At 8 am I opened the bedroom door to find a brightly dressed indigenous man sitting in the corner of the lounge room.  He was leaning over two rectangles of white paper, on which were arranged two smaller rectangles of dazzling colour and complexity; bright sweets, coca leaves, shells, grains, candles.  He slipped more coca [...]

I’m not a superstitious person, but when my partners Willy and Gabriel shake their heads mournfully and complain of the mala energía that’s floating around at the moment, I can’t help but agree.  Things are plodding along, but we’ve lost some of the exhilarating momentum we had at the start.  Willy’s dislocated a shoulder.  Somebody [...]

Yamanyá is looking for an outgoing and hard-working soul to take on the horrendous job of activities manager.  You’ll be required to organise parties in the bar, lead the pub crawls, schedule Spanish, yoga or cooking classes, take the guests to the Sacred Valley horse-riding, rafting, cycling….  What a drag. We need someone who speaks [...]

In keeping with today’s photographic theme (read: I’m too lazy to write), a few more photos of the progression of Cusco’s newest backpackers hostel.  The first patio is ready to be kitted out with flowers and plants, the first bunk bed will be ready for inspection later today, and the boys will be making me [...]

I’ve never been much of a believer in magic.  A friend and I spent three months terror-struck that we were being haunted by vengeful spirits after an ill-advised experiment with a ouija board back in my rather less skeptical youth, but a thoroughly scientific secondary and part-of-my-tertiary education has instilled a firm faith in the [...]

1.  Connections are everything It’s definitely about who you know here. And John knows almost everyone – Willy has the rest covered. From getting the company phones before we have an actual company, to having an invisible army of assistants calling with valuable information and leads on houses and everything else we might need, somehow [...]

Stage One:  House-hunting After the decision was made and toasted over a nice cold Cusqueña, it was time to start looking at houses…. and houses…. and still more houses… Until we found our baby – three patios, stone swimming pool, five minutes walk from the Plaza de Armas and beautiful… Stage 2:  Jumping through bureaucratic [...]

If anybody had told me, starting my five-month Latin America trip (six-and-a-half months ago) I would have failed to make it home on time, that wouldn’t have surprised me in the least.  My family and close friends were also less than shocked by the news that I was staying in Peru. If that person had [...]