Today is Sabado, Saturday, and therefore our half day at the orphanage. We spent the morning helping Lorena, our host, and her friend prepare hot chocolate to take to the boys in the afternoon as part of a traditional Peruvian Christmas celebration when before Christmas children all enjoy a feast of hot chocolate and panatone. Making the chocolate involved helping to heat bars of dark chocolate over a wood fire in Lorena´s friend´s garden shed, and then pouring it into three enourmous plastic vats, topping it up with about a hundred cans of condensed milk and then adding more sugar than anyone would sensibly give to a child they wanted to be able to manage ever again! All in all we went through a large sack of sugar, probably equivalent to about 50 of our large ... read more

Today we found out a bit about how things are going to work while we are here in Ayacucho. Breakfast, or desayuno, is made each morning at about 8 by our host Lorena, and lunch is at 1pm in the casa familia accross the road. The casa familia isn´t a restaurant as you have to be invited to eat there, although the host is paid, in our case in advance by Lorena from our placement fee. In Peru, the desayuno is the biggest and most important meal, followed by a three course lunch and a small evening meal at about 8pm - the opposite to at home. Lunch most days is a sopa de pollo, (chicken soup), followed by either chicken or another meat with rice and some stewed veg, and finally a glass of luke ... read more

Arrived in Ayacucho after the two day bus journey, it was half seven and the town is already very busy. I had managed to pick up my emails in Lima while waiting for my bus change, so had a name and address for the orphanage - Av. Independencia, 600. URPI. I decided that I was within walking distance and loaded myself up with my two packs, heading off towards Av. Independencia. I hadn´t realised the Avenue was the length of the town! Eventually I arrived at URPI where a young lad let me in and took me to an office. No one spoke any English, and while I have been practising my Spanish I had also endured a two day bus journey, so the young teacher and I opened Google translator and had a conversation that ... read more

On returning to Cusco from the Salkantay trek I had gained another Canadian friend, lost some weight, wanted some sleep and needed a wash. Ben accompanied me to the ´botica´(pharmacy) down the road from our hostel so I didn´t have to run the gauntlet of the persistant street sellers alone (massage, senorita, massage? Paintings, miz, looking is free!) and I made the ratehr expensive purchanse of some hair conditioner and soap! I have a BIG problem with our hostel. It is in a gorgeous old colonial building with a nice central courtyard which is now the TV and social area. However, the doors are very narrow and my pack isn´t, so I manbaged to get stuck fast as I entered our room. Now you wouldn´t believe how many people in a socially dead hostel manage to ... read more

Instead of doing the standard Inka Trek to Machu Picchu (primarily because I hadn´t booked it 6 months ago as is neccessary but also because of the vast cost) I decided I wanted to do the Salkantay trek. A Canadian friend I made at the start of my trip in Peru had done it and recommended it, and Jess, one of the Welsh girls, was keen to come with me. The other two and Ben chose to do the Inka Jungle trek, another alternative to the traditional Inka trek, but including river rafting and mountain biking. Jess and I set off on the Salkantay at 5am, having not slept a wink due to opting for the cheapest room in the hostel - right next to the bar! We had also decided we needed energy food the ... read more