Today we were picked up by Patty, a member of Mundo Verde who took us to a school in a rural area. The area didn't look very rural as it was located on an ample street. There were large gates we knocked on to gain entry. We met Francesca, a peruvian dentist who was waiting in what looked like an empty classroom with stacked benches and a sink. Francessca had set up a bench for us with paper towels, and a few instruments (mirror, excavator and spatula) as well as sheets For charting. The school children began turning up, all excited to see us! 2 foreign strangers who were going to check their teeth and give them gifts-toothbrushes! We now felt the rural status of the school, dirty and worn uniforms, dried but smily faces looked ... read more
Hola chicas and chicos! Tomorrow we are off onto the Salkantay Trek And we're pretty excited/nervous. We had a thorough briefing last night by our guides. They informed us about all the sights we will be visiting along the way and the amount of walking we will be doing, which is a lot! On Monday we began our Spanish lessons with our teacher, Roxanna, she is lovely and really helping us bring words together To form sentences. On Tuesday we were picked up at 9am by our organiser, Pablo, from the mundo verde scheme. he took us to the local government hospital which is just off the main square, Plaza de Armas. There, we were taken into the dental clinic which is a small room consisting of 2 dental chairs, one for extractions and the other ... read more
Hola hola! So after an overnight bus journey from Cusco, we arrived in Puno in the early hours of the day. We nearly got onto the wrong bus as we were trying to pick a bus that most appealed to us! However, in the end we were directed to the right one. To be honest, the bus ride was pretty comfortable with the seats reclining to almost 180 degrees and the heating on. We met our tour guide, Moses, and the rest of our group, and got onto a boat to the Uros islands on Lake Titicaca. Moses was quite the comical tour guide with lots of random facts and figures! Eg lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, meaning the highest lake a boat can sail on. It's 3400m above sea level, ... read more
Highlights of our first day in Cusco: 12hour sleep in warm comfy beds Hot shower Not suffering from altitude sickness! Buying al paca jumpers- barter barter!! We got ours for 35sol each, that's around £11-12-see Photos 20sol 1hour massage, that's like £6, they were excellent! So thorough and covered the whole body Top Tips: baby al paca is much more expensive and can only be bought in shops not markets, so don't be fooled Pure al paca is abit more expensive than the mixed al paca and other material, not sure how true this is Don't be conned by the women dressed in Peruvian outfits and llamas, when you take a photo with them of course it's common courtesy to pay them but not more than 2sol each, we gave them 10 and they wanted 10 ... read more
So after 23 hours of travelling, we have finally arrived in Cusco! It has been an extremely exciting journey where we've bumped into lots of interesting travellers! We met a lovely Peruvian family in Lima and they were giving us facts about Peru and lake titicacca. The view from the plane between Lima and cusco was beautiful and it included the snow capped mountains and valleys. When we landed in cusco, Saadia and I were picked up by Betty from Mundo Verde. The driver and Betty were amazed by the fact that we were Asians from England! They expressed their love for bollywood movies and Shah Rukh Khan! We are staying in a lovely hostel with very friendly staff and the view from our window is incredible! We've been around the town and had a lovely ... read more
Eeeeee so excitedddddddd!! Just checked in, gone through security and found Saadia! And now getting ready to board the flight! Peru here we come!!!... read more
Hello! The journey has begun, currently waiting for Ashni at heathrow airport having flown in from Manchester, enjoying duty free shopping! I just can't resist! How am I feeling? A lot more excited than this morning, now that Ashni's almost Here and I'm finally "in the zone", more mentally than anything. Past few days have included protective remarks off Aunts such as "oo the thought of letting my own daughter go there for so long scares me!" of course this hasn't helped, Spending time with my parents, and new baby (my sister jus had a little girl) and of course banking and money exchange. I was unable to find Peruvian currency anywhere, they all needed to order it in, instead I have opted for USD which is commonly used in SA, and easily exchanged as opposed ... read more
