Inspiration for 2014

I’ve spent some time over the past week adding inspirational quotes to some of my favourite photographs to make myself a new set of desktop wallpapers for 2014 and I thought I’d share them with you all.

If anyone wants hi-res versions of these, just get in touch.

Ancient volcanoes, Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, Bolivia

 

Red deer on bank of Madre de Dios River, Manu National Park, Peru

Confluence of the Waipa and Waikato Rivers, Ngaruawahia, New Zealand (the town where I was born)

 

Waterlily, Wat Damnak pagoda, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Convent of Santa Catalina, Arequipa, Peru

Street art, Santiago, Chile

Hoatzin, Manu National Park, Peru

Banteay Kdei, Angkor World Heritage Site, Cambodia

Laguna and flamingos, Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, Bolivia

Wintergardens, Auckland Domain, New Zealand

 

Zhouzhuang water town, near Shanghai, China

Mt Eden, Auckland, New Zealand

Peru Festivals and Events Calendar

Peru is a country rich in traditional festivals and colourful events. Plan your Peru vacation to coincide with one of these and you will be treated to a visual symphony of colour and/or energetic traditional dancing in the streets and/or delicious morsels of native cuisine and/or humbling displays of religious fervour. The choice is yours!

 

JANUARY

Fiesta de la Santa Tierra (Festival of the Sacred Land), Lake Titicaca.

3rd Thursday in January  Many tourists take a two-day tour on Lake Titicaca, spending the night on the beautiful Isla Amantaní. If you time your visit right, you may see how the island population splits in two, with one half at the Temple of Pachamama (representing Mother Earth) and the other half at the Temple of Pachatata (representing Father Earth), to pay homage to the bounty of the earth.

Marinera Dance Festival and Contest, in Trujillo
Last week in January  The marinera, a flirtatious traditional dance of seduction (see photo, left), originated in Trujillo but this festival sees competitors flock from all over Peru to take part. As well as the colourful dance competitions, there are parades throughout the city and dancing in the Plaza de Armas.

FEBRUARY

Fiesta de la Virgen de la Candelaria (Festival of the Virgin of Candelaria), Puno

First two weeks in February  The Virgin of Candelaria is Puno’s patron saint and, every February, the city comes alive to honour her with a huge, brilliant, flamboyant festival of traditional dancing. The costumes are dazzling, the musicians rambunctious, and the dancers tireless.

Festival Carnavalesco or Carnaval (Carnival), throughout Peru

Begins 40 days before Easter Sunday, so dates change each year  Everyone has heard of Rio’s famous Carnaval, but the action gets pretty lively in Peru as well, with Cusco, Puno and Cajamarca all fun places to be. The festival gets underway with the “Day of Compadres", featuring flowers, paint and water, as well as colourful parades of dancers. Expect to get drenched by water bombs so buy a can or two of spray foam or silly string and join in the fun!

There is also a traditional aspect to the festivities, a local ritual called the yunsada or yunza, where locals dance around a tree adorned with gifts, before it is ritually cut down. Although this is more common in outlying areas, it can be witnessed in the suburbs of cities like Cusco. And, on the eighth day after Carnival, the octavo, another, even larger procession of dancers is held in Cusco’s Plaza de Armas.

MARCH / APRIL

Festival Internacional de la Vendimia (La Vendimia International Wine Festival), Ica
Second week of March  Grapes are grown in the region around Ica – famous for its wine and pisco brandy - so what better reason to have a festival that the grape harvest. Locals celebrate with a parade of colourfully decorated floats, beauty contests, a fair, music festivals and, of course, a plentitude of food and drink.

Senor de los Temblores (Lord of the Earthquakes), Cusco

Monday before Easter, so date changes each year  You may be aware that much of Peru is prone to earthquakes. In 1650, a massive quake hit Cusco and the legend goes that the tremors stopped when a painting of Christ was carried around the Plaza de Armas. This miracle is commemorated each year with a solemn procession of an image of the Lord of Earthquakes and the faithful of Cusco.

