Having never been to Latin America before and albeit being very much afraid of flying I boarded the plane super excited for my trip to Ecuador and Peru! I didn’t have any worries as I knew that there would be a friendly smiling face to meet me at the other end in the form of our wonderful in-country teams!

First stop was Cusco, Peru where I was greeted by a lovely lady called Magali who co-ordinates our Machu Picchu tours, from the moment we met we hit it off and I couldn’t have felt safer or more welcome. Having only been in Peru for a short time there was one thing that stood out – literally ME! At 5ft 2 I have been used to being shall we say 'vertically challenged' but for the first time in my life I was one of the tallest people around as the bulk of the Peruvian people were so petite!

I was taken right away from the airport to meet Patricia whom I was to stay with during my time in Cusco, again I instantly felt very welcome, she made me a cup of Coca Tea and told me to rest for a few hours as it was needed to acclimatise with Cusco being over 3350m high up! When I had taken it easy for a few hours I was itching to have a wander around the centre of town, Patricia showed me where to get a cab and waited with me until one came, the journey was a little over 5 minutes and only cost 66p!

Upon arrival in the main Plaza (square) I was taken aback by the sheer beauty of the place, it was like something out of a movie, there I was high up in the Andes, surrounded by blue sky, stunning mountains, a beautiful huge town square with intricate cathedrals, town halls, 2nd floor café’s with lovely carved balconies, restaurants, flowers and exciting narrow cobbled streets leading off from all around the square daring me to go and explore their nooks and crannies and hidden courtyards! It took my breath away and I knew right away that I could have spent months there exploring and enjoying the sights and getting to know the locals people and the culture.

The next day I headed out with Magali to see our community projects, we drove for about 15 minutes to a small run down village just outside of the main city. First up we headed to the first project to see Paola who runs one of the day care centres for mothers who aren’t able to find or afford childcare for their kids whilst they go out for work. She greeted me with the biggest smile I have ever seen and after only just getting through the door I had about 20 kids aged 6 months to 3 years clambering up my legs and holding my hands shouting “Hola! Hola!” If you have never seen South American children the only way to describe them is adorable!

Paola works tirelessly without ever having a day off to keep the centre going and look after and nurture these little ones and to say she could do with a helping hand is an understatement! The kids dragged me into their brightly coloured, handicraft decorated activity room and at once wanted me to draw and sing and give cuddles – it was great fun and I could have stayed there for months getting to know their little personalities and relieving Paula of her huge task of trying to entertain and look after 20 kids alone! Next was on to the centre with the slightly older kids aged 6-12 where again there was just the one lady - Quintina (who has five kids of her own as it is!) looking after around 30 kids, super hard work!

The kids were so eager to practice their English, show me their drawings, the dances they had made up and again just have hugs and cuddles. If it wasn’t for these wonderful women none of the single mothers in the village would have been able to go out to work and earn a keep for their families, in my eyes they deserve a medal!

After visiting the projects in the village I was lucky enough to spend some time with the wetlands community. The heaviest rains in 15 years hit this community very hard in January of this year as due to the close proximity to the fast rising water their whole village was destroyed and devastated leaving the majority homeless and without any of their possessions that they had worked hard to buy. Luckily they are a resilient bunch and with a little help from the government they have managed to make themselves some temporary accommodation further up the valley for now until their new homes back down by the wetlands are finished.

This community astounded me with the forward thinking, their want to recycle everything that they use, they passion for environmental conservation not only for their community but to educate the people of Peru and visitors to their country.

The kids were so happy and vibrant despite the obvious poverty they live in, they wanted to show me their little garden where they grow medicinal plants, organic vegetable patches where the grow all sorts of wonderful things to sell in town, a brightly coloured bench area where they go to resolve any conflicts and their little media room (some very old and dated equipment that has been donated by local businesses) they like to record tapes for local radio stations again telling people how to look after their wonderful nature reserve and the importance of recycling and looking after the planet – genius!

On my last day in beautiful Cusco I jumped at the chance to go head off to the sacred valley of the Incas, we stopped at Pisaq for the huge local Market (being a shopaholic this was a very dangerous place for me to be lol!) and some stunning ancient ruins, we tried many local delicacies when we stopped for lunch at a pretty little restaurant in Urubamba, and then headed on to the most incredible place I have ever seen Ollantaytambo where I climbed to the top of the famous ruins (very much similar to Machu Picchu) and sat for a long time taking in the most stunning scenery I had ever seen whilst listening to interesting old Inca tales from our lovely guide!

From Cusco I flew back to Lima where I was met by our lovely co-ordinator Fiorella and her charming husband Mario. I only had the day in Lima but Fiorella and Mario proved to be the best tour guides anyone could have asked for, I spent some time at one of our community projects in the city which has over 180 orphaned and abandoned girls some of whom have special needs, their ages ranged from 12-18 and ever some of whom due to having nowhere else to take them have been there since being even younger. I could see just how much the staff were desperate for help from volunteers and just how rewarding a project like this would be, all the staff I came across at the orphanage were so warm and friendly and they, along with the girls, talked of many of the volunteers who had been there to help them dating back years they never forgot a name of where the volunteers were from or just how valuable it was to have them help.

