New Year in Arequipa

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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 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 and of course my Wayra!
I spent more than about 2 hours chatting with my family and all the usual heads that are at my parents house every year (we don´t even invite peoplem they just arrive!). I had a great time with them but at 12 I had a tear as I watched all my brothers and my father arrive in the roomwith my mother and kiss her for New Year... something I haven´t missed for 30 years! But all was ok and we just got on with it. After my wee cry I felt better and raring to go on my Arequipa celebrations.
We went for a few drinks in a local and close to 12 we all went to the Plaza de Armas to witness the strange custom of people running around the main square a couple of times! It was very strange and unorganised thing. At the strike of 12 poeple standing around in groups just started to run around the square, very funny. The Plaza de Armas is surrounded by beatiful buildings with balconies all around. We went up to the roof of one of these buildings to get a better view of the Plaza and all around Arequipa. You could hear and see the fireworks going off all over the city. It was a really pretty sight.
After this, we went for a few more drinks and that was it... Doesn´t seem as exciting as it was and for me the most important thing was being (in some senses) with my family...

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