Expat in Áncash
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The Huaraz Telegraph AUGUST 2016
Continuation of page 8
of the Callejón”. I have been a writer, landscaper, a bicycle messenger, waitress, movie projectionist and audio-visual professional, teacher and newspaper publisher, to just name a few of my well-worn hats. 3. How long have you been living in Caraz? My partner, Mac Wooten and I bought our place in Shocsha in 2008 and the place where the business rests in 2009. We were still living and working in Huaraz (at el Pinar) where I was a teacher in the International School for approximately eight years. I continued on with Colegio Huascaran for a short stint after the International School closed. We thought we had all the time in the world and then the economic crash occurred, and my job was terminated with Santa Maria. We hustled to convert the barn on the property into a house while lodging with the former caretaker of our place and longest serving employee. We were a bit short of funds, so we decided we both needed to put in some more wage earning time, before being able to live this ´Peruvian Dream´ you speak of. We joke about it, “Who went to a more dangerous zone to work?” Mac went to Afghanistan to fix computers and I returned to Washington D.C. to work as a teacher, where a major shoot-out left three dead across the street from the school I worked, within the first two weeks of the school year. 4. What brought you to Caraz? I actually have 20 years, all told, in Peru. I worked in Ilo in the department of Moquegua for three years. Ilo is the most southern port of Peru and I often tell folks that if that had been my only experience in Peru, I most certainly wouldn’t be here now. Think Chimbote with the addition of a coal plants and a copper smelter that occasionally graced your days with a cloud of sulfur-dioxide providing limited visibility to three metres or less. I went back to try living in Montana for a year and actually partnered with someone in a start-up adventure travel firm. But a fateful trip to Peru left me in the right place and time to take a job teaching kindergarten with the newly opened Huascaran International School in Huaraz. I got a fateful email informing me that if I was interested, I could interview for a position they needed to fill immediately. I was hired and the director’s husband and owner of a local café met me at the airport in Anta a few days later. I walked every day from the school to Hotel Huascaran (where I lived my first week of work). I remember watching Huascaran in the changing pinks, oranges and purples each evening, thinking, I really didn’t think paintings of such scenes were real before that week. I had my emoliente with bitters and alfalfa for breakfast and walked to and from Huaraz to el Pinar every day first six months that I
The Huaraz Telegraph Kelly Dwyer and her partner Mac Wooten standing on the balcony of the IntiRumi Inn which offers fantastic and healthy food
lived in town. Until this day, the emoliente maestro at Jirón Sucre and Jirón Simon Bolivar knows my ´usual´. 5. How has your life changed over the years? The simple answer is that this really is a dream materialised for me. I always wanted to create gardens and work with plants. I know Voltaire’s Candide was supposed to be satire, but Candide’s lovely conclusion of ´let us tend our own gardens´, always resonated with me. When I lived in Huaraz, I loved the panoramic views of the Blancas, but I know now that I have found my paradise. The climate is that much better in Caraz and the beauty is 180 with the higher, more rugged Negras holding their own charm and beauty. There is a grand association with Huaraz as the entrance to Huascaran National Park, but all the most popular mountains and treks are really at our backdoor here in Caraz. I was and am a passionate teacher and did well at many of my other rolls in life, but I have always wanted to work with and learn plants. I want to be living as correctly as possible in this incorrect world, so the sustainable piece is important. I go a little crazy when I go back to the states and see how quickly the trashcan fills. I am a fan of Nelson Mandela’s theory of education being the most powerful way to change the world, so I have continued my passion for education through our work in the NGO (Teach a Teacher) we founded in 2012. Through this organisation, we recruit teachers from different countries to provide professional development here in Peru. It has been a greatly satisfying project.
6. What are your favourite hangout spots in Huaraz and Caraz? I don’t hang too far from home in Caraz. I would like to have more biking friends, as biking alone is hazardous. One of my favourite activities is the quality yoga classes offered by Alan Shebsdat Bedoya (La Pizza del Abuelo) in the garden at Los Pinos Lodge, located on the lovely Parque de la Merced, Caraz. Drum Circles and Big Drum Meditation at the Puka Rumi Community, with master drum-maker and drum leader, Eduardo Escribens and all the fine folks at PukaRumi community are an absolute treat. I want soon to find the
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When I created the business plan for IntiRumi and I needed to create an alternative plan if the business failed, I wrote that I will always have plenty of organic vegetables and fruits to eat. I will tend my garden, essentially. It is a much better retirement plan than anything offered in my own country Kelly Dwyer on retirement
time to take drum lessons from Eduardo. Back in the days of my Huaraz tenure, I hung at Lucho’s old Trece Búhos (before it moved to the Parque Ginerbra), over Macondos and Javier’s two little corner bars (upstairs and then downstairs, once upon a time, in el Tambo) and, of course,
Vagamundos. Bruni’s Terrace and the Way-Inn, before it was ´way out there´. All gone now. There were some of the most fabulous house parties at Jen and Ted’s house, both when they were there and when they were out of the country. 7. What is it you miss the most from back home? Friends and family. The last few years I have had the best of both worlds. My aging mother has continued to live in my childhood home. As a result, I have made a pact to spend the winter months in Montana with her. It is great to have the opportunity to commune with one’s mother at this time (her mind is still quite sharp) and I get out in the mountains of Montana to ski and snowshoe regularly, while there. 8. What is it you like most about Huaraz? I don’t much like Huaraz anymore. I loved it back in the day. I spent nine years there and with arguably one of the finest views of the Cordillera Blanca in that area from every window of my house. Now Mac and I flip coins to see who has to go to Huaraz when needed. I know it from a simpler time and I watched the progression of the hap-hazard constructions pile on top of each other over the years, it’s a mess. 9. What’s your opinion of the tourist business in Huaraz and Caraz? I believe the tourist that comes to this area is more impressed with the authenticity of the area. PromPerú (committee for the promotion of Peru in terms of export and tourism) and the likes, obviously put their
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