Yesterday getting the bus was so easy (!!) and when we arrived at El Jardin, our kindergarten, there was absolutely no body there, so Juliet and I sat on the grass and waited for someone, students or teachers, to turn up. Eventually los niños and los professoras did arrive and circle singing time began. The head teacher and another main teacher were away at a board of education conference, trying to get funding for a bigger kinder, leaving the other teacher, the teaching assistant, Juliet and I, to look after the kids. Instead of going into their classes as usual after singing in a circle, play time was declared and the children were ecstatic, running around and screaming. Juliet and I sat in the sun, which was so hot today, and eventually we’re swarmed with children. After playtime, extra playtime occurred with balls and hoops and then breakfast. On Tuesdays breakfast isn’t the normal milk and biscuits, it’s rice with a fish and vegetable curry. The children all bring it vegetables and different foods from home, I was wondering why Sandra showed me her bag and it contained an onion and two carrots…, and then the teachers make it into their special Tuesday breakfast. One little girl is only fed soup at home and so every Tuesday her stomach doesn’t know what’s hit it and today she was sick after one mouthful! After breakfast I took my class into their room and handed out their individual boxes of Lego and they started building robots and towers, just as Maria and the other teacher arrived… There was an hour left of school. Maria then sat and wrote letters to each of the children’s parents while they played some more and at half 12, lessons began on the map and animals of Peru… Until 1 when it was time to go home.

For lunch Juliet and I knew we wanted to go to a restaurant called Los Perros, we’d read about it in the Lonely Planet and it’s one of the restaurants we have on our list of things to do. It didn’t disappoint! We walked in to a modern looking lounge bar with sofa seats, red walls and dark lighting and I was so pleasantly surprised by the menu. I literally couldn’t decide between so many things I had to get the waiters advice, and Juliet and I have already decided we’re going back so that we can try more!
I ended up having Chinese style vegetable wantons, with three different sauces. A mayonnaise type one (my favourite), a honey and soy one (it had actual honey in it) and hand made guacamole (yum!) and the wantons themselves, the hundreds of them, we’re delicious.

After lunch we headed to the Spanish school as we’d been called by Horti that morning, to meet at 3.30pm for extra volunteering activities. When we arrived we were given brooms, brushes and dustpans, and huge bin bags filled with cleaning equipment and then we got on the bus for a 40 minute ride into the mountains. When we arrived we had the most beautiful view over Cusco city as we walked along the mountain edge to a beautiful white church right on the edge over looking the view.

When we entered the church we realised why we were here and saw it was filled with dust sheets, old tables and chairs and basically needed a good renovating. We went upstairs, put on some gloves and began sanding down the tables with tiny emery boards, with three other volunteers. Soon the room, and us, was completed filled and covered with brown dust and I knew we were going to spend the rest of the afternoon coughing and sneezing our way through sanding the old furniture. I managed to do three chairs and a huge table before 6.30pm arrived and it was time to go back to Cusco, and this time the beautiful view had been switched with brilliant twinkling city lights.

Unfortunately Juliet and my local dinner cafe couldn’t get the wifi working this evening and so we headed back to the house, it was far too late for us anyways, ready to collapse on our beds.

Juliet and I are getting seriously confused about these busses. We thought we had it sorted and knew exactly which busses were ours and which to take… But after waiting at the bus stop for half an hour this morning because NONE of our busses drove past (every five minutes a bus pulls up and there’s three different ones that go to Ccorao and NONE of them today were ours) we hailed a taxi. Unfortunately the first taxi refused to drive all the way to Ccorao and the second one we stopped said he’d charge 25pesos, instead of the bus rate of 2pesos…
Thankfully Peruvian people are extremely amicable and always eager to help and so as a random black mini bus with no name drove past, they waved it down telling us it goes to Ccorao… How they know every single bus’ route, even ones like this with no name, I have no idea but we hopped on and arrived at El Jardin the Kindergarten, just in time for circle singing time. There was only 7 niños there when we arrived and the teacher explained that lots of children would be late because of the cold… It was a cold day in the mountains but why that makes the children late I don’t know… Maybe they wait until it warms up. After about half an hour more children showed up and we had about half of the kindergarten in a circle singing the Peruvian national anthem in practice for Independence Day. The head teacher then decided that the children needed to practice marching, and as the rest of the niños showed up, the children were parading around the garden, marching in true Peruvian fashion with straight arms and straight, very high legs.