Semana Santa (Holy week – Easter week), throughout Peru but particularly in Ayacucho and Cusco

Dates change each year  Easter is a global Christian celebration, of course, and, in Peru, the celebrations are a curious mix of the international and the traditional, though events show the strong influence of the Spanish colonial era. On Good Friday, unlike the traditional fasting, family and friends gather for a feast of twelve special dishes, twelve for the Twelve Apostles.

In Ayacucho, a city famous for its 33 churches but a rather long bus journey from Cusco, the celebrations are particularly reverential and last for over a week. Ayacucho is internationally acclaimed for its Easter ceremonies, for the devotional processions of effigies of Christ and the Virgin Mother, covered with thousands of lit candles, and for the piety of its people.

APRIL

Peruvian Paso Horse Festival, Pachacámac, near Lima

15 to 20 April  The Peruvian Paso horses are special, quite small but very elegant because their gait is that of a pacer not a galloper. This festival celebrates Peru’s special breed with national competitions in rider-controlled and hand-guided movement. Their grace is complemented by the elegance of their riders and handlers, dressed in flowing ponchos and broad-brimmed sombreros.

MAY

Virgen de Chapi Festival (Virgin of Chapi Festival), near Arequipa
1 May  Although the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Chapi is located about 45 kilometres from Arequipa, many devout Catholics from throughout Peru undertake a religious pilgrimage to the Sanctuary on foot as a sign of their reverence and devotion. The faithful often walk through the night, carrying beautiful handmade candles to light their way and leave at the shrine. The following day, a replica of the Virgin is processed, and then the faithful celebrate with traditional music and dancing, feasting and fireworks.

Fiesta de las Cruces (Festival of the Crosses), Cusco, Lima and Ica

2 to 4 May  This religious festival is celebrated in much of Spain and Hispanic America but, in Peru, indigenous traditions have been assimilated into the Catholic practices. On 2 May, the Day of the Descent, small, portable crosses are taken down from the hills and sanctuaries to the houses of mayordomos, the people who are willing to pay for the festivities and new 'clothes' for the Cross. The people feast and enjoy live music until the following morning, when the Cross is dressed in new fineries (see photo, right) and taken to a special mass. On the third day, 4 May, called the kacharpari, a farewell mass is held, after which the cross is returned to its normal resting place and more feasting and partying takes place.

Festival Internacional del Cerveza Cusqueña (Cusqueña Beer Festival), Cusco

May / June (dates change)  Cusqueña is the local beer of Cusco and every year, in May or June, the brewery sponsors a 3-day international music festival in Cusco. The festival attracts musicians and young people from all over Peru, and often features international artists as well.

MAY / JUNE

Señor de Colloritty/Qoyllor Riti (Lord of Qoyllor Riti), near Cusco
Approximately one week before Corpus Christi  As many as 10,000 pilgrims take part in this annual event, climbing to the snowline on Mount Ausangate to worship the Apus, the spirits that the indigenous people believe dwell in the mountains. The pilgrimage is a curious mix of traditional and Catholic ceremonies, with performers in costumes representing mythical creatures dancing in veneration of the mountain gods, and some of the more intrepid locals climbing to the mountain’s summit to bring back blocks of ice, to be used as holy water for purification in Catholic ceremonies.

JUNE

Corpus Christi, Cusco

9th Thursday after Easter  The Corpus Christi celebrations in Cusco are a complex blend of Catholic ceremony and Inca tradition, celebrated 60 days after the resurrection of Easter Sunday but also coinciding with the high point of the Inca ceremonial calendar, when crops are being harvested and ceremonies are held to honour the Sun gods and Inca ancestors for their bounty. The Spanish assimilated the Inca tradition of parading the mummified bodies of their ancestors into their Catholic Corpus Christi ceremony, in which fifteen saints and virgins from various parishes in and around the city are paraded through the streets.

Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun), Cusco

24 June (and celebrations throughout the preceding week)  This hugely popular, world-famous event is the highlight of the year in Cusco. The festivities re-enact the Inca rites of the winter solstice, starting with early morning ceremonies at the Qorikancha Temple of the Sun, followed by a procession to the Plaza de Armas for further ceremonies, then a full afternoon of rites and dancing at the nearby Inca ruins of Sacsayhuaman. Inti Raymi is the culmination of a week of exuberance in Cusco, with daily displays of traditional dancers in vibrant costumes in the central city.

Fiesta de San Pedro y San Pablo (Feast of Saints Peter and Paul), throughout Peru

29 June  Although this saints’ day is celebrated with parades throughout Peru, the major celebrations take place near Lima and Chiclayo as these are the patron saints of fishermen and farmers.

JULY

Virgen del Carmen (Virgin of Carmen), throughout Peru but particularly in Paucartambo and Pisac

15 to 18 July  The Virgen del Carmen, the patron saint of the mestizo population, is honoured and celebrated with four days of celebration in the towns of Paucartambo and Pisac, near Cusco. As with most Peruvian celebrations, there are traditional performances by dancers dressed in the most amazing psychedelic costumes, parades through the streets, copious amounts of alcohol and food are consumed, and the loud booms of fireworks fill the night air.

Fiestas Patrias (Peru’s Independence Day), throughout Peru

28 & 29 July  Peru’s independence from Spain in 1821 is marked throughout the country by official parades, followed by much merrymaking in the form of parties in homes and restaurants, as well as entertainments like cockfighting, bullfighting and even Peruvian Paso horse exhibitions in some towns.

AUGUST

Andean New Year, Cusco

1 August  August is the month dedicated to Pachamama, the Earth Mother. Homage is paid to Pachamama throughout the month, in the form of private offerings of food, drink and some precious items. The most obvious sign that the Andean New Year has begun is the sight of the yellow confetti that is sprinkled around the outside of people’s homes and properties.

Fiesta de Santiago (Festival of St James), Isla Taquile on Lake Titicaca.

25 July and 1 & 2 August  If you happen to be on the island of Taquile on these dates, you will be treated to vibrant displays of dancing in honour of St James.

Fiesta de Santa Rosa de Lima (Festival of Saint Rose of Lima), throughout Peru but particularly in Lima

30 August  As Saint Rose is the patron of the police and armed forces, their personnel take part in solemn processions to honour their patron. The major celebration takes place in the Plaza de Armas in Lima.

SEPTEMBER

Fiesta de la Virgen de Natividad (Festival of the Virgin of the Nativity), throughout the Cusco region but particularly in Chinchero

8 September  The Virgin of the Nativity’s special day is celebrated by her devotees carrying her statue through the streets, accompanied by flamboyant dancers and cacophonous musicians. The evening is a haze of eating, drinking and making merry. The most dazzling festivities take place in the small rural town of Chinchero, near Cusco.

Senor de Huanca (Lord of Huanca), near Cusco

14 September  Although the 14th is the main day, the celebrations at the Sanctuary of the Lord of Huanca (right) last a full week and include an overnight pilgrimage from Cusco, daily masses, self-purification by the faithful in the waters of the spring behind the Sanctuary, and a huge fair where stallholders sell all manner of religious paraphernalia.

International Spring Festival, Trujillo
Last week in September  Celebrate the coming of Spring with parades of decorated floats, displays of marinera dancing, and dancing in the streets, in the colourful city of Trujillo.

OCTOBER

El Señor de los Milagros (Lord of the Miracles), Lima

18 October  To celebrate an image of Christ that survived the devastating 1746 earthquake and many subsequent disasters, both natural and man-made, many thousands of devotees, all dressed in purple, form the largest procession in South America, and parade the depiction of Christ through the streets of Lima for almost 24 hours.

