We left Arequipa on the 8pm bus to Cusco which got us there, after a fairly decent nights sleep at 6am, after a little bit of faffing around we jumped on a collectivo to Ollantaytambo from where we were able to get the train to Machu Picchu Pueblo (also known as Aquas Calientes) where we arrived at about 2.30pm. We spent the next couple of hours finding a hostel and preparing for our trip to the ruins of Machu Picchu the following morning. We had to decide wheth...

First of all we have to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated some money to the orphanage, we were able to give them over 1,000 GBP which is a truly huge amount of money. We are very lucky to know such generous people and it will make a huge difference to the children. Today was our last day and we were both really sad to leave. Although we have only been working there for 5 days we have both become really attched to the babies and older children who a...

We have been in Arequipa, about 700 miles south of Lima, for about 5 weeks. Throughout our trip we have been looking for an opportunity to volunteer somewhere and we settled here as we found an incredible orphanage to work in. We have been working about 6 hours a day, looking after the 17 kids and babies, who are between 5 months and 8 years old. The children are there for various reasons; they have no parents, they were abandoned, they were taken from their pare...

First things first, we are alive. contrary to some extraneous reports.Obviously working 5 hours a day has been a little taxing and we´ve been a bit a slack on the blog updates. I´m not sure how we managed to do anything when we had full time jobs at home. The orphanage has been really enjoyable, hard work and an eye opening experience. We are working about 5-6 hours a day, 5 days a week. We barely see each other from the moment we arrive to the moment we leave ...

Even for us the trip to Colca Canyon required an early start, we had to be up and at them at 2.30 in order to get to the bus station for our 3.30am bus. Having bagged the back seat we snuggled down in our sleeping bag for the 5 (turned out to be 7) hour trip, via Chivay, to the town of Cabanaconde (try saying that at 3 in the morning!). Colca Canyon is one of the deepest in the world and is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon so as you'd expect there was some prett...