Juliet and I were actually shocked by how long the teachers made them do this for, it was about an hour and the teachers had a chat while Juliet and I stood as boarders for the children to march around. Soon they lost interest and started fighting and playing and not marching at all and the teachers carried on their chat while Juliet and I tried to wrestle them all apart and get them to march again! Eventually enough was declared, and lesson time began. I spent the lesson stocking instructions on work sheets and although it seems quite tedious, I was using liquid glue and a paint brush and the glue was going everywhere and it was actually quite a challenge! (I felt like a kindergarten pupil myself!) the children spent the beginning of the lesson going over the days of the week and the months of the year, with a few pupils who clearly didn’t know them, got put on the spot having to prove that they did or no breakfast at break time! The rest of the class whispered the answers and tried to help out their friends, and I too, was trying to mouth the days to the poor little boys standing up, speechless! After about half an hour of otra vez! (again!) they eventually moved onto something a lot more exciting for them, all the different types of animals that live in the different areas of Peru! They were fascinated and loved hearing all about them. Eventually it was break time and as Juliet and I sat in the sun, children came and sat between our legs, in a circle around us and three little girls all took it in turns to braid my hair. All of the Peruvian girls always have their hair in beautiful plaits and every day the little girls come into kinder with a different hair style and they were also, for four year olds, so good at braiding hair and did mine over and over again.

After kinder, Juliet and I headed into Cusco for lunch and after our menu del dia in one of our favourite-cheap-restaurants-with-wifi, I facetimed my family which was so lovely. The plan for the rest of the day was to go to the inka museum but Juliet and I decided we’d seen inca ruins for real and the most amazing one ever, Machu Picchu and so a few items in a museum probably wouldn’t impress us. We’d much rather sit in the sunshine in the middle of the absolutely beautiful plaza de armas, right by the huge water fountain and read our books… And that’s exactly what we did. We also did it I disturbed in peace until the man on the bench with us decided to try and have a conversation with us, Juliet and I soon told him (in Spanish) that we didn’t speak Spanish… (Whoops) and he eventually stopped trying and we were left to enjoy the beautiful cusco and our books (we’re both reading the book thief… Absolutely fab book).
Eventually, like it always does in cusco, it suddenly became very cold very quickly and we headed to the house to relax, paint our nails and chill, before heading out to our usual dinner spot, Basilica for our daily vegetable sandwich and blog writing time!

This morning after our second 1peso freshly baked croissant, we headed into the main plaza to watch the annual Sunday Parade. At first we had seats on the main area where people watch, but with our choice of shorts for today, we soon had to move into the sun… And ended up having a much better view! The parade happens every Sunday and is in celebration of the raising of the Peruvian flag in the plaza and also a chance for all the schools, groups, and teams to march around the city, showing their appreciation to the army, the forces, the people of cusco and the mayor. The mayor and his family, stand and watch throughout while each and every different group in the parade takes their turn marching. It goes on for hours with the army going first, followed by the navy, the police and then different members of the parade, as young as 3 or 4, while a live band plays throughout. Juliet and my favourite were these tiny children who were all dressed up as baton twirlers, clowns, police and then at the back, 6 little boys were dressed in army outfits with miniature machine guns and hats, and as they passed the mayor’s stand, they all got on their belles and crawled along the ground!

After we eventually felt like we’d watched enough of the parade, we found a beautiful sun lit spot on a bench in the middle of the plaza where we could hear the music, and sat and read our books for a good two hours. (Not even looking up when the street sellers came over with paintings and jewellery… We were so engrossed!)

