At about 2 o’clock yesterday, Juliet and I rang a taxi to take us and our massive amount of belongings to what would be our new house for the next three weeks. Unfortunately it’s not in the middle of Cusco and as we drive further out the surroundings became less attractive and more scary looking. Our taxi driver had no idea where our house was and after a ten minute drive to the area and then another ten minutes driving round in circles, we started to ask people directions. A lot were non-responsive but eventually we found our house – number 16B and we’re greeted by the ‘house mum’ Horti.
Our house, despite the not so nice location, is actually really lovely. Juliet and I have a huge room with two big beds and lots of closet space so we can FINALLY unpack out of our backpacks!!! It’s a twenty five minute walk to the main square but it’s dangerous to walk it after 8pm – however there’s taxis literally everywhere and it’s a five minute journey by car. After Horti showed us around the house, to the sun room, the kitchen, her house, how to lock and unlock all the 5 doors and gates to actually get into the house, we dumped our stuff, made ourself at home and then headed back into Cusco city.
Our new house doesn’t have wifi so we have to rely on the restaurants and coffee shops. Lucky for us, basically every single one has internet connection. Juliet and I actually found a Starbucks in the centre of the plaza so made ourselves at home with a frappachino (SO yummy) and some wifi.

That evening we met our inca trail friends for our last meal as the PacaPumas (so emotional), we went to an absolutely delicious steak restaurant called Uchu – as we’d decided we needed to have a lovely meal to celebrate. All of our steaks came out on hot stones so we could chose how cooked we wanted them, with the most delicious sauces, salad and Peruvian style potatoes.

Our friend Mario also had a mousse made out of the local drink of Peru Pisco, which was absolutely delicious. It was a great meal with some friends for life and when we went to pay we discovered that Craig had been ridiculously generous and treated us all. It was so sad to say goodbye to our new friends but we will definitely stay in touch! (And thankfully it was an easier trip back to our new house as this time the taxi driver actually knew his way…)
This morning when we woke up, we headed to the Spanish school linked with our volunteering for our introduction day. It began with a Spanish test which wasn’t too bad and then a quick private conversation in Spanish with the lady who examined us – this is just to check our level for our Spanish lessons. We then had a briefing about Cusco and the Peruvian customs, which was actually quite tedious for me and Juliet as we’ve been here for a long time where as most people have just arrived. This afternoon our Spanish lessons begin and because Juliet and I are going straight into volunteering, while a lot of people are only here for Spanish lessons, we are lucky enough to have private Spanish lessons just for the two of us! (These are just for the first week to brush up our Spanish)
After our Spanish lesson today we then have a volunteering orientation with Horti where we’ll find out all about the school where we’ll be working and the children we’ll be teaching. So many orientations… We just want it all to begin now!!!