The Sacred Valley village of Chinchero

We were picked up in Cusco by 16-year-old Mayra, who took us on a crammed public bus to her family home in Chinchero - a tiny weaving village overlooking the Sacred Valley.

She showed us to our simple room in the family's mud brick house and then made us some coca tea. We were a bit nervous about what to expect as its a different world from what we're used to - there is an outside toilet which you have to flush using a bucket of water and no shower or hot running water - but we were looking forward to experiencing how a local family really lives.

The house has a stunning view of the Vilcabamba mountain range and the snow-capped peak of Salcantay as well as the main plaza below, where the local women who crowd the market four times a week still wear traditional Peruvian dress.
Our family, like most in Chinchero (which means "village of the rainbow"), makes a living by weaving llama and alpaca wool into belts, hats, blankets and bracelets.

Mayra runs the household during the week, doing all the washing (by hand) and cooking, and looking after her younger brother and sisters while her mum Cirila stays in Cusco selling her weavings - it is too expensive for her to take the $1, hour-long bus to Cusco every day.

Her lovely little brother Franklin, age eight, showed us round the plaza, which is home to a colonial adobe church - it was built in the 17th century on top of an Inca temple. And he pointed out the Inca's carvings of a puma, condor and snake in the rock walls below the church. Franklin then introduced us to two women who spend the day peeling potatoes under the hot sun, which are then sold to make soup.

That afternoon Mayra made us our first meal, of rice, plantain, egg and potatoes. We ate at 4pm as she had to go to work in the market selling the family's weavings. The children spend their school holidays in August working at least eight hours a day, and quite often come home without selling a single item. Even Franklin wakes at 5am to go to work in the market.. something hard to imagine ever happening in England.

The night was freezing even with six blankets, and it made us feel so lucky to have all the comforts we do at home. Breakfast was also an interesting experience.. It was rice, pasta and potatoes... with a few dog hairs thrown in! But strangely we loved this unique environment we'd found ourselves in and couldn't stop smiling.

Then out of the blue, as we were sat on the bed in our room, Ross produced a ring and asked me to marry him.

He told me he'd held the ring in his hand the whole day at Machu Picchu but couldn't get up the courage to ask me, and whenever he tried I kept walking off to look at something! But it couldn't have been more perfect in the end.. despite being freezing cold in a mud hut after a hairy breakfast, we were having the time of our lives.

That day we met our "mama" Cirila, who (very patiently!) taught us how to weave. Thankfully we chose to make just one bracelet each as it took us nearly the whole day. And Ross was over the moon as they chose claret and blue for us - the West Ham colours!

Cirila showed us how they colour the wool using natural dyes from plants, like cochineal, eucalyptus and kakasunca. First she built a fire (using the childrens' homework!) to boil the water, then added the wool with the dye. They let it boil for 20 minutes, before handwashing the wool and letting it dry on the line. It was eye-opening watching how much hard work goes into making each weaving, which we can buy for just a couple of dollars.

We then sat together on a blanket in the garden painstakingly knotting our threads of wool to make a simple bracelet, while watching Cirila weaving beautiful patterns into a rug incredibly fast. Ross took a break to go the local market with Cirila's sister to buy our lunch of fish, rice and potatoes - which embarrassingly, we didn't realise we had to peel before eating!

We'd brought a few gifts for the children.. a football for the boys and some hairbands and glitter stickers for the girls, and we spent the afternoon playing with them. Despite working so hard they had limitless energy and we laughed for hours as they chased each other putting stickers on their faces and playing hide and seek with the football.
We also taught them some card games which they loved - and kept us awake for hours, refusing to go to sleep because they wanted to keep playing.

Their father Graciamo works cleaning the Inca trail during the week and has just one night at home, on Fridays. He arrived at about 730pm - but had to leave for work again the following morning at 4am. He was so gracious and welcomed us to his home with open arms.

Our engagement dinner that night was pasta cooked in beef stock with an offcut of beef bones - the family have meat just once a week as a treat. It was very basic food, but we felt touched that they shared what little they had with us.

The next morning we headed back to our hostel in Cusco feeling exhausted after being too cold to sleep. Meanwhile the whole family headed off for another full day's work. Staying with our family was a wonderful, humbling experience we'll never forget.

A website is being set up to help Peruivan families sell their weavings - check it out at www.threadsofperu.com

Tomorrow we are leaving Peru after a fantastic month, for new adventures in Bolivia.

All our love, xxxx