Eventually it was time for lunch and we found a cute little restaurant with tiny balconies that only held one table for two. We picked out one of these in the sunshine and ate our meals in the sunshine, overlooking the busy cusco streets below. Then it was time for the World Cup final!!! Right opposite our restaurant was the coolest bar ever: Ukuku. It had a huge projector and screen all set up for the match, with hundreds of chairs in rows facing it – they were clearly prepared to be busy.

About half an hour before the match was due to start, the bar filled up and was heaving with Argentinian supporters with flags and face paint and every Argentinian football shirt. There was only a handful of German supporters and Juliet and I had already made up our mind that we didn’t like the German team and we’re going to be Argentinian supporters for the day. It was such a tense final between Germany and Argentina, with the first goal being scored by Argentina. The whole bar went crazy, screaming and hugging until the decision was made that the man who scored was offside. Then there was swearing and shouting and even tears all around us. The match went on completely even throughout the whole game with Argentina coming so so so close to scoring on numerous occasions but never quite making it! Eventually it went into extra time and Juliet and I were praying for it to then go to penalties as we knew Argentina would score… However in the last couple of minutes, Germany scored (by fluke if I do say so myself) and it was all over. (So so so annoying!!!!) As the few German supporters celebrated, the Argentinians got up and walked out of the bar and Juliet and I followed suit as we now feel like true Argentinians. It was so weird stepping out onto the streets of Cusco as they were completely empty! Not the busy, crowded hustle and bustle that we’re used to! Some very happy Germans jumped on top of a tour bus as it drove around the square beeping it’s horn but most people ignored it… Juliet and I acted like true Argentinians scowling at them and mumbling “stupid Germans no one cares”… (But we clearly do!!!)
We are now in Starbucks with a very needed frappachino! (We needed cheering up) After a relax, where Juliet can finally finish writing her diary, we’ll grab some dinner and have an early night (I’m sure) ready to start volunteering again tomorrow!!

Today when we woke up, we realised that Juliet’s food basket had been infested by ants. She poured herself some cereal, took a mouthful and screamed… There were also ants in her cereal! So we scrapped the homemade breakfast idea and headed to our local cafe for a freshly baked chocolate croissant.
Then we walked the half an hour journey into the city centre (well power walked, we were running late after our ant catastrophe) and headed to the chocolate museum to start our master class in chocolate making!
We learnt all about the cocoa bean and how Mosquitos help to pollinate it, then we all tried a raw cocoa bean… Juliet and I were not impressed by the bitter taste of this! After wards we cooked the beans in a hot pot over a flame until they started popping. After peeling the cocoa beans, the shells were used to make us some cocoa tea which was delicious! We each ground up the beans into a paste before realising how difficult it is to do by hand… And then used a machine to finish the job for us! With this paste our cooking teacher made us two drinks that the Mayans used to drink. The first was the 100% cocoa paste with hot water, chile and honey… We were not really fans of this either! The next was 100% cocoa paste, hot milk, cinnamon, cloves and lots of sugar and it was absolutely delicious! It tasted like a Christmas hot chocolate milkshake and we both said we’ll be making this at home. After the drinking session, we learnt about the mixing process of the chocolate that takes 24 hours and then the cooling process which they do by pouring the chocolate out onto a marble table and moving it around until it is at the right temperature.
We then picked our moulds and added all the different flavours we wanted to them, before pouring in our milk chocolate. Juliet and I used m&ms, smarties, oreos, salt, and even quinoa to flavour ours.

We then went and found a cute restaurant with an outdoor eating area, and sat in the sunshine over looking the plaza, for lunch, waiting for our chocolates to set. An hour later they were done! They were pressed out of the moulds and we put them in a cute little bag, tied up with a ribbon and had our very own handmade chocolates!
It was a great day (as you can probably imagine, Juliet and I ate a lot of chocolate in the process…)

This afternoon we both decided we were in need of cute Llama backpacks, so that we could complete our backpacker / traveller look, and have been wandering around feeling very pleased with ourselves with or bags on our back. We went to visit the temple of the sun and there was a live Peruvian band playing on the park beneath it. Right opposite is the cutest cafe with quiches, cakes and pastries and so we have stopped here for dinner!

