It poured from the heavens last night and perishingly cold – added another blanket to the pile on my bed and can hardly move for the weight.

Up at 6:30 to get to the centre for 8am and I was glad to see that the rain had stopped. I had to do the walk, bus and taxi trip myself this morning and I wish I had paid more attention to the landmarks yesterday 😱

I put on the same mingin’ trousers from yesterday as I didn’t want to get another pair dirty and headed down for breakfast. Roll, cheese, meat, tomatoes, cucumber and that all important cup of tea – no eggs. I had progressed to a variety of dishes – hope I’m doing the right thing.

I bought some cake from the wee kiosk as I walked to the bus because it was the other volunteers last day – I’ll miss her because she has the same work ethic as me and we work well as a team.

Everything went well for the walking part of the journey, I even got on the right bus telling him I wanted to get off at Enaco but during my journey for some reason I panicked and got up too early. The conductor was talking to me in Spanish and I didn’t understand – all I knew was he wouldn’t let me off the bus so I returned to my seat and hoped he was right and I was wrong 😳

Eventually he shouted “Enaco” and stared right at me and the driver stopped the bus. So I did what they wanted and I left the bus.

I quickly realised that they were in fact right because I had taken photos yesterday of my ‘get off the bus’ point and I could see the big green building across the road

Walking up the road to the left of this building I jumped into a taxi and got off up at the top of the hill, chapped the metal door and reported for duty.

Two of the volunteers didn’t turn up for work which meant the day was going to be hard but I didn’t really mind, we were a good hard working team.

The routine was the same, let some dogs out to exercise before others, water, feed, fix their blankets then put them back in. Then the mayhem started. All the dogs in five other kennels were let out together, all with pent up energy and hyperexcited to be out, racing up and down the exercise yard, barking and greeting their neighbours with some rough and tumble play. They craved love and affection – that’s all, plain old compassion! And they got plenty too.

So many dogs, so much cuddles to go round.

It takes a long time to get them all organised, especially when playtime is actively encouraged.

When the chicken and rice soup came out of the kitchen, they got so excited and some even start brawling because they were so hyper but it quickly diffused and peace was restored.

In the afternoon a Peruvian tour guide came to the door with two huge 25k bags of dried dog food, it was like christmas had come early. It was too late to be appreciated for the dogs who had already been fed but for the few remaining, it was mixed in with the soup. They were so excited, gulping it down without breathing, some even stuck their whole face into the bowl blowing bubbles from their nostrels, I was so sure they were going to choke.

The lady who permanently lived on the premises to look after all the dogs was immensely grateful. These dogs are her life and all she wants is to see them have a healthy and happy existance away from the uncertainties and dangers of street life

2pm, work done for another day and I left. I have been a vet Nurse for 43 years and caring for animals is all I’ve ever known. After only 2 days I have become so attached to some of the residents and I find myself worrying about leaving on Friday. 😢

Returned doing the same transport reeking from head to toe. Tomorrow I think I’ll take a pair of trousers to change into at the centre.

Getting back to the hostel was quite routine where I showered changed, a wee cup of English Breakfast tea and wrote this – my blog.

It’s now 6:30pm, the temperature has dropped dramatically and I’m under the alpaca blankets to keep warm 🥶

Because I left the volunteer post in the Amazon jungle, my insurance policy has been cancelled so I will have to spend the rest of the evening researching companies for a new quote because I am now in South America uninsured 😱

Nite 🤔