For the past 2 months I have been planning my wedding here in Arequipa with my wonderful fiance Wayra. It all finally came together on Monday 24th March when at about 2pm we were announced husband and wife! The day started with breakfast on the balcony with my parents and friend Fiona and her daughter Shannon, who had all travelled to Peru to be with us on our special day. Unfortunately it was a rush brekkie as I had to swiftly leave and go to the hairdressers/ beauty parlour for my finishing touches. Wayra had to go off running around half [View Full Entry]

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New Year was like being at home, without the alcohol and Daddy´s famous punch! Every year Wayra goes to the beach with his friends at New Year, its a common thing for Peruanos to do as December til February is Summer here. But this year, as we had spent the whole of Christmas in the highlands with his family and completely out of contact with my family, we decided to stay in Arequipa for a special kind of celebration. Every year my parents have had a New Year´s Eve party since the Millennium and I haven´t missed any til now. As [View Full Entry]

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Well, what can I say about Christmas in Ayapata. As you know, we collected money in Ireland with massive help from my family and friends, with which we bought toys and t-shirts for the children in Ayapata. We got up early on Christmas morning to start preprations. Friends of Wayra´s family stayed overnight so they could help out in the morning. They got up at 5am and started preparing the hot chocolate and the ´paneton´, which is special christmas cake. It originated in Italy apparently and its a huge cake which can be cut into about 16 pieces or more! So [View Full Entry]

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Finalising Preps... Well, the time I had... We left Arequipa on Wed 19th Dec at 5am and arrived in Juliaca safe in the hotel at 10.30am. Due to the not-so-nice nature of Juliaca we decided that I would stay in the hotel ´resting´ while Wayra met up with his aunt and went shopping! Its possible to be caught and buy ´bamba´ goods in Juliaca (and many other places in Peru) so they needed to be sure that they were buying the original stuff. They arrived back to the hotel, Wayra on a tricycle (see pics on Facebook) with 60 Panetones [View Full Entry]

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Well, when you arrive in Ayapata or Kana, which is the name of the village where Wayra´s home is, you need to climatise and that means doing as little as possible! Saying that, I´m never allowed to do anything when I am there, Wayra´s mama and sister do everything and if they see me lift a brush or attempt to help in any way they reprimand me! So we had arrived at 3am Friday morning, so most of Friday was spent lying about, taking in the views, which are spectacular and chatting. In the evening about 7pm the Shaman arrived. He [View Full Entry]

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On 19th December we will travel to Ayapata to play Mr & Mrs Claus for the children who live in the moutains around Ayapata. These children will not be expecting Santa nevermind Christmas of any kind, so they will be very surprised to be invited for a Christmas party! We will buy cake for families, cars for boys and dolls for girls and we are hoping if the money stretches that we can get t-shirts printed up for the occassion! Can´t wait! If anyone wants to make a contribution to this Christmas fund, you can contact my mammy and she can [View Full Entry]

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Well, as many of you know, I raised some money before I left for Peru. This money was intended to go to poor children in Arequipa and Ayapata and anywhere it was needed basically. Of course I need to make many judgement calls about this money and so far I think I´ve decided ok! Today I purchased some toys to the value of 50quid to go to children in the area where the earthquake happened back in August. The head teacher of the Insitute I teach at is going on Boxing Day with another man to give these toys and other [View Full Entry]

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Well, went to Chile on Monday to cross the frontier from Peru to renew my visa for another 90 days. I have to say, this experience was less exciting than crossing the border at Bolivia, but nonetheless, I had a good time. We left Arequipa at 7am and arrived in Tacna (a more southernly city in Peru) where we managed to get a taxi directly over the border to Arica, Chile within minutes. It costs buttons to do it like this and the taxi drivers are very helpful when you get to the border control cause the officials can be bitches [View Full Entry]

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I did a search on google for volunteering with kids in Arequipa and I found a great organisation founded in the last year by an English girl, Jay and her Peruvian boyfriend, Luis. They set up the organisation getting volunteers to help out with children in a school, but now thats being fazed out and they work with children in an orphanage that Luis helped to setup a couple of years ago. They receive loads of volunteers from all over North America and Europe and its seem to be a really well organised group. They also recently started working in a [View Full Entry]

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