¿Hablo español?

So, I’m here!! After what felt like the most epic 12 1/2 hours of my entire life, my ballooned feet and I waddled off the plane wondering what on earth would be awaiting me.

Actually it was all rather straight forward. Visa stamped, a courtesy ‘gracias’ to the immigration man, bag already out on the carousel and really it was just a case of finding my driver. Actually that was fine too, my name was laminated and everything!

Alexander was the cutest wee thing ever. We spent the hour long car journey in muchos trafficos teaching each other various forms of Spanish and English. Don’t ask me for spellings but frigo means cold and calliantes means hot. I also learnt the days of the week, a few numbers, clarified my ‘what is your name?’ and ‘how are you?’ and we jibber jabbered about some other nonsensical vocabulary. At one point he did a little double take when I told him how ancient I was (being small is brilliant, people always think you’re about 12) and then we had a rather comical ‘conversation’ where he was trying to figure out if I had an espouse (husband) or prima (?) – not sure what that is. He then proceeded to make kissing noises to clarify his question, it cracked me up so much!

After one car ride I have fully exhausted the limits of all of the Spanish I tried to learn pre-trip though it looks like people are really excited when you even bother trying. Rather annoyingly I keep wanting to talk in French which helps neither me nor them. Not that I’m some sort of fluent French speaker, I just reckon I have a few more words up my sleeve like for example the phrase ‘moi aussi’, I really need to find out the Spanish equivalent.

Just a short rest stop in Lima tonight, no chance to properly explore as shower and sleep awaits with an early enough start to Cusco tomorrow. Impressed this place has free wifi, and breakfast. So I’ll be making the most of both.

Oh first impressions!

Weirdly the smell of spice and vegetables, like green vegetables. The air was cooler than I expected, not the usual wall of heat I’m used to with India, though the traffic is equally if not more chaotic. And a lot of the architecture kind of reminds me of a weird mix of the States and Spain.

I’m going to rest up and then pass out for the night, but for those who care I’m here, I’m safe and I’ll be in touch as much as I can.

Buenos noches!