Friday, January 7, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Christmas & New Year in Perú - La Navidad y Año Nuevo a Perú
So would you look at that! I haven't written anything since last year. A little slack, but I have been doing things to occupy my time! That's got to be good, though.
This year Christmas certainly was different. It was my first one away from home & with great luck, we've got 18 hours difference between here & NZ. I guess it was okay though because I was still able to skype the whanau for their Christmas without it being some crazy hour of the morning.
I was even able to see Uncle David's annual Christmas speech - which made me feel as if I was actually there in NZ.
Here in Perú we started off Christmas at 9pm on the 24th by drinking Peruvian, Spanish & Argentinian Rosé - all of which were delightful, however the Peruvian one was very, very sweet, typically. We ate Christmas dinner on the 24th also, but maybe that was just because we were going to the beach the next day. When it hit 00:00, we went outside to watch and light some fireworks, then off to the Christmas Tree or 'Arból de la Navidad' to open all of our gifts. Somehow I have attained the strength to stay up ridiculously late in the evenings, so the 2am finish of present opening wasn't too harsh.
At 9am on Christmas day, we packed up and left for a night at the beach, Camaná. A 3 hour drive through what literally was a desert land of windy roads and sand dunes. We arrived and I was able to sleep and sunbathe all day long :) How about that for Christmas, eh?
New Years Eve was slightly different. There was more alcohol & more tourists. Usually the people here go to Camaná for the New Year, sort of like how people go to The Mt. (Maunganui) in NZ. I didn't really want to go, because I was there just last week, and also I had Estelle visiting, so we'd planned to stay here in Arequipa. To our great advantage, her hostel, 'Bothy Hostel' was throwing a NYE party, so we booked a room, went out for our last 2010 meal (Turkish at a place called Istanbul... hmmm quirky.) then came back to party with the other gringos. There were Danes, Brits, Aussies & a guy from the states, as well as many Peruvians & us, consisting of the Kiwi (me) and two Frenchies, Estelle & Juliette (Juliette is actually Belgian, but lives in France. bla blah bla). All in all it was a fun night. Cheap drinks, good friends and something I'll remember next year and for years to come.
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll upload some photos soon and maybe my resolution this year could be to write more posts!
Merried Christmas & Happy New Year!
Liam in Perú .x
This year Christmas certainly was different. It was my first one away from home & with great luck, we've got 18 hours difference between here & NZ. I guess it was okay though because I was still able to skype the whanau for their Christmas without it being some crazy hour of the morning.
I was even able to see Uncle David's annual Christmas speech - which made me feel as if I was actually there in NZ.
Here in Perú we started off Christmas at 9pm on the 24th by drinking Peruvian, Spanish & Argentinian Rosé - all of which were delightful, however the Peruvian one was very, very sweet, typically. We ate Christmas dinner on the 24th also, but maybe that was just because we were going to the beach the next day. When it hit 00:00, we went outside to watch and light some fireworks, then off to the Christmas Tree or 'Arból de la Navidad' to open all of our gifts. Somehow I have attained the strength to stay up ridiculously late in the evenings, so the 2am finish of present opening wasn't too harsh.
At 9am on Christmas day, we packed up and left for a night at the beach, Camaná. A 3 hour drive through what literally was a desert land of windy roads and sand dunes. We arrived and I was able to sleep and sunbathe all day long :) How about that for Christmas, eh?
New Years Eve was slightly different. There was more alcohol & more tourists. Usually the people here go to Camaná for the New Year, sort of like how people go to The Mt. (Maunganui) in NZ. I didn't really want to go, because I was there just last week, and also I had Estelle visiting, so we'd planned to stay here in Arequipa. To our great advantage, her hostel, 'Bothy Hostel' was throwing a NYE party, so we booked a room, went out for our last 2010 meal (Turkish at a place called Istanbul... hmmm quirky.) then came back to party with the other gringos. There were Danes, Brits, Aussies & a guy from the states, as well as many Peruvians & us, consisting of the Kiwi (me) and two Frenchies, Estelle & Juliette (Juliette is actually Belgian, but lives in France. bla blah bla). All in all it was a fun night. Cheap drinks, good friends and something I'll remember next year and for years to come.
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll upload some photos soon and maybe my resolution this year could be to write more posts!
Merried Christmas & Happy New Year!
Liam in Perú .x
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