So You're Asking "Should I Go on One of these Trips?"

Yes, by all means you should come! I'm sure many of you reading this have never been on what is now being called a "voluntourism" trip (a combine tourism/volunteer trip). I had never been on one until last year and now I'm a zealot, at least for this trip. It is a great way to see some of Peru's most amazing spots and enjoy some fun activities for the first 4 days (Machhu Picchu, Waynu Picchu, river rafting, horse back riding and more).

What I think would surprising you is the volunteer part of the trip is even more fun and adventurous than the tourism portion. During the second half of the trip you will be in a group of 3 teaching in one of the Coprodeli run schools during the day. You will teach approximately 3 classes per day for 90 minutes at a time. You will have had conference calls with your group in advance of the trip and planned what you are teaching and what materials to bring. On one of the days you will spend 3 hours doing "outreach" where you will get the chance to go out into the community and visit people in their homes and help Coprodeli staff assess needs.

In the evenings you visit the orphanages two or three times. We bring them dinner and also bring goodie bags for them.

COST
The trip is not expensive and in fact it is less expensive then if you wanted to plan a trip to Peru on your own. Total cost, including airfare and all the excursions is approximately $2,000, many of us probably spend $2k at home in ten days. This includes airfare, lodging, transportation, administrative costs and about two-thirds of your meals. You also have the option to skip the tourism portion and just do the volunteer portion would cut the costs further. If you're interested we can provide a much more detailed cost breakdown and itinerary or you can find that in a pdf on our website under the "Be Uplifting" tab at www.boyanciwine.com .

WHEN / HOW LONG IS THE TRIP?
BOYANCI Wine will continue to host one trip a year and we would love for you to join us. We next trip will likely be around the same time as this year's trip so the end of June. If that is not convenient for you Coprodeli does host 2 other trips per year that you could potentially participate in. For more information visit www.coprodeliusa.net or call their office at 312-798-2391 .

The typical schedule is to arrive on a late Wednesday night and leave the 9 days later on a Friday. Again if you did not want to do the Tourism portion the trip could be cut down to under a week.

I was lucky enough to have persuaded some of my friends and family to join us and hopefully you had a chance to read their blog entries about their experience. Everyone had an amazing time. They came back feeling enriched and with a new found perspective. They also saw first hand the excellent and very efficient work that Coprodeli is doing down there and are now committed to help further.

I hope you'll consider joining us. I would be happy to provide any additional information and feel free to email me directly (tom@boyanciwine.com) or just reply to the blog. See you in Peru!

Cheers,

Tom