I’m thinking it’s going to be another movie night tonight after another action packed day.

Just when Juliet and I thought we had mastered the bizarre Peruvian public bus system, we arrive at the bus stop at our usual 8.10 and are still there at half past wondering if any busses are actually going to go to Ccorao, the village where our volunteering is. When we’d finally given up hope and were trying to attract the attention of the taxi drivers, who are normally beeping madly at us, a bus pulled up with Ccorao on the side and we hopped on and were off to work again.
When we arrived at school, the day started once again with songs round the circle before we split into classes. My class was doing geography today and learning all about the map of Peru and it’s different regions. After discussing the different foods from each region and the main cities within them, the children then learnt about be different music and dances from each region. The Independence Day of Peru is coming up where the children will have the opportunity to sing and dance to all different types of Peruvian music, so as well as learning the national anthem each morning in the circle time, they are also learning different dances and music, ready for the celebration.

At break time today, the children were clearly absolutely exhausted, it must be Friday, as they all sat on the grass in three huge lines, all drinking their milk and eating their cookies in a strangely quiet and relaxed manner. However once they were finished they gained their usual crazy selves and started running around and screaming once again. After break time, to Juliet and my surprise, it wasn’t class room time again, it was an even bigger break time with balls and hoops however this time, Juliet and I were supervising and the teachers were inside writing out homework for the children.
They went absolutely mad the minute that the teachers were inside and even tried to escape through the gate onto the main road, and Juliet and I were Ike sheep dogs rounding them all up! Once we’d sorted the attempted escape out, the children became more settled and all queued up in front of me while I held up rubber hoops for them to throw balls through.
The ridiculously long play time was up after two hours, Juliet and I were absolutely knackered, and the children in my class went inside for one more dance before it was home time for the weekend.

When we arrived back in Cusco, Juliet and I discovered the smallest but cutest little vegetarian restaurant, Presada. We’d heard about it before but had never been able to find it however we just happened to stumble across it while walking down the street. I had a delicious salad followed by a HUGE piece of banana and chocolate cake!

It was then time for our last Spanish lessons (this week has gone far too quickly!). After mine, I helped the teachers and Horti, our house mum, to decorate the school in the Peruvian flag colours of red and white, ready for Peruvian Independence Day in two weeks! We stuck bunting and ribbons and bows and flags everywhere!

Unfortunately at some point in all this havoc, I lost my beloved map (seriously I feel as if I’ve lost a part of me!) it had all of Juliet and my favourite places, restaurants, streets and shops marked on it and now I’ve lost it all! (So depressed)
After a quick dinner, we headed back to our house for a Friday night movie. We put my iPad on a make shift table/chair between our beds and fell asleep watching Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 2 – a perfect end to the week!

This morning when we woke up, we discovered that Juliet’s food basket had been infested by ants, and when she poured out her cereal and took a mouthful, she realised she was eating ants!! (So gross) so after a swift chucking away of the food, and then a huge bug spray, any killer spray, around the house, we headed to our normal dinner cafe for a freshly baked chocolate croissant. I have a new map today so we can start a fresh with drawing on our favourite places!

