Overview
Be a part of the 2 Weeks Special Volunteer Program in Peru with Volunteering Solutions and experience the best that the country has in store for you! You'll get to volunteer for the underprivileged societies living in Cusco and contribute meaningfully towards improving their lives. During the weekends, you'll get to explore Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain, Humantay lagoon, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu as well as some of the historic and cultural sites in Cusco.
This program is particularly convenient for volunteers who do not have time to commit to a month or more for volunteering abroad. It'll be an incredible opportunity to gain first-hand work experience as well as travel with some like-minded people from different parts of the world.
Program Requirements
Volunteers must be 17 years or older at the time of joining the project. Participants should have an open mind and flexible attitude for working in a new and different environment. Volunteers need to be flexible, open-minded and have a passion for working with children. You should also be proactive and have the ability to take initiative All volunteers must provide a clean criminal background check report prior to joining the program. A parental consent form shall be required for Under 18 participants joining the program. A beginner-intermediate level of Spanish would be an added advantage for the participants in the program.
Itinerary
Day 1 Sunday: Cusco airport pick up and transfers to volunteer residence or host families to unpack and rest.
Day 2 Monday: Orientation and Walking City Tour
You will receive the walking city tour and program orientation in the morning to have the rest of the day to explore the city,
Days 3 – 13: Intercultural projects
Our Social projects seek to contribute to the development of the poorest families in our population, principally in poor rural areas and marginalized urban areas weekdays them to attain integral human development, which translates into better living conditions in harmony with nature. Volunteers will be working in rural nursery schools where there is just 1 teacher for 30 little kids aged between 3 and 5 years old. During those two weeks, you will be helping four hours daily from Monday to Friday. You will provide care, love, and attention for these children as well as assisting the Peruvian staff at the projects.
Day 14 Saturday: Goodbye Cusco
You can spend your last day saying goodbye to Cusco and shopping or continues traveling around Peru. This is your last morning at your homestay.
Weekend Tours
Day 6 Friday: Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain Hiking Tour
The marvel to discover the Andean life happens today. Today, you’ll hike through the fields full of alpacas and llamas, red mountains, snowy peaks or lakes, and amazing Andean views.
We pick you up around 4:00 a.m. then we’ll travel 02 and ½ hours on a bus to Pitumarca where you’ll have a delicious breakfast after we continue to K’ayrawiri (4326 mts. /14192 fts.) this is the trailhead where we start the hiking. We walk 3 to 4 hours uphill where you will find a beautiful landscape, big mountain and local people with the typical clothes of their daily life, you will find big groups of Alpacas, Llamas and sometimes wild Vicuñas, also small lagoons created by the thaws of the glaciers, once you arrive at the summit (5020 mts. / 16469 Fts.) you will have free time to rest and to take your pictures. If you are good and want to continues discovering the marvel of the Andes, we start to go back by a different way, the “Red Valley”, a red mountain soil, they look pretty nice, this will be other three to four hours walk downhill to arrive again in Japura where you will have a comforting lunch, then we will bring you back to Cusco (arrival around 6:30 or 7:30 p.m.)
Day 7 Saturday: Free day to rest or explore Cusco by yourself
Day 8 Sunday: Sacred Valley tour connection to Aguas Calientes
Discover the Sacred Valley of the Incas - go on a guided tour to visit the beauty of Moray, Maras, Chinchero, Ollantaytambo ruins, and small towns around followed a lunch in a traditional Inca restaurant. Then take the Train at Ollantaytambo to overnight in Aguas Calientes town to visit Machu Picchu Sanctuary the next day.
Day 9 Monday: Machu Picchu Tour
Machu Picchu is a trip to the serenity of the soul, to the eternal fusion with the cosmos; where we feel our fragility. It is one of the greatest marvels of South America, a resting place of butterflies in the epicenter of the great circle of life.
Early in the morning, you will depart from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu sanctuary by 15 minutes bus up; the guided tour will guide you for 2 hours at the Sanctuary. Then you will be free to explore Machu Picchu with you. You will back in Cusco around midnight.
Day 13 Friday: Hike to Humantay Lake
A day full of beautiful landscapes very close to the snowy Salkantay, the second highest mountain in Cusco (6271 m.s.) and Nevado Humantay (5473 m.s.n.); the ascent towards Laguna Humantay will make us understand why we should take care of Nature.
You will be picked up early in the morning to travel 2 hours by bus to arrive at the beautiful town of Mollepata located at 2900 meters above sea level. weekdays arrival we will have between 40 minutes to an hour to enjoy the tranquility and peace of this place. Then, we will walk back to Soraypampa (an hour of descent approx.) to take the bus to have lunch in Mollepata. After lunch, you will be back to Cusco.
1. - Cusco is a Catholic city, so there will be local festivals during the months of May till July.
2. - All participants for the 2 weeks special program must send us by e-mail their passport copies to [email protected] as soon as the booking confirmation is received.
3 - The visitors' entrance tickets for the Sacred Valley tour is not included in the program fee. This visitor entrance ticket you will need to buy at the Local Government office to visit museums, cultural centers, and archaeological sites.
Living
When you choose to volunteer in Peru, just pack your bags and arrive at the destination with a relaxed mind. Our dedicated coordinator at the location arranges airport transfers, stay, meals and also weekend tours for you. All you have to do is arrive.
Airport Transfer
Volunteers are picked up from the Cusco Airport by the local coordinator or representative. Those volunteers who are arriving overland or are already in Peru will be picked up at a meeting point decided beforehand or at the bus station.
