular mountain views across the valley and a real feeling of space and remoteness, allowing you utter peace and a chance to get away from it all.
Details: Camp Moray orientation
Arriving in camp, you will be greeted by representatives of the community and a hot drink. We will do a tour of the community and camp and have a detailed briefing on the projects. As the group are acclimatizing, we make sure that we don't push things too hard and offer plenty of time to relax and absorb the special sense of being somewhere very new and different.
Details: Group discussion
Following on from the project briefing, the group starts by thinking deeply about their goals for the week; in a framed, student led discussion forum. In Camp Moray we are working on projects concerned both with education and nutrition, and those two areas are naturally linked. Those projects have been identified through dialogue with the community and the local authorities and are considered vital for the future of these remote mountain communities. Through an understanding of the process of dialogue, the development of ideas and the aims that we have, the group can identify their own goals, plan for those and then work towards their own objectives
Day 4 Camp Moray
Moray (Kajllarakay) community project
Afternoon soccer match with the community
Leadership discussion
Stargazing evening
Details: Moray (Kajllarakay) community project
Kajllarakay is in a remote area in the Sacred Valley of the Incas that has been largely forgotten in terms of funding or development. We are working with local schools to build and improve infrastructure and ensure children have access to a quality education. We are also working closely with the local municipality to fulfil basic sanitation requirements in the community such as flushing toilets, sinks and shower facilities. Deforestation in South America is at a critical level and in this region around Cuzco, destruction rates are unprecedented. Communities rely on wood for survival. However, wood harvesting is far beyond sustainable levels. Our reforestation program aims to replenish this invaluable source by planting native trees back into the region.
Details: Afternoon soccer match with the community
A session with a local women’s group understanding the work they are doing in conserving their culture and in preserving the natural environment.
Details: Leadership discussion
A student focused discussion of Leadership, its challenges, models and aims. The students will be asked to think about these issues particularly in the context of their current environment and activities. What has worked, what hasn't? Are we on schedule for our own aims? How could we do things differently?
Day 5 Camp Moray
Continue Moray (Kajllarakay) community project
Introduction to local agricultural techniques
Group discussion and lectures
Traditional Huatia dinner
Campfire evening
Details: Continue Moray (Kajllarakay) community project
Other projects in the community include building toilets for households, helping improve the health of families, the community as a whole and surrounding area. Further, the community, unusually for this area, doesn't have a communal building. Andean communities are active and strong and they meet together to discuss common issues, make plans for their futures, elect leaders and maintain a community wide social life. Having a communal house is vital for the long-term viability of the community and is something that we are working on with the community authorities. The hard work on the projects is often rounded off with a game of soccer with the "maestros." At this altitude, it pays to manage your game carefully, and stints in goal are a favorite way to have a rest and breathe a little bit. For those who are still awake after dinner, some hot chocolate and roasting of marshmallows on the campfire, under a spectacular roof of thousands of stars, is always a fun way to end the day in the camp
Details: Group discussion and lectures
Camps has a series of interactive lectures, that cover subjects such as Stakeholder Engagement, Citizen Science and Threats to Biodiversity. These sessions can be run following discussion with the school of the topics considered most appropriate to the group.
Day 6 Camp Moray--Ollantaytambo
Complete Moray (Kajllarakay) community project
Travel to Ollantaytambo
Details: Complete Moray (Kajllarakay) community project
This morning the group has the opportunity to make sure they have put any finishing touches to the service work. There will be a gathering whereby your group can handover the work you have done to the locals - a proud moment of reflection as you look at what you have achieved and the positive impact you have made.
Details: Travel to Ollantaytambo
Travel to Ollantaytambo, a small town with houses built on top of Inca walls and with a massive archaeological site right in its center. We will explore this site, climbing up on huge terraces and looking across the narrow valley at beautiful, and ingenious, ancient grain stores.
Day 7 Machu Picchu
Train ride to Agua Calientes (Machupicchu Pueblo)
Explore Machu Picchu
Transfer by train back to Cusco
Details: Explore Machu Picchu
Board a train and travel through the Sacred Valley for a full-day excursion to Peru's most famous destination, the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. Set on a mountaintop, deep in the jungle, Machu Picchu remained unknown to the outside world until 1912.
Details: Transfer by train back to Cusco
In the afternoon we will return by train to Cusco, the train journey itself is wondrous and the carriages' partially glass roofs offer great views upwards to the cliffs that form the walls of the deep valleys.
Day 8 Cuzco
Cuzco guided sightseeing tour
Final reflection and group discussion
Dinner and dance show
Details: Cuzco guided sightseeing tour
Our guide will explain how the Conquistadors built churches on top of Inca temples, and show you the hard evidence of that which still exists in the form of magnificent and complex stone walls. You will visit Qorikancha, the epicentre of the Inca Empire, home to some of the finest Inca stone-work and a place to learn about the social structures and ambitions of that once great Empire.
Details: Final reflection and group discussion
This evening we make the final entries in our Reflection Journal and share some of the most significant observations and perspectives that have taken shape in the course of our travel experience and how these may be most relevant for us all as we return home.
Details: Dinner and dance show
At dinner, a local dance troop will entertain you and, of course, offer the chance for members of the group to show-off the skills they learned while dancing at Camp Moray.
Day 9 Fly home from Lima
Recognize perspectives and communicate ideas
Fly Back to Lima
Fly home
Details: Recognize perspectives and communicate ideas
Throughout the program, we will set time aside time for discussion, guided reflection, and time to write reflections on self-discovery and what we have learned. "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey
Details: Fly home
In most cases, your flight home is overnight. You will return home on Day 10.
Day 10 Return Home

Tour Includes

  • Round-trip airfare
  • Full time Camps International Staff and/or Project Coordinator with the group 24/7
  • Accommodation in tents with comfy mattresses and bedding while at Camp Moray. Flushing toilets, warm bucket showers & basins included.
  • Accommodation in three and four star hotels in twin or triple rooms with private facilities guaranteed in Cusco & Ollantaytambo
  • At camp, three healthy, well balanced and tasty meals a day, and access to clean drinking water
  • Transportation by private coach for airport and activity transfers
  • In-country support from dedicated local team and 24-hour emergency support
  • All activities listed in the itinerary and all project costs & materials
  • Camp orientation & costs associated with service learning projects
  • Up to three college credits upon course completion (grades 9-12) or high school credit (grades 6-12)
  • Note: On arrival day only dinner is provided; on departure day, only breakfast is provided
  • Note: Tour cost does not include airline-imposed baggage fees, or fees for any required passport or visa. Optional excursions, optional pre-paid Tour Director and multi-day bus driver tipping, among other individual and group customizations will be listed as separate line items in the total trip cost, if included.

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