Benjamin Exploring Peru, Atlanta, & SGH Internship ✈️🐒🚧

Hello everyone! We at The Guitarrón Chronicles are super excited to present the one and only Benjamin, mariachi’s music director! When Ben isn’t cooking up beautiful setlists and organizing rehearsals, he’s playing trumpet! Let’s see what he’s been up to this summer 👀

‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹ Benjamin’s Summer Update 8-8-25 ‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹

Shortly after I finished with finals I hopped on a flight to Lima Peru on May 10th with the goal to reach a city called Nauta in Peru. In order to reach Nauta we first need to fly to a smaller city called Iquitos then road a bus to our hotel to out hotel in Nauta. I went with a group of 5 other rice students in the club Engineers Without Boarders. We went Peru in order to design a bridges for a remote village called Prado connecting the village to a larger village with a school and a hospital. Ever week day we would take an hour boat ride down the Maranon River from Nauta to Prado where we would collect the data needed to build a couple of bridges. When we visited, the river was flooded to a highest level it has reached in the past 12 years. While we were not working we were able to enjoy the beautiful Rain Forest and hanging out with locals. During our time there we saw a wide variety of wild life ranging from tropical birds, squirrel monkeys, anacondas and even a baby sloth. In our time there were able to watch so many local games played by the villagers’ kids and we were even able to be loose to them.

me testing a hand held bell auger

On the weekend we road the Maranon River until it met with the Ucayali River to create the Amazon River. When there I took the once in a lifetime opportunity to swim in the Amazon. During the weekend we stayed at a wildlife lodge. Most of the time we spent there was swimming in the Ucayali River next to the river dolphins. We then went to past villages where Engineers Without Borders did past work where we examined to see how the past projects were holding up over time.

A monkey on the left and a baby sloth in someone’s home on the right

Once I got back I had to prepare for my Internship at SGH a structural engineering consulting firm in Atlanta which started on June 1st. Once my Intern ship started my summer zoomed by. There I worked on anything ranging from looking at a base isolation’s reaction to earthquakes for a new nuclear reactor to designing a hypothetical toy factory for Santa. During my last week I was able to make a site visit to the first nuclear reactor that uses salt to cool down rather than water in the US. The construction is not super far along with the reactor itself since they were only creating the foundation for the structure. However, they finished the steel framing for a support structure nearby.

The view from my break room

When I was not working 9-5 I largely spent my time exploring the city of Atlanta and Georgia as a whole. Atlanta is surrounded by a ton of greenery so I made sure to go one to two hikes per week. Most of the hikes were on the Chattanooga River because the areas were close to my spot of work. When I had the chance during the weekend I would drive out an hour our two to get to a location in the mountains up north. My favorite hike was the Amicalola falls. In Atlanta got the city past and was able to visit the Coco Cola Experience, Atlanta Aquarium and the Fernbank Museum.

Amicalola Falls

During my internship I went on 3 different weekend trips. The first I was able to visit Houston to celebrate my 21st birthday. The initial goal was to be there during my birthday but sadly my original flight got canceled. I instead was able to visit a couple of weeks later to celebrate with my friends. Later I went to camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The last trip I did was a visit to Knoxville to visit with my cousins and aunt. One of the stores I went in was McCrays which had a near infante amount of books movies and cd’s. As I am writing this I am preparing to drive back to Houston tomorrow to get ready for the school year in 2 weeks.

Thank you,

Benjamin Gomez