I got to see so many hidden gems, the most beautiful churches I have ever seen (one that houses a piece of the original cross), old colonial houses, the seafront where there are surfers galore and so much more in the city that without knowing the locals of people you would never know was there, I spent some time in Miraflores which is a beautiful part of Lima where our volunteers stay and I have to stay it was just as incredible as Cusco especially when I was lucky enough to head to our Archaeological site nearby Huaca Pucllana, which is a 15 hectare archaeological site,

Huaca Pucllana was constructed in the 5th century from adobe bricks and soon became an important ceremonial and administrative location and the way it rises up out of the city centre is a sight to behold, I couldn’t believe that our volunteers are lucky enough to work alongside experts doing typical activities such as archaeological excavation, cleaning, registering and cataloguing archaeological material and they you don’t even need to have any experience to be a part of this! They also recently found the first mummified remains there! Wowsers!

So needless to say I was very sad indeed to leave Peru behind (albeit I’m already planning my return) but I had a second country to discover – Ecuador!

After a flight from Lima to Quito I was on Ecuadorian soil and pondering if it was to live up to it’s neighbouring country! I was met at the airport by a few members of our in-country team proudly displaying their i-to-i boards they whisked me off to my new family Patricio and Adrianna who again couldn’t have made me feel any more welcome, they were to become such great friends in such a short space of time, Adriana reminds me of a 1950’s glamorous Hollywood movie star, always immaculately presented and an air of grace about her but so down to earth! We sat up and chatted for hours, but I had to hit the sack as the next morning I had a 5 hour bus trip to Tena in the heart of the Amazon!

I thought the journey would be tedious but it turned out I couldn’t close my eyes for a second or else I’d have missed another breathtaking waterfall or snow capped peak or river, or llama! The best part of the journey was seeing the awe inspiring Cotopaxi, which reaches a dizzying height of 5897m – take that Kilimanjaro 2 whole meters higher!! I arrived in Tena to be greeted by my 3rd host family a wonderful lady called Bilmar and her husband Raul.

Again I couldn’t have met nicer people, they welcomed me into their home and their family with the whole hearts, they have 3 daughters who were a wonderful source of entertainment on an evening, we went swimming as a family in the clear waters of the Tena River, took boats trips and went to monkey island and a few animal sanctuaries – the scenery in this area is breath-taking! We ate the most delicious home cooked meals together, played with their abundance of pets and just laughed and joked around and I’ll always cherish my time with them, such special memories.

Whilst I was in Tena I visited many of the local rural schools and orphanages that are crying our for volunteers to help teach English as pretty much nobody in this area does and it’s incredibly important with the amount of tourism in the Amazon Basin. Again there are orphanages ages where due to lack of funds they just don’t have the resources to cope with the increasing number of kids so they were constantly telling me they need volunteers and again names of all the volunteers that had helped them with tears of joy in their eyes and they proudly showed me all the displays and crafts they had done with the children.

The second project I visited was our animal care and park maintenance, I have to say I have never seen such passionate people as the guys who work for the good of the animals that are brought into the centre and rescued. They receive very little help from the government and therefore have to pay for everything themselves – just the three of them and they have over 100 hundred animals!

They do everything themselves and that’s where the volunteers are a massive help. There are astounding animals there I’ve never seen or even heard of, they have a couple of Galapagos Tortoises, monkeys galore, sloths, lions, birds, snakes, llamas, foxes, squirrels and just well too many to mention! Since it was founded it has helped over 900 animals to be rehabilitated into the wild. They also educate anyone who comes to the centre on the importance of animal welfare. You get involved with all aspects of working with an animal centre so feeding, cleaning, fixing cages, taking the visitors around and telling them everything you have learnt & so much more! I totally fell in love with this project being an animal lover!

Last stop for me was a day in Quito. I totally loved Quito as much as anywhere else I had been. Quito is gorgeous, so much to see and do, it’s a huge city again very high up and surrounded by stunning mountains and beautiful scenery. I wandered around the cobbled streets, stumbled upon a big street carnival, went to amazing museums that were free to enter (don’t find many of them in the UK!) ate locally at the food stalls, bought tonnes of handicrafts that were so cheap, braved the cable car and could have again spent weeks exploring!

All in all I have to say that it was a magical experience, I have hundreds of photo’s but thousands of amazing memories, I saw a great need for volunteers and a massive appreciation for each and every person who has been to either country and made a massive difference and left footprints on hearts of those whose lives the volunteers have touched forever. This won’t be the last time I go to either country, and as I write this now I’m already planning my return with a list of the projects in my hand and a map of the world!

• Ecuador
• peru
• Quito
• Cusco
• travel
• adventure
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• community
• teach
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