We were very lucky to have the company of some fantastic guides on the tour. Marco, our main tour guide, was as helpful as ever. The children will also mention Willow (Colca Canyon), Maria and Ruben (Puno and Taquile), Marlene (our host in the barrio [poor neighbourhood] of Cusco), Cristian and his rafting team, ‘George of The Jungle’ at Wasai and Fabiola (our tour guide in Lima). Enthusiastic and caring people – all of them. There were others too which i haven't mentioned. The trip would not have been such a great success without the superb organisation of Andean Trails and the personal attention of Kathy (the boss). We may have been their paying customers but their organisation, attention to detail and efficiency was fantastic. If you or any members of your family are ever planning a South American trip in the future then I don’t think you need to look any further for a quality organisation to organise your trip. Anyone who is familiar with our previous trip in 2006 will find it hard to believe that we actually crammed in more than we did then. For example, we had a great open-top-bus tour of Arequipa, saw a lot more of Lima including San Francisco and its catacombs and Lima’s Inca gold museum. The most significant addition to the trip was the visit to the poor barrio (bar-ee-oh) arranged by Andean Trails. We left a great quantity of clothes, football kits, pencils and 80+ ‘Tiny Tots’ watches donated by the Ragdoll TV company. A few members of the St Benedict’s community also donated a bit of money which we left with Marlene. The kids had great fun playing football with them and friendships were made the following day when 16 of them joined us on the rafting trip. On the bus to the river communication was easy and fun – we sang a song in English and then they sang a song in Spanish – again and again. It was great to see the handshakes and hugs between them all as we all said goodbye. We hope to maintain our contact with Andean Trails and Marlene and their work and are planning to raise money for ‘the project’ through our Advent and Lenten charity appeals.
Alex Hendry, UK, 2016
» Tailor made school trip to Peru