We’re now off to a chocolate making class, at the chocolate museum, and we’re both SO excited (as you can probably imagine) so I’ll let you all know how that goes in the next blog!!! (That’s if we don’t eat ourselves sick before… Hehe)

After another ridiculously early night (it’s becoming a habit, the children literally exhaust us!) we woke up this morning at 7.30 – half an hour extra in bed since we’ve now mastered the bus and so it only takes us about 25 minutes to get to Ccorao. This morning when we arrived at the school the teachers weren’t there yet so we spent the beginning of the day playing with the children in their playground before the director arrived and it was time to sing songs in a circle. As well as a Peruvian national
Anthem, each main city in Peru has it’s own hymn and the children in our kinder sing the one related to cusco, their nearest city. It’s called Cusco Cusco and Juliet and I are determined to learn the words, they all absolutely love it, scream it so loud when it’s time to sing it and all took it in turns singing it to me at break time so I could video them.
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Juliet and I also sang the children “Old Macdonald had a farm” a song that the teachers want the children to learn. We taught them the first line today and will teach them another every day.
After a morning in the class room drawing different size ducks inside and outside of lakes, one of the little boys, Pablo (the one on our right in the video), decided to thank me for all my help and tell me that he dreams of visiting England. All of the other children agreed and Pablo said his mum also dreams of England too, and after telling him that he is welcome to come and visit me in England, he kissed me on the cheek and told me he loved me! (In Peru when you are close acquainted with someone the way to greet them is a kiss on the right cheek.) The youngest boy in the class (4 years old) who I was helping to draw ducks then told me my hair was beautiful and also kissed me, as did all the children in the class one at a time it was so sweet!
Break time was filled with fun and games, lots of photos and more singing of Cusco Cusco (Juliet and I are so determined to learn it!)

After break time it was back to class and this time I was helping out with the youngest class, full of three year olds. They had pictures of the morning routine in the wrong order and we’re spending the rest of the day cutting them out and sticking them down in the right order. A little girl called Caroline, who every morning cries because she wants her mum and who doesn’t speak, also doesn’t know how to use scissors. I helped her to do her work, literally cutting the paper with her by putting her tiny fingers in the scissors and opening and shutting them for her. Every time a photo was cut out her whole face lit up and she gave me the biggest grin – this is the first time I’ve seen her not cry, let alone smile! When her work was finally done, we stuck down the pictures together, using our fingers to paste the glue and when her work was complete she was so so happy! It was such a nice feeling to have helped her and when I asked how she was, she even answered me with BIEN!, such an achievement.
I then went around the class stamping Excellente! with a teddy bear on all of their work, and made the mistake of leaving the stamp on the side, where the terror Daniel got hold of it and stamped Excellente! all over the walls… Whoops!
Juliet and I both left the kinder feeling very happy today, even though once again we were absolutely exhausted, covered in hay, grass, ink and the children’s food!
A bus pulled up just as we arrived at the bus stop, heaving with people and so we stood, crammed and hot, the whole way down the windy mountain roads back to Cusco. After lunch we stopped at the post office to send our postcards (everyone be excited to receive yours!) before heading to Spanish school for our lessons. I spent mine teaching my teacher all about English culture, the royal family (which he couldn’t get his head around) and the national anthem – which he found hilarious because it’s only about the queen and not the people?! I don’t think he realises just how much the English love the queen…
Once again this evening Juliet and I are back in our usual cafe, Basilico for our evening sandwich or empañada before heading back to the house… Probably for another early night, we’re exhausted again!

This morning Juliet and I woke up early as it was our first proper day volunteering and we knew we’d have to master the bus on our own today. At 7.45am we were at the bus stop opposite our house, waiting for our bus. It arrived quite quickly however when we asked if it was going to Ccorao, the village where our kindergarten is, the answer was a firm no and the door was slammed shut. The bus system in Peru is absolutely crazy. The busses are more like mini busses and when they pull up at the bus station, 6 or 7 all pull up at the same time. Each mini bus has a name not a number like in England, and each bus also has a conductor, someone who opens the door as the bus is pulling up, shouting all the names of the different places that the bus is heading to. To even get the bus to stop you have to wave it down like a maniac and then when it pulls up, it only stops if someone is right there waiting to get on. So the minute the 6, 7 or even 8 busses are getting close to a bus stop, the people waiting start waving like mad then running as fast as they can to where they think their bus is going to go, while all the bus conductors are screaming their stops and the bus drivers are beeping madly… and the other cars on the street start beeping as well, as they’ve just been cut off by about 7 busses. It’s all very hectic and confusing and half an hour later, Juliet and I were still standing at the bus stop as we’d missed a few of our busses and when we had managed to get any to stop, we’d been told no when asking about Ccorao (not all of or busses go all the way there).
We gave up then and decided to try a different bus stop, after walking for about 5 minutes in the opposite direction to our previous bus stop, a huge bus (that wasn’t our one) pulled up and we tried our luck asking about Ccorao and it was heading there! So after all that stress we jumped on the bus and got to out volunteering early!