Fiesta del Señor de Luren (Lord of Luren Festival), Ica

3rd week in October

As with most other religious celebrations, the wooden image of the crucified Christ of Luren is carried in procession through the city of Ica, in this case from dusk till dawn of the following day. The celebration dates from 1570, when the image was lost while being transported from Lima to Ica, only to reappear in mysterious circumstances.

NOVEMBER

Todos Santos (All Saints Day) and Dia de los Muertos (All Souls Day), throughout Peru

1 & 2 November  These two days honour the saints and the dead, and are commemorated with days of prayers and Masses in churches throughout the country, as well as night-long candle-lit vigils with deceased loved ones in cemeteries. All Saints Day also involves the preparation of special food: bread is baked in the shapes of dolls and horses and taken to the cemeteries, and families feast together on pork.

Puno Week, Puno

1st week in November  Coinciding with the Day of the Dead celebrations, Puno holds a festival to celebrate the legendary Manco Cápac, the Inca who supposedly surfaced from Lake Titicaca to found the Inca empire. Thousands join a procession from the lakeside to the town stadium, where the celebration continues with music and dancing and much drinking.

DECEMBER

Fiesta de la Purisima Concepción (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), throughout Peru

8 December  The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is honoured by devotees with parades and processions, special Masses and cultural festivities, and feasts of traditional foods with family members.

Chocolatada, throughout Peru

Throughout the Christmas season

The chocolatada is an essential part of Peru’s Christmas celebrations, especially for those who are less well off, from impoverished children to poor pensioners. Churches, charitable organisations, businesses and well-off individuals give cups of hot chocolate and panatone (a type of sweet bread containing dried fruits) to the underprivileged to bring a little Christmas cheer into their lives.

Santikuraray ("the selling of the saints", an artisan’s fair), Cusco

24 December  On Christmas Eve, Cusco’s Plaza de Armas is closed to traffic and, instead, filled to bursting with stalls selling all manner of arts and crafts. Stallholders also sell all the ingredients the locals need to make nativity scenes in their homes, from wooden mangers, straw and moss to figurines of the characters who were at the birth of Christ. These nacimientos (nativity scenes) can be found in most homes and churches until 6 January, the date of la Bajada de los Reyes (the arrival of the three wise men), the traditional date for the taking down of Christmas decorations.

Andean Christmas, throughout Peru

25 December  Like Christmas around the world, this is a time to be spent eating and drinking, spending time with family and, for the religious, attending Mass in your local church.

New Year’s Eve, throughout Peru

31 December  Yellow is the luckiest colour in Peru, so it is traditional to wear yellow underwear on New Year’s Eve and to festoon your home or business with yellow-coloured decorations and flowers. As in many countries around the world, there are parties to welcome in the New Year, in homes, bars and restaurants, and people gather in the main squares to enjoy music and dancing, and to count down the hours, minutes, seconds to midnight, when deafening fireworks announce the beginning of a new year.

Adios Peru

So, after 555 days it’s time to leave Cusco and Peru.

This has been the first stop on my ten-year global odyssey, working as project manager, South America for UK charity Globalteer. My job was to oversee all Globalteer projects in South America, which meant managing Picaflor House, Globalteer's project for underprivileged children in the small town of Oropesa, not far from Cusco, and coordinating the independent projects partnered with Globalteer in Peru and in Colombia. My responsibilities included such diverse duties as fundraising and social media marketing, staff and volunteer management, accounts and general administration, as well as teaching classes in English and Art.

It has been an extremely rewarding job and I am very proud of the progress made at Picaflor House under my management. I can’t take all the credit, of course, as I've had the support of a small but dedicated staff and Picaflor House has played host to some magnificent volunteers, all of whom contributed hugely to the success and growth of the project.

