Peru is a beautiful place located in South America.

East students have the opportunity to travel to Peru from July 10-18 in 2017. The trip is led by Tyler Davis: a social studies teacher and assistant athletic director here at Columbus East High School.

Davis has many reasons for wanting to visit Peru with students.

“There are not many places in the world that are more culturally diverse than Peru”, Davis said.

Davis and the students attending the trip will go to three different places in Peru. The first day of the trip will be spent in Lima, the capital of Peru. After one day in the capital city, they will go to Cusco for three days. Cusco is in the interior of Peru, where the Incan people are originally from. While they are in Cusco, they will visit Machu Picchu, one of the great wonders in the world.

After visiting Machu Picchu, they will travel to an ecolodge in the amazon for two days. Then the students will fly back to Lima for one day and then fly back home..

“Our kids are often thinking of traveling to Europe: which is great. We don’t often see trips to South America to see some of those cultures,” said Davis.

While being on the trip to Peru, students are going to visit many different sites including a high school, similar to East, to see the difference and learn how their school works.

They will also visit sites that have a significance to the Incan Empire and connect to the Spanish influences that came into Lima. The Amazon River and the Amazon Rainforest will also be on the list of sites.

The cost of the trip will be around $3,300. The cost is something Davis is very aware of; he wants to make the trip affordable for anyone who wants to attend but is in need of some financial support. Once you make your deposit, the price of the trip can only go down. Davis explains that there is still a great amount of time, approximately 20 months, until departure. Therefore, anyone that wants to go on this trip but needs financial support can receive help.
There is a number of students that have signed up for the trip and some of them are taking advantage of this financial support.

“My family was not wealthy, but we still managed to travel because we saw it as an learning experience. … We are trying to make it available for everyone.” Davis said.

Davis, himself, has never been to Peru before. He is very excited about this upcoming trip and thinks it is going to be a great experience. Right now there are two students and one parent that have signed up for the trip, Davis would prefer around 18-24 students to attend this trip.

The first call out meeting for the Peru trip was before fall break, however, there will be more meetings. If you want to sign up, go talk to Mr. Davis when you are available. Traveling to Peru is a huge educational and life-time experience a student should not miss out on.