Last hours in Lima

After waking up and finding a few family photos had been kindly sent to me from my sisters, I didn't fancy doing much yesterday outside, and I felt that I should really try and up my spanish vocabulary so I spend the entire day with a notebook and my laptop trying to think of as many sentences as I could think of that would help me in the day to day living that I do.

Easier said that done and I was so eagre to do this that I plumb forgot that Spanish is different to English at a basic structural level and went about creating sentences that I could easily modify, or so I thought.

I forgot that whereas in English we have words for mini phrases like "I will" or "I have" but in Spanish all they do is add an ending to the key word like "-amos" or "-ir" and so all my learning was a bit of a let down, and when did I learn this, the second that my friend came over in the evening and took one look at it.

It was felt like a child or six or seven after handing in a homework assignment and having the teacher take out a big red pen and scribble all over my effort, it was a little bit crushing. However it was also funny, as my friend does not speak much English so we spend longer trying to understand what I was trying to write than it took her to correct it in Spanish.

However, I still say that I have got a half decent accent in Spanish, enough to be understood, and a very limited vocabulary, but to go much further will take a whole lot of lessons, movies and books in Spanish, things that I just wont have time for on my trip, well at least not if I want to spend any time outside.

Once my friend left I cursed myself quietly for forgetting to get her to sign my book, especially as I have spent more time here than with everyone else put together, but then I am not perfect and cannot get everything right all the time.

I also got to meet my other friends other grandmother and with the help of her grandson as a partial translator I was able to talk to her a bit about my travels and learn that many years ago she had survived an earthquake that devestated the region and she believes that it was the power of god that saved her life.

Later, flicking through my emails I saw that the change of my plans to visit Lima and then Piura ahead of schedule had clashed with a friends exams and so I would probably spend my time in Puira alone, worse still as Piura was another of the in between cities that I could cut short and leave early, however on this occasion it would have been better to remain in Lima for longer. It does have a nice beach, is hot and sunny and so I will probably need my tanning lotion again, but apart from that it will be more time to tour a small town, watch movies and plan my time in Guayaquil as best I can.

I am sure that Piura will have more for me that I first think of, and of couse life is all about going out and making the most of it, so I think Piura watch out ... Springates coming !!!

I will be on a jet plane out of Lima around midday, and I didn't even have a chance to print out the reservation form, so I hope it all goes to plan.

My friends in Lima helped me get some change and packed me off to the airport in plenty of time, with the knowledge that if ever I was to revisit Lima I must come and visit them again. The saying that "my house is your house" does not go far enough to explain the friendliness of the Peruvian mindset, it should include an adendum "my friends are your friends and my family is your family".

I will miss Lima and my new friends here a lot, I just hope Piura and the border crossing do not spoil things now. Another thing that I might have forgot to mention is that everyone has their own friendly taxi driver that they trust and have exchanged numbers with, ones that they call if they need to go anywhere, and so having local friends is again an added level of security that most tourists would not have the benefit of, and another reason to be grateful.

The trip to the airport was a bit wierd, and only costed PES 13, which again shows that the first taxi you pay in the city will also be the highest and as long as you can avoid being ripped off on this one trip then the rest of the trip taxi fares will be a doddle. I have noticed that almost everyone here is very religious and even the taxi drivers cross themselves when they go past a church, as did my friends.

The airport leaving tax was US $6 or whatever the local exchange rate is, and so again I was glad that I changed up some money in the city centre. Avoid buying anything else at the airport as the cost is like nowhere else in the country and goes to show that the logic is if you can afford to go to the airport then you have money to burn.