A few months ago, when I was writing Picaflor’s annual report, we interviewed some of our children to get their impressions. Their feedback was heartwarming. They spoke of the beauty and colour of our flower gardens; of how much easier their schoolwork was because of the extra support and tuition provided by our Picaflor House staff; of their love for our classes in arts and crafts – they are very creative; of the usefulness of learning English from native speakers; and of the fun they had on the days when we played games and sports, allowing our kids just to be kids.

Peru is an incredibly vibrant country to live in. It is a country rich in traditional festivals and colourful events, treating the visitor to a visual symphony of colour, energetic traditional dancing in the streets, delicious morsels of native cuisine and humbling displays of religious fervour. From the frequent booming of fireworks and barking of dogs, the almost deafening cacophony of seemingly constant music, the lung-busting challenges of life at high altitude, the impressive Inca ruins that dot the beautiful mountainsides of the Andes, to the incredible biodiversity of the Amazon jungle, and the tempting array of traditional arts and crafts for sale, Peru has it all.

I have taken full advantage of my 18 months to see and experience as much of the country and the culture as I could. I sweated in the jungle of the Manu Biosphere. I hauled my aching leg muscles up the thousands of steps at Machu Picchu. I marvelled at the soaring flight of the huge condors at Colca Canyon and I met the original Paddington Bear in the sanctuary of the Chappari Nature Reserve. I sailed the sparkling blue waters of Lake Titicaca and bounced as I walked on the floating man-made reed islands of Uros. I visited more churches and cathedrals than I ever had in my life before, and was enthralled by their magnificence and their architecture. I was fascinated by mummies and lines at Nazca, and captivated by ancient pyramids and glorious grave goods in the north of Peru.

I also explored a little of the rest of South America. The frequent need for new visas led to three trips to Bolivia, a couple of long weekends in the sleepy lakeside resort town of Copacabana and a ten-day tour that included the mesmerising salt flats at Uyuni and the superlative scenery of the Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa further south, the picturesque capital of Sucre and bustling metropolis of La Paz. And I survived the heart-stopping road trip down Bolivia’s notorious Death Road.

I loved the wonderful week I spent in Medellin, Colombia, visiting Globalteer’s partner projects and exploring that vibrant city. As well as my meetings with enchanting Colombian children and hard-working project staff, the highlights were my visit to the lush tropical paradise of the botanical gardens and the art, in particular the voluminous bronze figures of Colombia’s famous artist, Ferdinand Botero.

It has been an incredible 18 months. When I came to Peru, I really had little idea what to expect but my new life has exceeded all my expectations. I have met some wonderful people, I have seen amazing landscapes and architecture, animals and birds. Each and every day has brought some new sight, smell, taste or unique experience, and I have felt more alive than I have in many years. Thank you, Peru. I hope we meet again one day.

With my co-workers Luis, Johan and Sarah at Picaflor House

With our Picaflor kids, on my birthday

How to decorate your car Peruvian style!

So, you’ve come to live in Peru and you’ve decided to buy a car because you just can’t face the manic driving, and the squashed and frequently smelly conditions in the public bus.

If you don’t want to stand out from the crowd (and so risk attracting the unwanted attention of the local police force looking to extract a little donation for their daily intake of chicha – corn beer), you should consider buying an older car. A reliable make and model would be best, as the usual potholey state of the roads and the crazy antics of your fellow drivers will almost certainly generate a need for numerous repairs and a plentiful supply of spare parts. And there are no friendly AA servicemen here!

Given their reputation for dependability and economy (fuel prices are high here), I’d recommend a Volkswagen. As there used to be a VW manufacturing plant in Brazil, little old beetles are common in much of South America.

Next, you need to decorate your vehicle.

On the outside, long strips of red and white stickers should be stuck to the sides and rear of your vehicle. I used to think these were used to indicate which cars were taxis but they are, in fact, reflector strips. As Peruvians drive extremely close to their neighbouring vehicles, I doubt these make the slightest bit of difference. Maybe they are seen more as a local version of racing stripes!

