"It was with some trepidation that late in January, I made the long journey from the UK to Cusco, Peru, to meet up with a varied group of people who had all volunteered to work in Manu for varying lengths of time. It was quite a surprise for me to meet up with Georgie, as we soon found out that we only live 10 miles apart, although we had never met before.

After a couple of days acclimatizing in Cusco, we made the beautiful day and a half journey to the Manu Learning Centre (MLC), in the Amazon Rainforest, which was to be our home for the next few weeks.

Since arriving, we have already encountered humming birds, squirrel monkeys, poison dart frogs and nine-banded armadillos, to name but a few. What the next few weeks holds for us, we cannot wait to find out, but one thing we are sure of is it will be like nothing we have experienced before."