My Passport, A Couple of Hundred Bucks, and a Mediocre-Sized Hiking Pack in the Land of the Incas

Not having a concrete plan and an open mind are, for me, key ingredients of an epic adventure. That is the beauty of grassroots travel, you never know what is going to happen and what can go wrong usually does – but hey, you get a great story out of it and you have an awesome time anyway. In 2007, I found myself stepping off the plane in Cusco, Peru with just my passport, a couple of hundred bucks and my mediocre-sized hiking pack. Before departing Australia, I had organized to stay with a local Peruvian family – but that was it. All I had in mind was that I wanted to learn Spanish, do some volunteer work and see places that looked incredible on TV shows like Getaway. So that is exactly what I did – but with a few very enjoyable bumps along the way!

After meeting with my Peruvian family who did not speak a word of English, and with my Spanish being limited to ‘Hola!’ ‘Como esta?’ and ‘Si’, I set out to find a volunteer organization that would take me. I did not have to search for very long, as I was quickly recruited by an Australian-Peruvian organization called ‘Peru’s Challenge’ in a small mountain village outside of Cusco called Pumamarca. It was an amazing experience, although I did not learn a single word of Spanish as all the locals spoke the ancient language of Quecha, I became quite proficient at uttering similar sounding Spanish words, pointing and smiling. Everyday all the volunteers – who eventually became my best mates over there – gathered at the coordinator’s house and we would be driven about 45 minutes to Pumamarca. This daily journey was an adventure in itself, as we were all thrown in together in a small, very old van with a driver that loved to drive precariously up the unpaved, steep and winding roads leading to the village. It was breathtaking. Upon leaving Cusco, we were surrounded by lush green mountains spotted with farmland, and we were treated to scenes of the daily lives of the Quechuan people, such as women chasing guinea pigs around the front of their huts and skinning them to be cooked later on.

But, I was quickly reminded that not only was I a tourist, but a worker too. The most memorable day was when I was asked to do some gardening behind the school. I assumed it would consist of picking weeds, pruning flowers, that sort of thing, but instead I found myself knee deep in various types of animal manure, using rag tag gloves to scatter it down the sizable plot. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. I just kept rhyming this in my head and laughing, “I can’t believe I’m touching poo, in the mountains of Peru”. My time in Pumamarca was an unexpected experience jotted with crazy and hectic times, but it fuelled my desire for adventurous travel, and as such is definitely an experience I will never forget.