Monday 10th - Wenesday 19th May

Monday 10th - Tuesday 11th May

Was ill for both these days but went to the doctors. He poked my stomach loads and said that when he squeezed at the side it was "crunching" - gross. Have got loads of pills to take!

When i was waiting for Jess to take me to the clinic Rafael let me help him make sausages using the special machine...was probably the highlight of my two days!

On tuesday afternoon, we went to find this "greenhouse project" where we would be building a greenhouse in a school for educational purposes. We wondered round the area for a while, couldn´t find it so just ended up coming back.

Wednesday 12th April:

We had the morning off kindergarten due to teacher strikes, so had a big lie in then went and sat in the main square. There was a massive protest going on but it was one of the lamest things i´ve ever seen. They were all so unenthusiastic with their chants and banners, even the police guarding them were on their phones!
Had our usual class at Chinchero in the afternoon.
Went to cooking class and made "tallarin verde con Ocopa" It was this green pasta, with potato (of course) and a tonne of sauce.

Thurday 13th April:

There´s this new older boy at the kindergarten called Marco, he doesn´t go in any of the classes because the teacher said he´s "special" but we just think he´s got ADHD or something. They don´t teach him tho so he just wonders round aimlessly. He got really angry today and one of the teachers ended up fighting with him!
He started following us into the year 5 class but he just wants a bit of attention, so we chatted to him and gave him some work and he was much better, he´s really bright, but they just don´t have enough staff to support him.
Found an internet cafe and rang home for Dad´s birthday. I was hoping to burst into song singing "happy birthday" in spanish, but some peruvian guy answered the phone, so when i really did get through i was like...hello? It was really good to talk to everyone! I was gutted i was missing the birthday celebrations, and the cake! All cake out here is so rubbish and dry, nothing rises because of the altitutude so i guess they use loads of extra flour or something to try and make it rise.
We went shopping and i bought a few souvenirs and they we had salsa.
We really weren´t feeling it tonight and we had a different teacher called Raymi instead of Carlos who wasn´t as good.

Friday 14th May:

Had kindergarten this morning, we had the younger ones, colouring and decorating fish with balls of tissue paper and shiny paper (we´re doing animals at the moment) And the older ones drew and coloured their favourite pet. It was good fun today because they were all really well behaved. Was feeling much better today for the first time too.
After lunch we went and bought cake and loads of sweets to take to Chinchero because it´s Domenica´s birthday tomorrow. We saw jess and she told us this posh cake shop so we got a big chocolate cake. We bought some newspapers and wrapped up layers and layers of sweets for a game of pass the parcel. We were doing it in the taxi and every so often offered our driver a sweet. He never said no and when we got out we gave him a lolly.

We got to Chinchero before all the kids, so hid all the goodies and did a short grammar lesson with them, we sent them out for break and played volleyball with them, then when they came back in we had all the cake and the sweets out. We sang ´happy birthday´ and Leonor and Roxanna (2 of the kids mums) came in. It´s tradition to make the birthday person take a bite of their cake and then shove their face in it...which they did to Domenica. We played pass the parcel with forfeits and things, it was really fun! and the kids were so happy with all their sweets!
When we got home we booked paragliding for tomorrow!

Saturday 15th May - Domenica´s Birthday!

We got up at the usual time for paragliding! Me and Laura saw Domenica on the computer so ran up and shouted Happy Birthday at her! She jumped out of her skin!
We walked over to where we booked paragliding and waited there for a while for our bus. Heather went on a horse riding thing cause she didnt fancy paragliding. We got picked up by a mini bus and driven to Chinchero, then went off the road on this really bumpy dried mud track that was right on the edge of the mountain. We got their and our instructor (the only one in Cusco) Gave us a tow minute speech saying..."the weather is good, please be patient for your turn". That was it, no instructions or anything! He said the lightest person would fly first. That was Domenica, we were stood talking and she was like "im just going to text my sister amd ñet her know what im about to do" when the instructor said "ready lady, lets go." And literally she was in the air the next minute! It was about an hour from when she left and when the mini bus got back, and by that time the instructor said it was too windy to carry on and we had to wait.

