Start of volunteer project

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We packed all our stuff in the morning & said goodbye to people at Loki Backpackers. Amanda from Teaching & Projects Abroad met us at 11:30 & had a taxi waiting outside. We first had to pick up a gringo who had been working in the jungle, we knew he was called Ed & would be waiting on the cathedral steps but there were a lot of people on the steps. Amanda managed to find the right person in the end & we headed off to Urubamba. We were introduced to staff at the office, including Walter, the Inca Project supervisor who said he didn't know what we would be doing but to meet at 7:30am on Monday. Carlos, the Teaching Project supervisor gave Sam a starter pack & then we met Abi & Geoff who would be doing the Inca Project with me. We drove to our host families in Pisac dropping off Abi & Geoff on the way & had the main square & orange bridge (very important in Pisac) pointed out to us. Our family was the Loaizas; Livia the house owner, Juliana the house keeper & her daughter Patricia. We were also met at the door by Guerda the guard dog. We had a quick tour of the house, shown how to operate the shower & shown our rooms. We managed to put our bags in the wrong rooms so I now have pink Barbie sheets & Sam has blue Tweetie Pie ones. As it was past lunch time we sat down in the dining room for a meal of salad, rice, fried eggs & maté de manzanilla while the family watched us. At three the clock in the dining room played a tune & chimed the hours. However, the batteries must have running out as the although the tune was sort of recognisable at the beginning it quickly deteriorated into a slur very reminiscent of Peruvian music & then chimed eleven times.
After lunch we sat in the garden surrounded by ruins strewn mountains watching humming birds visiting the flowers until the sun disappeared & it was too cold to stay outside. We moved into the large living room which contained lots of chairs & listened to Mexican music while drinking hot water until dinner of rice pudding, bread & coffee was ready. We sat round the table laughing at the contagious yawning until it was time for bed. We had our own bathroom but due to next door building a house in time for a fiesta the water was off. I only found this out when turning on the tap to rinse my toothbrush, but Juliana was on hand with a bucket of water. I quickly fell asleep surrounded in Barbie pink.

Drink of the Day: Maté de Manzanilla

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