Derry Diva

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 of Arequipa to be sure about last minute details, while I sat semi-relaxed getting a manicure and my hair ´done´! The wedding ceremony was supposed to be at 1pm with us arriving at 12.45 to ... read more

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 Ireland is 5 hours ahead of Peru it was perfect that I could celebrate New Year with my family via webcam and MSN, while later going out in Arequipa and celebrating again with friends here ... read more

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 at 7.30am a small, well behaved group of children had appeared. At around 9.30am there were more than 1500 children on the road outside Wayra´s home... It was unbelieveable. If you look at the pictures ... read more

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 had been invited earlier that day by Wayra´s brother-in-law to officiate the ceremony of offering presents to Pacha Mama, mother nature. These ceremonies are very sacred and are to be taken seriously. Wayra has told ... read more

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 (special Christmas cake, which are delicious and huge). We stayed in Juliaca that night, meeting up for dinner with a lovely friend of Wayrá called Nora. We went back to hotel early and were sleeping ... read more

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 lodge money into special account I opened for donations! Our journey begins at 5am leaving Arequipa to go to Juliaca on a 5/6 hour bus journey to buy the toys and cakes we need for ... read more

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 things inclduing clothes to the devastated people in Ica and Nazca. I felt this was a worthy cause and I also donated about 12 pounds to help with the journey of the teacher. Also, many ... read more

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 sometimes! Anyway, cost about $5 each to make this trip (half that for pounds). Was crazy caus Wayra is Peruvian, they asked him loads of questions at the Chilean border and then only gave him ... read more

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 small village (pueblo) on the outskirts of Arequipa. First they are working in a school but they recently bought land and are building a small building for their own use and more and more children ... read more