I´ve just uploaded 3 new photo albums.

I felt so much better in Urubamba that I rang my volunteer co-ordinator on the Sunday and told her I needed to come back to Cusco - after that, the day was even better! The breakfast bread was so good that I got the recipe from Juan the chef. The local beekeeper was still not around, so Juan took me to the hives in the El Huerto Paraiso orchards and we smoked the bees out and took out one of the panels - Juan cut a piece of honeycomb, which I had for breakfast the next day. We had bees crawling all over our hands. (He does know what he's doing, his parents keep bees, as well as horses, cows, goats and hens. They grow all their own grain and vegetables, and are just about self-sufficient; when they need money, they sell some meat.) The we walked into the town of Urubamba, which was celebrating its 184th. birthday with an inordinately long procession of every school and organisation for miles around. After an hour of watching children goose-stepping around the square, I couldn't take any more (it went on for another 3 hours!), and we had a wander round the market, and went to look at an earth oven competition, with groups from all the neighbouring communities. Offered the choice of eating in the town (street food) or having Juan cook trout, I pleaded for the trout, and it was delicious. I needed a siesta afterwards, and surfaced in time for a very good 2-course supper. I had loads of practice speaking and listening to Spanish over the weekend.

The next morning after breakfast I took a moto taxi back into town to go back to Chinchero (Juan had to come with me to get change from a petrol station, because there was no change in the hotel when I paid my bill!). The bus journey to Chinchero was very slow, as it stopped frequently to let people on and off. It was crammed full, and people were standing and sitting on tubs of chicha. The woman next to me sobbed silently all the way - very disconcerting!

I collected my luggage and took a taxi to Cusco, where I spent the night in a dodgy hostal because there wasn't a spare room in "my" hostal. June is a busy tourist time here, with all the fiestas (although this year hasn't been very good, I'm told) - this time a build-up to Cusco day, celebrating the founding of the city. It seems any excuse will do; it's a wonder anything gets done. Then it was IntiRaymi, a winter solstice celebration with hordes of people dressed as Incas, processing through the town and up to the ruins at Sacsayhuaman. The bangers in the main square were so loud that all the dogs in San Blas, several blocks away, were terrified and running away as fast as they could.

A new volunteering placement was set up for me in a kindergarten, but I couldn't start until Thursday because of the national holiday. There is no state education in Peru (I misunderstood what I was told before), and this kindergarten was set up by a Christian man for poor families and children of single parents Parents pay very little here, and 4 of the children come from an orphanage (they are dressed very noticeably in orange gingham overalls). The staff are unqualified and the teaching methods make me cringe; lots of worksheets and handwriting practice, but no story-telling or games. I was told off for handing out jigsaws! I was assigned to the class of 5 year olds, 8 boys and 5 girls. Friday was a party for Dia de Papa, and the children were generally ignored while the staff made frilly paper chains, and mended them every time they fell down. I spent most of the morning cuddling one of the orphans, who didn't want to take part. The parents arrived (late, in Peruvian style) and the classes all performed their songs. Then a mother who is a professional singer performed and the parents all danced. In the end I was forced to join in, because the little boy who had been glued to me went off to the English chap who came to collect him. Today the kindergarten was closed for some other feast day, and on doctor's orders I can't go in for the rest of the week. The respiratory bug I've had for 3 weeks has really dragged me down, and I've had to give in to antibiotics, decongestants and antihistamines.

But I was OK to attend a shamanic Pago a Pachamama ceremony on Saturday at the South American Explorers Clubhouse. I was somewhat sceptical! The offering to the earth mother contained lots of very untraditional sweets and biscuits; those who wanted to share in the ritual beer were asked to put money on the cloth, and were told it's unlucky to offer less that 50 centimos; and the shaman held a crucifix and asked El Senor de los Temblores (a Christ figure) for benediction. In the end, he made sharing the beer compulsory, whether or not one had made a donation, and I hated having to drink from a communal scallop shell when everyone has chest infections!

Yesterday I went out for most of the day on a taxi tour to Moray and Salineras. It got off to a bad start when the taxi driver was stopped by the police for turning round where it isn´t allowed, then couldn´t make it round the corner of a very steep hill - had to back down and take it at speed! At Salinerinas there are over 3000 Inca salt pans, extracting salt from a tributary of the Urubamba. The pans, which are an incredible sight, are still worked, and I bought some salt as a souvenir. At Moray there are 3 sets of Inca terraces in concentric circles. The largest set is 120 metres deep, much bigger than I expected from photos I'd seen. The terraces each have their own micro-climate, and the Incas grew rainforest crops at the bottom, sierra crops midway, and arid coastal crops at the top. The irrigation channels were destroyed by earthquakes in the 20th. century.

Some of the photos in the "More of Cusco" album were taken from the balcony of a restaurant in Plaza de Armas. Allyu is the longest established restaurant in Cusco, but the landlord is not going to renew the lease because he wants to let it to Starbucks (wouldn´t be allowed in England). Apparently there was a law in Cusco preventing the influx of fast food chains, but a Peruvian burger chain moved in a year or two ago, and there is now a MacDonalds in the main square (albeit with a very discreet sign).

I´ve discovered a couple of very good shops. Casa Ecologico sells local crafts, wild honey, organic cereals and elderberry jam (I bought a jar to use instead of the plastic strawberry jam that the hostal serves for breakfast - I also buy lovely rolls from the local bakery, whose profits go to support local projects). The other shop sells good quality artesan products from all over Peru, at very reasonable prices. I bought 2 necklaces made by the Shipibo people of the Amazon, with seeds and a tooth and scales from a gigantic fish called paiche. The scales are rigid and easily the diameter of a 10p coin.

I don't know what will happen about the voluntary work after this week; I might need to get out of Cusco to somewhere lower and warmer in order to stay healthy. Next weekend I'm going to Machu Picchu, and I'll have to see what happens then. The north coast is very inviting!