Accommodation
Volunteers are provided with accommodation with local host families. By staying with a host family you will experience the local culture, customs and Peruvian way of living. Volunteers are hosted in shared bedrooms with other volunteers. Usually, there are 2 bathrooms in every host family with hot showers. Accommodations are clean and comfortable. Some houses have the WiFi connection and cable TV as well.
Orientation
A half day orientation will be provided by the local staff. Areas like culture, greetings, locations, transportation, safety, and volunteer placements are given during the orientation. The orientation will be given by the local staff in Peru.
Meals
Volunteers are provided with three cooked meals a day (Monday- Saturday) at the host family house. Meals vary from day to day and generally include soups, vegetable salad, rice, potatoes, juice, dessert etc.
During your Free Time
Volunteers are free to visit and see places or do shopping during their free time. On the weekends most of the volunteers plan a trip to Sacred Valley or the world famous 'Macchu Picchu' - the lost city of Incas. In Cusco, you can walk around Plaza de Armas and explore the different restaurants and shopping areas.
Program Cost
Please Note: -An application fee of $199 is charged over and above the program fee as an application payment. (A 4% international banking fee is charged at the time of payment)
What are you Paying for?
- Pre departure guide
- Assistance from support staff and in-country program coordinator
- Airport pick up from Cusco airport
- Program orientation
- Accommodation
- Project placement
- 3 meals a day from Monday to Saturday
- Hiking Vinicunca Rainbown mountain.
- Transportation from Cusco until vinicunca town round & trip
- Breakfast and lunch at vinicunca and Humantay
- Hiking to Humantay Lagoon
- Trip to Sacred Valley and Connection to Machu Pichu.
- Tour in Machu Pichu Sanctuary
- Entrance ticket to visit Machu Pichu Santuary
- 2 hours tour guided in Machu Pichu
- Train tickets from Ollantaytambo to Aguas calientes (round trip)
- Round trip bus ticket to Aguas Calientes to Machu Pichu Sanctuary.
- Double room (shared room) in a hotel in Machu Pichu pueblo
- Lunch in Sacred Valley
- Certificate Of Completion (Upon Request)
What's NOT included?
- International/Domestic Airfare
- Vaccinations
- Visa fees
- Meals on Sundays
- Meals at Aguas Calientes
- Visitors entrance tickets for the Sacred Valley tour (130 PEN)
- Visitors entrance tickets for Vinicunca mountain (10 PEN)
- Visitors entrance tickets for Humantay lagoon (10 PEN)
- Maras (salt mine) entrance ticket (10 PEN)
- Rental of horse (100 PEN)
- Personal items (rain jacket, gloves, canes, candies, or snacks)
- Overnight hostel to depart to Humantay lagoon
- Drop off to Cusco airport
- Local transportation to and from program location
- Entrance to Huayna Pichu Mountain
- Taxi from Cusco downtown to home stay when returning from tours
Program Dates
| Months | 2022 |
| January | 0216 |
| February | 0620 |
| March | 0620 |
| April | 0317 |
| May | 0115 |
| June | 05 |
| July | 031017 |
| August | 0714 |
| September | 0418 |
| October | 0216 |
| November | 0620 |
| December | 0418 |
FAQ's
Connect with Past Volunteers
To read alumni interviews from past participants, visit the Meet a Volunteer section on our website.
Accommodation and Living
Three meals are provided in a day of which the lunch is the specialty of Peruvian families. The food is tasty, hygienic and nutritious, suited to all volunteers. The volunteers should note that the food is provided from Monday to Saturday of each week. On Sundays, volunteers can eat at nearby eateries or find out good restaurants as per choice.
Places like Barrio de San Blas, Hatton Rumiyuq, Convent and Church of La Merced and Cathedral of Peru have been declared as a World Heritage Sites by UNESCO and must be visited by volunteers during free time and weekends. Of course, we also arrange for tours to Macchu Picchu.
Volunteers are also free to plan quick getaways and explore Peru. We also arrange programs for groups in Tambopata Rainforest areas and the country coordinator can be contacted for the same.
Flights and Visa
Health and Safety
Volunteers can also look up resourceful sites like Lonely Planet to gather more information about Peru and its general atmosphere. You are also recommended to follow the safety guidelines provided by the in-country coordinator during Orientation Session.
Hepatitis A and B
Typhoid
Yellow Fever
Diarrhoea
FAQ's Application and Program Details
We encourage our participants to volunteer in a group. We take special care for providing you a placement and also customize your itinerary to make sure you get exactly what you are looking for. Also, we can design special group programs for groups of 5 or more. Our programs are designed to be safe, affordable and offer a great group volunteering experience to the volunteers.
In our experience of more than 12+ years we have enabled and facilitated volunteer program placements for college groups, university groups, high school groups, group of families, group of couples as well as groups of colleagues.
For our returning volunteers, $50 discount is provided for the application fee for their next Vol Sol program.
He/she should have the flexibility to adjust to a new environment and culture.
Volunteers should have a basic/ intermediate knowledge of Spanish Language.
For Medical Program – Pre-Medical , Medical and Nursing students as well as Medical Professionals are welcome to join. Participants with other qualifications in the medical field such as CAN, EMT can also join the program.
The participant should be in good health.
Volunteers are picked from the Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in Cusco by the in-country coordinator or representative. Accommodation is provided in a homestay or with the host family.
A short orientation is given after arrival about the city, placement, safety precautions. The volunteers are also taken for a short tour of the city before the commencement of the program. However, the tour is dependent upon the arrival time of your flight.
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