Hey everyone...thought it was time for another update from me (Becky!) I think we missed out the salsa dancing episode from our last blog - Hali and I flippantly said one day in a taxi with Helen that we would be up for dancing salsa at some point whilst here, the next thing i knew Helen´s friend Carlos was booked for coming to the house one evening to give us a private lesson! Liz and Annabel, perhaps wisely, said they would watch from the sidelines as we attempted to look as though we had some clue as to what we should be doing! We got the beers in before he arrived - some would argue this may have hindered our progress but i beg to differ! It was actually really fun, although i doubt that when we go to Up Town - the salsa club in Cusco that i will actually be able to remember any of the steps! Carlos´statement ágain please this is not good´also suggests i´m not about to become a salsa champion! lol

This week has been another busy one at the Kindergarten, the children seem to be getting the hang of the head, shoulders, knees and toes actions and the hokey cokey went down a storm! We took friday off though to accompany Helen, Andy and their friends to Lake Huacapuy - it was absolutely beautiful and a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Cusco centre. We walked round the lake, stopping for lunch at a lake side restuarant, serving duck and trout from the lake itself - was so tasty!! I couldn´t finish mine though because in true Peruvian style they gave me enough rice to feed a family of 4 plus a boiled potato for good measure! The plan was to stop for icecream at a local dairy farm but the family had travelled to Cusco for the day...we are planning on a return trip just for the icecream now!

We enjoyed a nice lie in n Saturday morning until the noise of the market on the square outside refused to let us sleep any longer but we spent the day leisurely wandering round Cusco which was cool. ONe particularly bizaare (to use Liz´s word of the week) and random moment was when a Spanish speaking family stopped us just in front of the famous 12 angled Inca stone with their camera...not so odd i can hear you thinking, well no it wouldn´t have been if they had been asking us to take the photo for them but what they actually wanted was for us to be in the photo with them - they were really most insistent, calling us their ámigas´after all of 2 seconds!

After a chilled Saturday we had a very action packed sunday...white water rafting!! The prospect of donning a wetsuit was not all that appealing, made even less so by the fact that we were required to do this within the confines of the coach we had arrived in (this was also to serve as our changing room after rafting!) However i´m glad we did as it was so much fun! In fact i was soon to be very grateful of the wetsuit as i managed to be the only one out of the whole coachload of people to actually fall out of the raft into the river...not just fall out but travel from one side of the raft to the other in a graceless forward roll style motion and over the opposite side of the raft to the one i was sitting on! Well if you´re gonna bail then you might as well do it in style! Luckily Liz and a fellow Pod volunteer, Liam, came to my rescue and pulled me back in - no damage done, in fact i couldn´t stop laughing! All in all it was a great experience, although it was completely freezing by the end and i´m surprised i can actually type and my hands aren´t frozen into a claw-like grip from holding the oar all afternoon! The hot drinks and rice and chicken meal we were given after was greatly appreciated, although we have also found room for pancakes this evening...hopefully won´t be regretting that later!

Think that´s about it for now, off to bed - another early start at the kindergarten tomorrow!

Will be sure to update you all again soon,

Much love Becky and Liz x x x x x x x x