When the niños (children) started arriving at the Kindergarten, we were greeting with huge hugs and shouts of “amigas” “amigas”. Even though they do actually know their names, this is a sign that they all like us and have accepted us as their friends and into their culture! We played with all the children on their small playground (consisting of a slide and monkey bars) and were actually shocked at how monkey like they all are! They climb all the way up the slide without using the stairs and then slide down backwards or upside down or whichever way is not normal! And the same with the monkey bars, they can all do them so easily and climb on top and jump down from the huge height! The school day started with all the children standing in a huge circle and singing some songs, with actions, to begin the day. They sang a welcome song and then a song about getting ready in the morning, before all becoming very patriotic and so loud and screaming the Peruvian national anthem with their hands on their hearts.
After this they all split into their classes to begin their lessons. In my class they all started by singing (again) a welcome song to me and the teacher before she painted a few of the children’s faces with red smears and blew her whistle to indicate an earth quake. I’m guessing it’s similar to schools in England where we’d have a fire drill, but here it’s an earthquake drill. All of the children ran outside with their hands on their heads and got into circles in their classes. Then the children with red smears pretended to be those who had been injured in the earthquake and all the other children started to help them and take them to the hospital (the trees). The children got so into it, acting like doctors, fanning each other with their hats and some of them even pretended to die!

After the earthquake practice it was lesson time again for the children. I spent this time writing out exercising and drawing shape and colour tables in all of their exercise books for tomorrow’s lessons. Then it was break time where the children enjoyed maize and milk soup with biscuits, they literally are hundreds! Juliet and I spent most of the time playing with the children, letting them climb all over us and talking with the teachers. I also had to spend a lot of time with one child, Rayli. He’s a very difficult one and all the teachers are quite weary of him, he doesn’t have a dad and lives alone with his mum and is very very violet. He thumps and hits and kicks the other children and has taken a huge liking to me so unfortunately when I show any of the other children attention he thumps them! It’s so bad and then when I tell him no! he starts to sulk and cry! It’s all very exhausting but the children are so cute and Juliet and I are loving every minute with them.

The next lesson for the children in my class was music and while they all shook maracas, hit drums, blew trumpets and whacked triangles, I carried on with their exercise books. The music lesson, although it was basically a racket, was hilarious as they all tried to play their instruments in tune to the songs they were singing and took it in turns standing up and being the lead musician.

After Kinder, we headed back into the main square, the plaza de armas, in Cusco for some lunch before walking to Spanish school for our lessons and to watch the football semi – final, Argentina v Holland!

Originally Juliet and I wanted Holland to win but after seeing their horrible aggressive players and learning about how important it is for Argentina to win, not only for the country but for it’s economy, we quickly switched to be blue and white supporters. It was a very tense game, going all the way to penalties but Peru and Argentina are “hermanos” (brothers) so thank god Argentina won or we would have been at a Spanish school with a lot of angry South Americans…

Yesterday after our volunteer orientation with Horti, we headed back to our house to chill as it had been a very exhausting day. We had dinner in a local small cafe / restaurant before having probably our earliest night so far! (We were in bed reading by about 8pm…)