You need to adorn your little VW with stickers of various sizes, shapes and designs. These can range from images of that iconic hero, Che Guevara, to comic strip characters like Bugs Bunny, from bright glowing flames to roaring lions – almost anything that appeals.

A dedication to your girlfriend, mother or dog is essential, usually plastered right across the back window.

I go with God ... if I don't return, I am with Him

A dedication to God, a saint or some other religious personage is also a good idea, or perhaps a message professing your belief. Insurance is almost unknown in Peru, so asking for protection from an almighty being is about as close as you’ll get.

You must also decorate the inside of your vehicle. Although most Western countries prohibit the attachment of dangling objects to the inside of your windscreen, in Peru these are essential fashion accessories. Once again, something religious may work magic, but you should also add a colourful air freshener and perhaps a small soft toy.

On the dashboard, a religious banner will help with protection from the sun. And a baby’s or young child’s shoe is a great addition, either as another dangly or just sitting on the top of the dashboard. Just one shoe is needed and it must be a found object, probably picked up off the street, definitely not from your own child. This is for good luck.

Now, fill up your car with gas and drive like a crazy person and you’ll fit right in!

This is going a little too far!

Nazca day two: the city and Antonini's Museum

I awoke this morning, after a very long sleep, feeling like crap: head spinning, queasy and diarrhoea. Maybe it was something I ate? I postponed the day’s tour and went back to bed and, luckily, felt much better when I woke again at noon.

At about 2pm, I headed out, and walked up and down the streets of the inner city, taking photos of buildings and doorways and the plaza, and checking out restaurants. There were plenty of local places but none looked too clean and I was a little wary so I returned to the place I ate at yesterday, where I had a simple meal of chicken and chips.

Back at the hotel after lunch, I asked the owner for directions to the museum she had mentioned the previous day. “Turn left at the other side of the plaza and walk 5 blocks.” Off I went, slowly in the heat. After a couple of blocks, the buildings got more dilapidated, then the pavement disappeared into dust and I was a little worried I had gone the wrong way. Was I heading into a bad neighbourhood? I asked some schoolgirls where the museum was and, luckily, they confirmed I was on the right road so I continued … and there, one block further on the right was the sign, Museo Antonini.

The exhibits were really interesting – the explanations were all in Spanish, of course, but I could make out most of them. They told the story of the excavations at the nearby pyramids at Cahuachi and other sites in the Nazca area. Maps and pictures showed the geological zones and ecosystems; diagrams explained the cross-sections of the excavations; there were displays of agricultural tools and crops grown; replicas provided visual explanations of the building methods for houses and the pyramids themselves; and the beautiful ceramics illustrated the rich culture of the ancient Nazca peoples. Slightly macabre but extremely interesting was a display of decapitated skulls, which may have been offerings to the gods or perhaps trophies of war. There was also one huge cabinet with an incredibly well-preserved and large piece of cloth – the colours were still rich, the patterns vibrant, even after some 1500 years.

I could hear the calls of peacocks and, when I ventured out the back of the museum, found a delightful garden, complete with a displaying peacock and his hen. His tail was fully extended and he was shaking vigorously in an effort to impress his mate. She was ignoring him, picking at the seed tray. Another tourist, a young German from his accent, was also taking photos of them. We chatted briefly. He was identifying with the male peacock: “Story of my life”, he said. I thought that a very candid remark to make to a stranger! I said I thought the hen was deliberately ignoring her mate to provoke more displays. The German laughed at that. I wondered at the story behind his comment and reaction.

The garden also contained replica tombs, an aqueduct and cave paintings, as well as a miniaturised map of the Nazca lines. With the shady trees, it was a cool and refreshing oasis in the heat and bustle of the city.

I grabbed a few more street photos on the way back to the hotel, some interesting signs and one very bizarre building. I had a quiet evening and was asleep early, as the next day was to be long and busy.