2 of the guys in our groups decided they werent gunna wait so we all drove back down to the town (along that horrible mud path) to drop them off, then back up again. On the way up the driver suddenly pulled off into a field towards all these people harvesting and bought a massive sack of potatos off them. Our instructor and the driver had a couple of mugs of chi cha each (the alcoholic version) then we went back up the hill to where the other paragliders had made a watia (the natural dirt stoves) They cooked a tonne of potatos which we ate (although mine and Domenica´s kept having worms in) and then we were like. OK, are we going to fly or not, cause we needed to get back in the evening for domenica´s birthday celebrations.
Suddenly it was back on and Laura was in the air. She vanished behind the mountain and next thing she was trekking up the side of the hill with her massive seat on - the mini bus hadnt found them so they had to walk up!
Then it was my go, it was soo much fun! the take off wasnt that smooth cause for some reason the guy attatched to me was facing backwards so when we started running he fell over! but once we were up it was so good!
He did loads of turns which are really fun, their like the chair ride at funfairs, i kept screaming and was saying "can we do another turn!" then we just floated around for ages, the view was amazing! He kept saying "how are you lady? hows the view lady?" then he told me to hold on to the ropes and did a massive downward spiral! It was soo fun! i was screaming my head off! and when we landed i was like "that was so amazing" and he was saying "thankyou lady" and we shook hands and had a hug! It was very emotional.
The landing wasnt massively smooth cause we hit this dried mud field which stopped the seat from sliding along so we rocked forward and my legs got bent back, but i was too caught up in the moment to care....They were sore the next day though!

We went out to Indigo´s, this really nice thai restaurant with Jevta, then met Jess n Rafael at Mccoys. Jess let slip that we had a surprise for Domenica so gave her a brownie that she´d piped happy birthday on to distract her.
Then we bought in a big cake they´d bought her and took in all her presents. Jess fully shoved her face in the cake this time! We got her some frac (her favourite biscuits) a jar of "fanny" tuna, a bunch of flowers, a big bar of dairy milk (we havent had chocolate since weve been here) and a really nice silver bracelet. There were some other girls we know there too, Angela, Ashley and Tamara and we all played sambuka jenga and other drinking games. we had a lock in at Mccoys and were dancing on the tables and everything, and ended up having a massive food fight with the left over cake.
We went to a club and on route found raymi - our salsa teacher and he came dancing with us. We danced in their for hours and taught him the macarena when it came on. then went for a mcdonalds =S It was such a fun night!

Sunday 16th May:
Woke up and could not get back to sleep so eventually got up and skyped home, found out that Laura and Katia (my sisters) are definitely coming to visit me out here which is very exciting!!
Went for breakfast at bout 3 in the afternoon then did some shopping where i bought more souvenirs! Was impressed at how un-hungover i was.

Monday 17th May:
Laura and Katia have booked their flights - Woo!!
Had kindergarten, have fallen in love with Cynthia, one of the five year olds!
Had Chinchero in the afternoon, we´re not teaching there for the next two weeks cause Fiona, the independent volunteer is going to be there instead. We dont know yet if were taking on another project or not so told them wednesday might be our last day. There reaction was horrible cause they were all like "nooo" so we all decided we want to go back. I love playing volleyball with them in the break, although the ball we used today was rock hard!
Had the pub quiz tonight with Jevta and Lisa on our team, we came joint 2nd from last...or 3rd depending how you look at it. There were no brownies left but because we all ordered one the chef made them for us specially. They took ages but were fresh out the oven and gooey and yummy.