This morning when we woke up we were both so excited for our volunteer work to begin! We chose to volunteer in a kindergarten just outside of Cusco instead of a in two different schools close by as we felt that we’ll have more of an impact on the lives of those from the village and also for us, we can learn more about their culture in that kindergarten. It is in a place called Ccorao, which is about a 40minute journey by public bus. The village is situated in the mountains and it is very rural and poor. All of the children are under the age of 5 and I think the youngest is 3 years old and their kindergarten is from 9am until 1pm. This morning as we were sitting on the bus, driving the winding roads up the mountain watching the absolutely beautiful views and scenery of the whole of Cusco city, neither Juliet or I knew what to expect.
We arrived at the school with Horti, who had taken us there to introduce us and make sure we didn’t get lost! Horti was an immediate hit with the children who have met her lots of times before and they all ran over to hug her. After introducing Juliet and I, the children then began to sing us all different songs that they’d learnt while they’d been there – with all the actions! Their last song was a welcome song where they included our names and welcomed us into their town, culture and school.
After the introductions, Juliet and I went into different class rooms and the minute the teacher left to take Juliet to her classroom all of the kids ran over and hugged me! They’re so tiny so they were basically hugging my legs and then all of them were pulling me in different directions to make me sit at their tables!
Juliet and I are not teachers at this kindergarten, we’re helpers. We’re basically there as extra help because there is so many children and so we assist the teachers with whatever help they need, play with the children (especially at break times!) and then we also help to serve out the food, cut up the childrens’ fruit and help open their drinks.
The children are all so sweet, every single one making a huge effort with Juliet and I, holding our hands and telling us their names. They all have so many layers on and very old looking clothes but every single one of them are so cute! Lots of the girls have amazing hairstyles, braids, plates and long curly hair and all of the little boys have sun hats that they all collect from a big bucket at break time. In Peru, especially in the small villages, the children don’t brush their teeth but spend a lot of time eating very acidic fruits (they all had backpacks full of them) and lots of fizzy drinks, such as inca cola which has about 50grams of sugar per bottle! And so most of the children have rotting or black teeth and a lot of them, even though they are only 4 or 5 years old, have missing teeth as they have fallen out due to the sugar. It’s really sad but it’s so normal for them, you can tell because a lot of the Peruvian adults have gold teeth.
Break time was so exhausting! If forgotten how much energy little kids have! After running around with them and literally having them all jump on me and throw hay at me and chase me around the garden, it was time for them to eat. Luckily they all knew the score and say down with their bowls of rice and fish to eat. There was one little girl who came out of the classroom crying and refusing to eat and after talking to the teachers, I found out she doesn’t talk, ever. She’s three years old and apparently her two brothers, also in the kindergarten, don’t speak either. She was upset because she wanted her mama but after sitting her on my lap and talking to her in absolutely rubbish Spanish basically saying don’t worry and only one more hour and eat, eat, she finally stopped crying, started smiling and ate every single last scrap of her food. After more running around, screaming, falling over, having every single (50 of them) children basically grabbing my legs until I fell over and then more laughing, tickling and spinning them around, break time was finally over! We both went back into our classrooms with our children and teacher. My class was spending the lat part of kindergarten learning shapes and colours. The teacher made a huge grid on the board where the children took it in turns drawing shapes in different colours and saying the names – I even had a go and forgot the word for pink when it was my turn!! (Ohdear) but all the children clapped for me anyways. Then with another teacher, I drew out the grid in small 21 times for all the children to use tomorrow! At 1pm the day was over and as all the kids hugged us to say bye, Juliet and I headed to the bus stop… Where we found more children with their parents also waiting for the bus and they all ran over and hugged us too! It’s only been one day and we’re already attached, it’s going to be so hard saying goodbye after these three weeks are up!

The bus dropped us off in town where Juliet and I searched for a fish and chips restaurant we’d found in the lonely planet, only to discover that it doesn’t exist anymore! So we found another restaurant had a late lunch and caught up on some wifi!

This afternoon Juliet and I have our private Spanish lessons again, they really are private as in we have our own teachers, a one on one, whereas everyone else in the school has big group lessons! We really have got the best of everything and we’re definitely volunteering in the best kindergarten so we’re very happy.

