Peru Lesson #4- Not Knowing the Language--&--Back to Cusco in Time forHappy Hour!

After we left Huancaycancha, we had lunch in Chacabamba and headed back to Cusco. I wanted to explain something about how I felt in a country not speaking the language. It gave me more compassion for the people I meet on my planes that don't speak English. Especially when they are traveling in a large group. Although I have studied Spanish several times in my life, I am no where near fluent. I can understand much of it. I think I can structure a basic Spanish sentence. I practiced Spanish almost every day for the 6 weeks leading up to the trip. It wasn't enough. For me, I am to afraid to speak one Spanish sentence because I don't want to give the false impression that I can comprehend all of Spanish. I was afraid to put myself out there because I would quickly reach my limit of knowledge.

Abbi was more brave about it. She spent a lot of time talking with the kids and she was brave to speak with the adults and teachers with as much Spanish as she could. Rhonda and Mackenzie didn't know much Spanish when we got there. When our waiter brought our wine the first night Rhonda said, "Da nada." (You're welcome.)  But, at least she tried! And I think that is what anyone would appreciate. I know on my plane, I like it if they at least try to speak to me in English. We have graphics in our menu, so eventually we can point and communicate, but I think it's nice when they try. But, now, I have a new understanding. Trying all of the time to speak an unfamiliar language gets exhausting. And you feel like a failure. So you just don't want to make the effort. You resign yourself to either not getting what you want, or getting your point across somehow in English. There are a lot of body language gestures that help, too, and after you have success with that method, trying to speak the native language doesn't feel as important. Plus, when you're with a large group, you're not forced to speak the foreign language as much. You can just talk among yourselves and it's ok. I think I would be more uncomfortable with the lack of conversation if I wasn't with my group. When we were in the taxis, I was always up front. I would try to talk to the driver. I do love to talk! But, when I reached a language barrier, I had my backseat girls to talk with. It might have appeared rude to the drivers. One day, we were talking to each other in English and I can't remember what we were saying, but we were joking quite a bit about something, possibly inappropriate. Not until then did I ask, "Hablas Ingles?" and the driver said, "Sî." Whoops. He got an earful.

When we were back in Cusco, we did our souvenir shopping. After we got everything we wanted, I was on the corner trying to think out loud. I said, "I wonder how you say liquor store in Spanish." (Besides the hot shower,--(BEST.SHOWER.EVER) nothing sounded better to me than a cold vodka soda.) So, I said, to practice, "Donde esta liquor store?" A native-looking guy, with a perfect English dialect, said, "Are you guys looking to buy American Spirits?" YES! See, even when I was trying to speak Spanish, I got let off the hook sometimes. He gave us directions a few blocks over to a grocery store with American spirits, Gatos. We settled with wine, because ice wasn't readily available and most drinks were not refrigerated, including aqua con gas (bubbly water for my vodka soda.)


I'm going to take the next portion of the story straight out of our travel journal. We each wrote something in the journal, so it's first person narrative, depending on who was writing. Here is Rhonda's account of what happened next.

On our way back to the hostel from the store, we got lost. I said, "No Randi, we should go up another block. " Randi said, "No, we will go here and cross over. " I was right. :) We got lost. We walked up stairs. Lots of stairs. (The stairs were in the form of alley ways and inbetween streets.) We went down back alleys (one pretty shady one,) and finally found the hostel.

I had tried to GPS it on my phone to no avail. We stopped and asked for directions, but again there was the language barrier and our limited knowledge as to what we were actually looking for. We knew the name of the hostel, but not the address. And the streets in Cusco were named for each block. So even if you knew your street name, it really wouldn't help because the next block it changed. We eventually found our way, but I admit, I was wrong. I should've listened to Rhonda! I'm sorry, Rhonda!

We had a nightcap in our room. We talked about the language barrier and how speaking Spanish with the locals better for learning than my six weeks of practice leading up to the trip. Rhonda and Mackenzie were getting comfortable with manners and small conversational Spanish. One problem, Mackenzie is taking German in school! She said she actually felt like she was getting as good in Spanish as she was in German. We decided we should skip our flight home and instead head for Oktoberfest in Germany so that she could have the chance to get better at German. It sounds crazy, but you probably haven't seen Rhonda and I together. I think if we had a big enough budget to afford it, we really would have done it. We were a week into our journey together and still laughing and getting along so well. Even after I got us lost. I think we will take the girls on another trip together, hopefully soon. It was a pleasure.

One thing we were glad we didn't sign up for- the Inca Trail! When we first signed up for this mission, we were supposed to come home from Chacabamba and depart the next day for a 4 day camp-out and hike to Manchu Picchu. The tickets weren't on sale in April when we signed up, so when it opened up for sale, Kim would book our excursion. We had already committed to the mission when Kim emailed us that the hike was sold out (they sell it first to people who couldn't get a reservation last year before they open it up to the public and it has very limited trail use.) We were offered to back out of the mission to wait for another year when we could experience the trail, or we could continue with it this year. If we continued with this year, we had options of just doing the day hike at MP, or a seven day camp-out that went up and around the Mountain and then dropped back into MP. Rhonda and I exchanged texts and emails about it. Rhonda wanted to do the seven day camp-out or wait for next year. I felt that I wanted to continue with this year's opportunity, but 7 days more was simply too many for Abbi to miss of school. I told her I had made up my mind to do the day hike and continue with this year but I understood if she felt she needed the Inca Trail experience. Well, it turns out, before we even left Cusco for Manchu Picchu we were counting our lucky stars that we weren't doing the four day trek. We already felt like we were camping during the mudhut nights. We didn't realize how much we would be sucking wind at the Cusco altitude. And, we had no idea how cold the nights got. I can't tell you how many times Rhonda said, "Thank God we didn't do the Inca Trail!!!" We all agreed it was a huge blessing that it was sold out!

Tomorrow  is the start of the finale to our trip. I had felt that the mission would be a hard experience and we should reward ourselves with a major bucket list item. Little did I know! The hardest was yet to come!