After our mini journey through the Colca and the Floating Islands, we arrived in Cusco for the first PROPER time! We arrived with a better impression of Cusco this time, as the sun was shining and it was really warm during the day.Somehow when the sun shines, everything seems SO much better!We checked into Loki Hostel for the 2 weeks we were meant to be volunteering at the school for.Unfortunately, staying at Loki meant walking up a hill to get there from the main part of Cusco, but the surrounding views at night really made up for it, as the city looked beautiful when all lit up, especially the cathedral and the church on the main square, which could all be seen from the bar at the hostel.Cusco is one of those cities with a magnificent charm surrounding it.It's probably one of the most touristy cities we have visited in the whole of South America, however it doesn't lose its grace, even with the swarms of gringos about the place.

The walk to the day centre where we volunteered was 10 minutes away from the centre of Cusco, and 10 minutes away from the hostel. It was called Aldea Yanapay, run by Yuri, who also owns a restaurant with the same name. The days at the centre were scheduled so that the kids (aged approx 5-12 years) would start to arrive after school finished for the day. The centre provided a place for them to interact with other children, play games, learn, and be in a safe environment after school, whilst their parents were either still at work or simply unable to look after them at that time of the day.

Generally, a day at Aldea is as follows: 3pm -5pm: The kids arrive and wash their hands and faces and then get on with their homework with help from the volunteers. If homework is finished, they are allowed to play with games, read books, or participate in the arts and crafts classes. From 5pm to 7pm: Those who still have to finish homework carry on doing so, otherwise classes are scheduled for the topic of the month. The topic for the time we were there was Buddhism, so all the arts and crafts lessons and the classes in the afternoon were geared towards educating the children on the faith. This however is no easy task, as once the children start to arrive, chaos and mayhem are the closest two words to describe the atmosphere in the centre! It gets very noisy because the centre is quite small, and the doors separating the classrooms and the front yard are thin, so even the slightest noise gets through.The kids are extremely hyperactive, as you would imagine for kids from the age of 5, and they have low levels of concentration which means that they are off finding something else to do or someone else to play with every 5 minutes or so!

For the first week we were there, we were both in charge of the games room and also helped out a bit in arts and crafts, homework, and a few of the planned lessons.Rakhee was stuck for two days (literally!) sticking cellotape to new games that had been bought for the kids in order to increase their longevity.This kept her entertained for the days when there were not too many children at the centre, due to celebrations happening in the city. The second week was more structured, as Rakhee was helping out with homework and Marisha was in arts and crafts, making a model volcano with papier mache, which she erupted with her amazing Chemistry skills on our last day!

The children were adorable if a little naughty, and it was sad to say goodbye to everybody once our two weeks were up. We had had a nice time at Aldea, even if some of the days were stressful due to the lack of space or the number of children running through the classrooms. It was something we had wanted to do as part of this trip and we were a little happier after having done it in Peru.

Aside from volunteering in the afternoons, we spent our time sightseeing and walking around the city.On one of the days, the bar manager from Loki that we had got friendly with decided to take us on a walking tour of Cusco.It was probably the best walking tour we had ever done as we saw more in one day than we had in at least 5 days of being there!He took us through the main market, then the local markets, the back streets, showed us a few great local watering holes, and some nice restaurants that we could try out.On the Sunday we were in Cusco, we decided to go to the Incan ruins just outside of the city, so we took a taxi up to the first one at the top of a surrounding mountain and walked our way back to the city, stopping at the ruins along the way.The scenery was amazing all around and you could see the city the whole way down.There was one site called Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman!) which was a massive ceremonial ground, housing a stone which was more than 300 tons!!!

Apart from being a cultural centre, Cusco has some CRAZY nightlife for a city of its size. Every night that we were there was spent socialising in the Loki bar, followed by a mad night of bar hopping and clubbing around the main plaza with a load of people from the hostel. Each club in Cusco is a gringo trap, full of tourists and a few locals too, playing an eclectic mix of pop, rock, salsa, reggeaton, rnb and hiphop. We had many a heavy night in Cusco, except on the very rare occasions when we were too ill or tired in bed! Having been there so long, we also made lots of local friends, such as the guys from this amazing tribal band that we went to watch one night. The nice thing was that everywhere we went, we always recognised people, and as a friendly race, they always stopped to say hello and have a quick chat. With living in the hostel, working at the project, and partying in the clubs, it soon felt like we lived in the hostel and knew the whole town, and it was easy to see why travellers ended up staying so long in Cusco.

Our last night in Cusco was actually calm and serene compared to the two weeks before. We went to a restaurant called Fallen Angel with some people from the day centre where we had been volunteering at. It was a truly eye-catching place, with bathtubs covered in glass and filled with tropical fish as tables, brightly coloured walls, paintings and statues, and delicious food and cocktails to keep us entertained for the night. All in all, we had some fine times in Cusco, but it was about time we moved on to somewhere where we could really get down with nature...