At about 2 o’clock yesterday, Juliet and I rang a taxi to take us and our massive amount of belongings to what would be our new house for the next three weeks. Unfortunately it’s not in the middle of Cusco and as we drive further out the surroundings became less attractive and more scary looking. Our taxi driver had no idea where our house was and after a ten minute drive to the area and then another ten minutes driving round in circles, we started to ask people directions. A lot were non-responsive but eventually we found our house – number 16B and we’re greeted by the ‘house mum’ Horti.
Our house, despite the not so nice location, is actually really lovely. Juliet and I have a huge room with two big beds and lots of closet space so we can FINALLY unpack out of our backpacks!!! It’s a twenty five minute walk to the main square but it’s dangerous to walk it after 8pm – however there’s taxis literally everywhere and it’s a five minute journey by car. After Horti showed us around the house, to the sun room, the kitchen, her house, how to lock and unlock all the 5 doors and gates to actually get into the house, we dumped our stuff, made ourself at home and then headed back into Cusco city.
Our new house doesn’t have wifi so we have to rely on the restaurants and coffee shops. Lucky for us, basically every single one has internet connection. Juliet and I actually found a Starbucks in the centre of the plaza so made ourselves at home with a frappachino (SO yummy) and some wifi.

That evening we met our inca trail friends for our last meal as the PacaPumas (so emotional), we went to an absolutely delicious steak restaurant called Uchu – as we’d decided we needed to have a lovely meal to celebrate. All of our steaks came out on hot stones so we could chose how cooked we wanted them, with the most delicious sauces, salad and Peruvian style potatoes.

Our friend Mario also had a mousse made out of the local drink of Peru Pisco, which was absolutely delicious. It was a great meal with some friends for life and when we went to pay we discovered that Craig had been ridiculously generous and treated us all. It was so sad to say goodbye to our new friends but we will definitely stay in touch! (And thankfully it was an easier trip back to our new house as this time the taxi driver actually knew his way…)
This morning when we woke up, we headed to the Spanish school linked with our volunteering for our introduction day. It began with a Spanish test which wasn’t too bad and then a quick private conversation in Spanish with the lady who examined us – this is just to check our level for our Spanish lessons. We then had a briefing about Cusco and the Peruvian customs, which was actually quite tedious for me and Juliet as we’ve been here for a long time where as most people have just arrived. This afternoon our Spanish lessons begin and because Juliet and I are going straight into volunteering, while a lot of people are only here for Spanish lessons, we are lucky enough to have private Spanish lessons just for the two of us! (These are just for the first week to brush up our Spanish)
After our Spanish lesson today we then have a volunteering orientation with Horti where we’ll find out all about the school where we’ll be working and the children we’ll be teaching. So many orientations… We just want it all to begin now!!!

After our very much needed pampering yesterday, we all headed into the main plaza of Cusco to explore the markets. On the way, I saw someone I recognised and it was my best friend from home’s older brother!!! After trying to catch up with him for a whole and basically looking like a massive stalker, I ended up running after him and he led us to Starbucks where the rest of his family, including Katie (!!!) were! I knew they were in Cusco but I didn’t think we’d actually just bump into them in the middle if the city…
After saying all our hellos with hugs and kisses, Katie then came with Juliet and me to San Pedro market where we spent the afternoon browsing the stalls, haggling for the best prices and buying Peruvian tat. That evening we went out for dinner with Katie and her family to the Inca Grill. It was so lovely be treated to a delicious meal with starters, mains, drinks and even desert!

An early night was definitely on the cards for all of us and this morning Juliet and I woke up feeling a lot less drained and exhausted. (Although I did have a nightmare about the decapitated guinea pig that was served at dinner the other night and the fact that our tour guide ate the whole of it’s head so that all was left was it’s scull where he shoved the jaw up it’s nose!!! AND the fact that Juliet actually ate the guinea pigs kidney…