Tuesday 18th May:
Fiona came to the kindergarten with us today cause one of her placements has fallen through, and when we arrived all the kids were practising marching. They were over the other side of the road with music blaring out the speakers from the kindergarten. We helped them march, then had lessons as usual.
In our break, big marco was playing on the roundabout, somehow his shoe got stuck and as it turned his leg got twisted round. We freed him, but he was really upset because the material loopholes on his trainers had all ripped off. Domenica had her penknife so i punched new holes in his shoes and rethreaded the laces for him, he didn´t thank me, but i was proud of my handywork!
All the year 5s seemed to be crying today, i have no idea why.
Was meant to have a spanish lesson this afternoon but cause i´d cancelled mine last week (due to illness) they hadnt booked me back in. Its annoying cause its like a 20 minute walk there, but i just came back slowly looking in the shops on the way.
After, we met Jess and went to speak to the Jungle lady and booked our week in the Ámazon! Im so excited! They have a tame monkey called Paulo who comes on the trek and lives in the lodge with you!
We had salsa tonight and werent that excited cause we knew we had Raymi again. I think Domenicá´s birthday night broke the ice though cause he was really talkative! We had such a fun lesson and learnt all these snazzy spins. He partnered us aswell which he hasnt done before, and stopped telling us which move would be next, which he normally does. It was so much fun, and he just kept talking to us for ages at the end. I was proud of how much i could actually understand , even though i couldn´t respond that well.

Wednesday 19th May:
The kindergarten were doing marching practise again when we arrived. We took in paper plates which we drew tiger faces on and got them to paint, we´re going to make them into masks.
It was Heather´s last day so she took in a montage of photos and marshmallows for all the kids. When we went to leave the teacher said "15 minutes please" and all the kids came and sat on their chairs outside and the teachers did a goodbye thing for heather. They gave her a cake that said "happy travel" on it and a card that all the kids had put a finger print in next to their names. Then they sang "Happy Birthday"...i think its the only english song they knew...

Went to Chincero where heather gave out more photos and sweets, the pictures were meant for the wall but they all wanted to take them home. Fiorella took us all to the side one by one and gave us a little present, i got a pair of earrings she had made! We had a bit of a lesson, then just messed around cause it was heathers last day, and our last for 2 weeks, which feels like ages!
Then one of the women came and told us the weaving centre was open, so we went over to Leonor´s house and saw all the stuff they had woven...and spent lots of money. But when we went to leave they gave us each a little gift, a small purse Leonor had woven and a little keyring Roxanna had made! It was really sweet, and we felt bad because we know how long they take to make, and how they need to sell them to make money! They said it was a thankyou for teaching their kids English.

Got back and booked out lake Titicaca trip for this weekend (Ahh!) then went to cooking class. I was excited cause it looked like a massive plate of veg with chicken. But all the veg had been drowned in Vinegar, i just couldnt eat it. I tried to eat as much as i could but my pile just seemed to be never ending. Then the others dumped their food on my plate when my back was turned and i just gave up.
We went back and ate some of the cake the kindergarten had given Heather.

Monday 3rd May - Saturday 8th May

Monday 3rd May;

Had a massive lie in after our very long weekend then went to Chincero in the afternoon where there was a little festival going on in the street. It was the festival of the cross which lasted sunday to monday. We taught the lesson but when we heard the music start we went out to have a look. The guys were wearing these really freaky masks and they grabbed Domenica and made her dance in the street with them, Nisett the younger girl we teach got really scared and started crying cause the people with the masks came in the garden and were trying to get Fiorella who was hidden in the outdoor toilet and throwing water at them out the window.

Tuesday 4th May;

In the kindergarten this morning, as soon as the year 5 teacher left the class they all came running over to us wanting to be picked up. They were rubbish for the whole lesson, really distracted, then at the end they all wanted to be picked up again, its so tiring, and theres a boy called sebastian who is a lot heavier than the rest of them, who also insisted on being picked up.

Had my first spanish lesson back at the school, i have a new teacher who is really scary and kept saying i should know the stuff already that she´s teaching me. she set me loads of homework!

Got back and got ready for salsa, we had a different teacher this week and instead of just dancing infront of the mirror he danced with us which was really fun. its so much more tiring than i expected but i love it! i want to do it every night!
Afterwards we went for a well deserved all you can eat indian buffet! ;)

Its mothers day this sunday in peru so we went and bought loads of card and made 60 mothers day cards for the kids to colour in at the kindergarten tomorrow. Domenica designed a "mother" shape which we drew on the front of every card, and then i did bubble writing saying "happy mother´s day" in all the year 3 and 4 cards, and laura did the writing in dot to dot for the year fives to join for themselves. it took ages!

Wednesday 5th May;

It was so worth doing the cards last night, all the kids were kept busy the whole lesson and we didnt have to sing at them once. The director of the school saw some of them at the end and looked well impressed!

