My Favorite Trip

            My favorite trip so far was the most recent one, the summer of 2013. It was between my sophomore and junior year in high school. This trip was about two months ago, started around June 13 and lasted four weeks until July 3. This trip wasn’t a family trip, it was a school trip. There were about twenty students that went, all within the ages between fourteen to seventeen. We were accompanied by 3 teachers but, they weren’t too strict and the trip was a lot of fun.

                We went to Peru because one of our teachers is from that area and she offered to take some of us with her as a vacation. We learned so much during that time and saw so many new things. We visited different cities within the trip. We started off in Lima, the capital city, then went off to different places such as Lunahuana, Cuzco, Puno, Arequipa, Colca Canyon, and also some smaller towns. There was something special about each of the cities. In Cuzco, we visited one of the world’s seven natural world wonders, Machu Pichu. In Colca Canyon, we saw amazing landscape. The Colca Canyon has a deeper drop than even the Grand Canyon in the United States. It was amazing. In Arequipa, we visited a school for a few days and met a lot of new people. That was one of the highlights of the trip for me : We got to make new friends, all the way on the other side of the world. We got to see and experience their culture and learn from them as well as let them learn from us. We also visited a school in Lima and made some friends there.

                We also got to do an amount of fun activities there. We got to go horseback riding, zip-lining, sand boarding down massive dunes, and white water river rafting. That was probably the most exciting for me. I had never done river rafting before, and especially not in such cold weather. It was the coldest I’ve ever been in my entire life. Sand boarding was also especially fun for me since I had never even heard of it before. I know people go water surfing and snowboarding but I never really thought anyone put a board on the top of giant sand dune and rode down. It was interesting, but really exciting and fun.

                One reason why I like this trip more than others is because it was with friends. I usually go to vacations with my family, but I enjoyed this trip more. Seeing all these new things with friends made this trip better to me. Also, our parents were there to wake us up or to tell us to bring jackets and things like that. We had to be responsible and do things ourselves. Obviously, we weren’t prepared and not as responsible so we had to suffer some days being cold without a jacket, or not having enough clothes to wear, or getting sick, or losing money.

                Overall, this trip to me was one of the best summers I’ve had. It was a learning experience because I tried so many new things and saw new sights and met new people, but also extremely fun because of spending time with friends. I am glad I chose to go on this trip. If I hadn’t gone on this trip I might’ve been a slightly different person. Those four weeks of my life really taught me new things and changed who I am. I wish I could go back to Peru with my friends again.