Fourteen students from Hele’s School in Plympton took up the opportunity through Camps International to explore Peru for four weeks in the summer.
During this time, the students, from Year 11, 12 and 13, were engaged in several once-in-a-lifetime experiences. These experiences included a five-day trek through the Andes, culminating in a guided visit to the Inca city of Machu Picchu, a week on Lake Titicaca and an expedition to Colca Canyon to view Condors in their natural habitat.
from climbing mountains to dodging angry bulls!
The focus of the visit, however, was to work in local, deprived communities to provide them with better facilities. The students worked extremely hard on a range of projects, from building picnic tables for a primary school near Lake Titicaca, to constructing a green-house from heavy adobe bricks in a secondary school near Cusco.
The students benefited enormously from their adventures and overcame a number of challenging obstacles, from climbing mountains to dodging angry bulls!
In addition, everything the students did was at high altitude, with just two-thirds of the normal oxygen intake in England.
Hele’s teachers Mr Farmer and Mrs Aldersley, who organised the expedition, were both enormously proud of the effort and achievement of the brave adventurers and it is fair to say that, with one exception, everyone was well and truly out of their comfort zone.
That exception was the expedition leader, Spike Reid, who is a former Hele’s student himself. Spike ensured that everyone got the most out of the expedition, offering the right amount of support and challenge, guidance and direction.
Hopefully, he will be able to lead Hele’s students on their next adventure!