Had Chincero in the afternoon, unfortunately only 3 of them turned up, but it was good cause we got to really help them individually. We always let them have a break and we were playing with them on the road. When we asked them what the game we were playing was called it translated as "kill people" it was really funny though and basically involved throwing a ball at each other.

Went to cooking class where we make Ricotta Rellena, which is basically the same as last week, but instead of stuffing potato with meat you stuff ricottas. I was unlucky and had two REALLY spicy ones, i thought my head was going to explode, but i just ate the inside.

Thursday 6th May;

We met jess in the morning then went and got a bus with a load of other volunteers to this village that was completely destroyed by the floods. All of their crops were ruined so this company called "mysmallhelp" are building a massive cuy farm for the villagers to start earning money again. It is a long term project, each family will be given 9 female guinie pigs and a male, and apparently they reproduce every 62 days. Each guiniepig would bring the family about 25 soles. and when they get the corn replanted it will be an additional income on top of that.

We were told we were going to build mud bricks for the surrouding wall, but a lot of work needed to be done before hand. We basically ended up digging a massive pile of dirt and seperating the dirt from the rocks, it sounds rubbish but was really good fun, but it was sooo hot! To say thankyou the villagers provided us with lunch, freshly caught trout from the lake which was probably the best fish ivé ever had!

That evening after dinner we met Jess and Rafeal for Mojitos, it was two for 15soles in happy hour and mixed with the altitude it gets you drunk very quickly. There was a band playing cheesy english music, we asked them to play salsa and just as we were leaving they started to play Gloria Gaynor "i will survive and we all went mental!" Went to a few places after this, we had a really good night.

Friday 7th May;

Went for a fry up in the morning, which made us all feel a lot better, although we were exhausted.

Went to Chincero in the afternoon, Nicola (the old POD volunteer) used to work there, so she turned up at the end to see the kids. After the lesson we stayed over night at Roxanna´s house. (where we teach the lessons) We had our first Coca tea, which doesnt really taste of much, and she made us a really nice beef caserole kind of thing, and then this really wierd gloopy drink for afters. We were given a mug of it and ate it with a spoon which took ages, it was made of maize and was like a purple colour and thick like medicine. It was nice though.

Saturday 8th May;

We went to bed quite early cause we were so tired then got up early to meet the kids who took us on a walk. We walked for about an hour then met Roxanna and Leonor who gave us a weaving lesson, it was soo hard! Even when i new what i was doing i kept making mistakes cause its really hard to count the threads. We stopped for a traditional Peruvian lunch. We made an oven out of blocks of dirt and burnt loads of dry wood in there, when it was ready we broke the wood down into ashes, chucked in a tonne of potatos and then collapsed the oven on top of it.

When we were waiting for the food this massive pile of potatos was bought out which you just peel with you fingers and eat like apples. We had fresh trout again with the potatos and salad. After, we had chi cha, which is a traditional peruvian drink made from fermented corn. The corn is chewed and spat into the drink when being made, so we were basically drinking alcoholic spit.

We went back to weaving and Roxanna´s mum, who is quite scary and always talks to us in Kechuan, came over with a bottle of clear liquid and a plastic cup. She gave it to Domenica and the other women told her to shot it, we all thought it was water. It wasnt. We think it was the alcohol that goes in to chi cha but it was really strong. We think Roxannas mum was drunk cause she had cup after cup of chi cha, then kept downing these shots.

Monday 26th - Sunday 2nd May

Monday 26th April:

Went to the pub quiz tonight and met Nicola , a past POD volunteer and a couple of her friends, we joined teams and won by a mile and got a free bottle of wine! :D

Tuesday 27th April:
Had kindergarten as usual in the morning and are trying to teach the kids body parts, were bringing in "head, shoulders, knees and toes" although at the moment they just stand and watch us do it, then say "again again!" when we´ve stopped.

Had our first salsa lesson tonight! it was so much fun, us lot were learning the 5 "basico" steps at the front, while jess and rafael were doing all this fancy stuff in the background.

Wednesday 28th April:

Arrived at the kindergarten this morning and all of the kids were lined up in the courtyard for another school trip!

