After graduating from Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., and attending Harvard University, Malia spent her gap year traveling and interning in New York, much like any other kid, except as a Secret Service escort.
Her journey began with a trip to Liberia and Morocco in July 2016 with Sasha, her mother, and grandmother Marian Robinson to promote the “Let Girls Learn Initiative.” The Obama family took their usual summer vacation to Martha’s Vineyard.
Later that year, Maria spent 83 days in Peru and Bolivia, living with her family in the town of Tiquipaya, but the trip was so private that no one knew she was gone until she returned to the United States.
“She was very humble, talkative, and spoke very good Spanish,” Gregorio Mamani, one of Maria’s guides on her five-day hike through the Real Mountains, told The New York Times. “She was captivated by the Bolivian landscape.” Aside from extra security, everyone on the tour is expected to take care of themselves, and Maria reportedly got away with it, doing her share of cooking and other chores.
