We woke up to some familiar Scottish weather on Thursday. It was what we would call ‘dreich’ in Scotland; cloudy, grey, drizzly and cold.

We were in full swing with teaching this week. However, on Friday, whilst Scott, Sarah and Kate were teaching, every class apart from the one that we were teaching abandoned ship in typical Peruvian style. This meant the rest of the days classes were cancelled due to national teachers day. We finished off a good week of teaching at strive with the whole group playing animal charades.

On Friday night we went to mull over the week over some stargazing to continue our weekly tradition. The stars are truly incredible, with a clear view of the Milky Way, Mars and Jupiter. There is always an opportunity to make a wish, as shooting stars are a common sight.

Today was one of the most enjoyable days here in Peru. We started off in the bitter cold with our long runs at 7am. We felt smug as we watched the frost clear and mist rise before the chaos of Pisaq began. We all made our way to Calca over varying distances ranging between 10 and 15 miles, meeting at our trusty juice ladies to rehydrate and refuel.

We hopped on a bus to the nearby village of Arin, where we met Addy and Lindsay’s hospitable missionary friends. They kindly organised for a nine year old mountain goat, Branco, to lead us to a beautiful waterfall, which Addy scouted the week before. He led us up to the water13624804_10205167189259277_1444898883_nfall, passing ancient Incan burial sites. We were told that the waterfall was man-made- a fitting tribute to the outstanding architecture of the Inca’s.

On return to our missionary friends house, we were served with fried plantains, physalis fruit and jelly! An evangelist who was visiting our missionary friend gave us a sermon using a combination of art and spoken word.

After a jam packed day, we headed home on the trusty public bus.

Catriona and Sarah