We all had a designated year group again, I had the year 4s, who had a rope to hold on to to keep them all together, but it was a bit short so they kept tripping over each other! We walked all through a market with the kids, pointing out different fruit and veg etc, then we went to a fire station. All the children were fine and enjoyed hearing the alarm and everything, but suddenly there was a real emergency, we were completely in the way and loads of the kids got freaked out and started crying. A couple of kids got to go down the firemans pole and in the fire truck.

(the year 4 class)

After, we went to a police station, we went out into a courtyard in the back where they had lunch and played for ages, but the tour was so pointless cause we literally walked in a line through an office, waved hello to the policemen then walked out the door at the other end!

Had chincero in the afternoon again, Heather is starting to do grammar with them, then after a break we had them doing role play, buying fruit from a stall.

Had cooking tonight and made Papa Rellena. We had to seperate loads of mash into balls, then after that we had to flatten them out again, which seemed kind of pointless, to then stuff it with this mince stuff, then theyre rolled in flour and fried, they were actually pretty good.

Thursday 29th April

Had the kindergarten in the morning and the afternoon off, jess helped us plan our chincero lesson for tomorrow.

Friday 30th April:

Jess came into the kindergarten this morning and organised it so that we´re working a lot more, because before we kept having to sit round in between lessons. It meant we had a tiring morning of an hour in year 3s hour in year 4 and about half an hour in year 5s. Its hard teaching 3 year olds english for that long!

Went to San Pedro market to buy fruit for Chincero, we had a hole in a box and the kids had to stick their hand in and guess in english what fruit it was, we stuck a cup of jelly in there as well.

(The juice stands at San Pedro Market)

Packed my bag for macchu pitchu , 6am start :S and i´ve started to get a cold.

Saturday 1st May:

Got picked up by two guys, (who arrived early!) and took us to the station,. we got given all our tickets for macchu pitchu then put onto a bus which took about three hours and drove us to Cusco station. We boarded "peru rail" which took us to "Aguas Calientes" the town before macchu pitchu. We looked round the market for there a bit, went to get some lunch and by the time we came out it was absolutely pouring it down with rain. We went back to the hostel and sat in our room playing games like eye spy to pass the time. There is literally nothing to do in aguas calientes, apparently there are some hot springs but we had no idea where to look and it was raining too much anyway. Met our tour guide this evening ro tomorrow who told us when to meet him etc.

Sunday 2nd May:

Got up at quater past four and made it to the bus stop for half past, we were 11th in the queue! We wanted to get there early so we could get tickets for wayna pichu, the mountain overlooking machu pitchu, and they have a limited number of tickets. The bus left at 5:30 and we got there at 6, there was a queue of people already there who had spent the night in the hotel next door, but when we walked in, its so big it felt totally empty!

It was so amazing, and the clouds were lower than us which was really cool. It was so quiet, and felt like we had it to ourself.

We looked round quickly for half an hour and got some photos when it wasnt packed with tourists, and went and met our tour guide. We had a two hour tour, then after a quick break we climbed Wayna Picchu, we were looking at the mountain all day, and its so steep we just didnt understand how you were meant to get up. There are really steep and narrow staircases, but sometimes you have to properly climb the steps are so big. People kept passing us on the way down which was scary cause it was so narrow and a massive drop on one side. The climb was among all the trees and at times it felt like we were in the jungle.

When we got to the top we stayed there for ages, we sat on the edge just looking at the view and taking pictures and stuff. By the time we decided to leave, everyone else had gone and we had it to ourself. When we were up there we decided to

climb to a higher point, but we had to go through a tiny cave to get there, it would have been fine but we all had massive rucksacks on making it nearly impossible. Then you climb up a wooden ladder and literally just stand on a big old rock at the top.

(The girls stuck in the Cave)

We came down the mountain and i had left my hand bag with ipod and stuff in at a bag place. When i got it back i opened up my bag and my ipod wasnt in it! i was about to panic but looked up and the guy in charge of the stuff had been sat there listening to it all morning! my battery had gone from full to half! I would have killed him if i wasnt so relieved.

By the time we got down it was about half 2, and machu picchu was basically empty again! it was really wierd.

(The massive mountain in the background is the one we climbed!)