Kim´s Story of Volunteering in Cusco with Loki this Week....

Lucre, Monday 12 July

We visited children in Lucre today. After handing out juice and milk to patient waiting lines of thirsty children we got down and dirty with the kids - drawing and colouring with crayons was great fun and lots of the children wanted pictures of capobera, not so easy to draw!

In the afternoon we played ball games, hula hoop, skipping and swinging the kids around - was awesome- the kids really appreciated having big people around to climb on and be swung about.
Today wasn´t just a rewarding experience but was also the most fun I have had in a long time.

Haurcarpay Tuesday 13 July
Today we went to a small village about 45 minutes outside of Cusco. The village had been severely damaged by the floods earlier in the year which resulted in the families moving into tents nearby their original village.  We brought juice and milk, paper, crayons and toys for the kids and had an amazing time playing with them. Although the majority of the playing area was inside a construction site, the kids couldn´t be happier just running and jumping on us and taking photos with our cameras (luckily all cameras made it out in one piece).  It was great to get out of Cusco for a day and embrace our inner child and see outside the touristy areas. Plus running after all the kids was a great way to build some endurance for the Inca Trail hike!!

Paurcarbumba, Thursday 15 July
We made our way from Loki hostel to the breathtaking views of the Sacred Valley - a sharpe contrast of such a beautiful setting, versus such a tradedy.  We have been helping, bringing food etc, however it was soon realised the moto ¨bring a man a fish he´ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he´ll eat for life¨ came into play. The plan to build a school to raise guinea pigs to sell (each family will receive 1 male and 9 female) hopefully bringing in an income of 200 soles.  This wishful thinking was made all the more prominent when sitting in the back of a truck, down a dirt track road and passing families in tents.  The local community are supportive - we get waves from the children as we pass and lunch was cooked for us by a local lady.
With one truck, we managed to move about 450 bricks (at 16-18kilos each!) and by the end of the day we had many grazes but also bigger muscles and we were covered in dust but hopefully this small contribution can help develop some of the families in their future.

Today was one of the most valuable days I´ve had in my time in South America.  When I first heard we´d be loading 400+ bricks onto a truck and unloading them, I was very daunted.  but knowing we were helping local families whose lives and homes had been destroyed in the floods made the heavy lifting worth it.  It was a great feeling when we lifted the last brick off the truck.  The beautiful scenery that we had all around us made it that bit more bearable.  Overall a great way to spend a day!

THE NEW "SUPER BOILER" has been installed and as of this morning is pumping out lovely steaming hot water for you guys! 

Loki Loves Hot Water.

Loki La Paz has been suffering from pretty severe hot waterproblems of late. We have 5 X 100 litre boilers that have been in place prettymuch since we opened.  These have beenproviding scalding hot water to us and our guests.

For reasons unknown this is no longer the case. We have beendoing some work lately to enable our boilers to be connected to street gas. Thework to implement this has triggered the gremlins in our system.

We have changed the configuration for “in series” to “inparallel” and every combination in between. We have had the originaltechnicians in from the company that installed it. We have had new techniciansin to look at it. We even had or very own “Jim’ll fix it” Dror come from Limaand have a look at it. All to no avail.

So we have decided to buy a behemoth of a new water tank  of 300 litres which we will fit today ortomorrow ( depending on where we decide to try and squeeze it in ). We lookforward to our guests having roasting hot showers again soon!

We will update this blog tomorrow, hopefully with the good news! 

Cusco - Safety Warning!

Loki Hostel Cusco strongly urges all guests coming and going from the hostel

between the hours of 10pm and 7am in the morning to take a taxi from the hostel.

There have been a series of recent muggings close by to the hostels and we feel

these people may be targeting our street.

Cusco is not a dangerous place, however like any 3rd world city in the world, there

are sensible precautions you should take when going out and coming home of an

evening.  Here are some safety suggestions:

a) DO NOT walk to and from the hostel during the evening!
b) DO NOT take a lot of money or valuables out with you - just the bare minimum.
c) DO have the hostel call you a taxi before leaving
d) DO get a registered taxi when coming home, and take down the numberplate

if you can. Registered taxi's have a yellow and black checkerboard section on the sides of the cars.
e) DO NOT get into the front seat of any taxi if you are alone, and preferably do not take a

taxi by yourself if you can avoid it.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please email: [email protected]