And of Peru (slightly late but we’ll get there or rather here!)

ARRIVING IN PERU
So we arrived in Lima all fine and dandy and headed out to the arrivals lounge to get fleeced by a taxi. We knew this was coming as all the tourist books had already indicated the taxi into Lima would cost some $45US and not take too long; none had the courage to state that it was a ridiculous price to pay but it meant I was “prepared” at least :). We picked a recommended taxi rank and paid the bill then to add to our worries (it was 1am and we were worried we would be locked out of the hostel not checking the times we could check in!) as soon as we left the airport the taxi guy asked where our hostel was. We gave him the address but he still didn’t seem to recognise it, so off we went after a quick radio into the office, probably taking a little longer than usual!

THE LIMA HOSTEL
We managed to find the Hostel quite late and settled in as quickly as possible. We were in a dorm room with us two and some American chap that was trying to sleep. Helen headed for bed whilst I checked mails etc. and then attempted to follow. Unfortunately the American clown had nipped to the loo and locked the door – his sleep was disturbed when I commenced banging on the door – ahh well!

In the morning we grabbed a bite to eat and asked the woman on the desk to book us a taxi. I gave her the street and when she realised we intended to travel with Cruz del Sur she looked very sceptical and checked our tickets. This was fortunate as I’d given her the name of the chap who took our booking – and there was a street of the same name! – but we eventually ended up in the taxi heading in the correct direction.

CRUZ DEL SUR
The bus station seemed fairly well organised and we checked in our bags (or rather threw them over a counter and swapped for the usual paper ‘tag’. Whe we arrived on the bus we were happily surprised, we had prepared ourselves for the 21 hour bus ride but not for the luxury that awaited us (no Martin Helen still isn’t getting commision from them yet!). The chairs were massive, folded down nearly flat for sleeping and you got loads of space, so we kicked back and enjoyed the views while heading along the coast to Cuzco, on the left a vast desert that seemed to go on forever and on the right the coast line. We headed into the mountains as the sun went down, watched a couple f crappy Hollywood films, were treated to a chicken curry and rice and then went off to sleep, we set off at 2pm and were due to arrive in Cuzco at 11am and after paying another extorsionate amount for a taxi (finding out later that we were charged about 4 times to much!)

THE FIRST CUZCO HOSTEL
So we checked into our new hostel for the night in Cuzco and, as we were early, we were sat in the lobby with some Coco Tea (whereby the receptionist had put coco leaves in a strainer above the cup and Helen proceeded to attempt to drink straight from the strainer!!!) and when our room was ready we were shown upstairs to a nice double room with our very own bathroom and EVEN a T.V. room just for us!!!. As we were expecting bunkbeds in the Cuzco project we had decided to treat ourselves for the evening so a quick shower and then we headed to the Irish bar to watch the Man-U match. Some munch and beers and a bit of football and we were on our way. We ended up talking to a southerner named Steve who had been travelling for about 10 years in all and had some great advice about the surrounding area and Cuzco in general so we ended up staying and chatting and by about 9pm started to make it back to the hostel, quite “merry”. We grabbed a couple of lagers on the way back and when we were sat on the terrace bumped into a few Germans and sat chatting to them for a while, they had just been out to try a local dish, Cuy (Guinea pig) and straight away we decided that this was a meal we would try with Martin when he arrived. They also told us about the salt flats (as had Simon), the photos they had were amazing and spurred us on even more to try and make it there. So after some more conversing we headed to bed ready for an early morning pick up from Jeremy.

THE VOLUNTEER HOUSE
After our breakfast (continental – consisting of bread and a bit of scrambled eggs with a selection of Coco teas) we got ourselves sorted and were ready for our pick up to head to the Cuzco orphanage project. We were picked up by Jeremy who seemed a nice guy, on the way to the accommodation he told us that the volunteers dorm was full so he had a double room for the 2 of us an apartment he shares with his mum (Nilda – who is also the director of the Orphanage). When we got there we were not disappointed, it was a nice place with 2 bathrooms and a massive dog who was the size of a small pony!!! We were then introduced to Nilda and Shirley (one of the girls from the orphanage who helps around the flat) before heading off to the boys orphanage for a few hours.

THE ORPHANAGE
There are two orphanages, one for the girls and a boys orphanage and we went to the boys the first day. The place was quite big and very secure and they also had big plans for a new accommodation for the kids. We were introduced to the boys and another volunteer called Jorge (a Dutch fellow that had been there for nearly eight months!!!) who was taking a few of them out for a game of football so we decided to tag along. We walked for what seemed like miles to me (the altitude hadn’t seemed to effect Helen but had taken it’s toll on me), and when we did get there I opted for goalie and let Helen and Jorge run around trying to catch up with the boys. One of the boys, Junior, was quite skilled although Helen did manage to get him once (but only by picking him up and throwing him away from the ball!!!)

We learnt a lot through talking to Jeremy and Nilda about the kids as most of the kids were brought in as street kids. Although there are quite a number of orphanages around Cuzco and this is the only one specifically aimed at helping street kids (prior to Jeremy and Nilda’s involvement street kids where unable to open a bank account)! Most of the hard work seemed to have been to get the kids to believe or hope for something (anything!) and as Nilda and Jeremy are religious they do this through teaching and reading from the bible. This certainly seems to be working with the kids – whilst it’s not going to make (m)any of them angels overnight >;o) (or any of us reading for that matter) at least it gives them hope!

We spent a few times at the orphanage over the next week or two including being invited to the Feliz de Mama (Mothers Day Celebration) for which the kids had arranged various shows of their talents including dancing and playing music pipes, drums and guitars.

OF CUZCO
TO COME….