My journey begins

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After much anticipation I´m finally in South America! I arrived in Lima, Perú a couple of days ago and I already having a fantastic time.

This week is all about learning Spanish and the way of life over here. I booked a weeks worth of classes at the local language school and am staying with a Peruvian family to get an insight into life over here, to practice my Spanish, and help teach some English.

First impressions of Peru

I arrived late in the night, minus my bags, running very late, feeling somewhat anxious that the taxi transfer I had pre-booked was long gone. I decided to brave the masses of dodgy taxi touts waiting in the foyer and try to find my driver, Mr Garcia.

Fortunately, after ten minutes of hunting I found that Mr Garcia was still waiting, albeit rather stressed and worried for me, bless him! He was a really lovely friendly chap who spoke very little English, and as I spoke very little Spanish it was very interesting journey. He drove me to my homestay in Surco nearby the affluent suburb called Miraflores, giving me a tour of the sprawling, and mostly poor suburbs of Lima. He was very imformative, pointing out all the casinos and eateries, in particular every single Chinese restaurant “!Chifa!”. Hehe.

Fellow travellers and guide books say that Lima is a bit dull, pretty dodgy, perhaps not really worth stopping by. I have to say that my first impressions of Lima were all good. Latino music, friendly people, lots of atmosphere. By the time I reached my homestay I was so excited about the times that lay ahead of me. This was all confirmed when I met my lovely host family. Auri and Luis, an older couple who have two daughters my age.

La Familia

I couldn´t believe how welcoming and friendly my homestay family were. They quickly established that I was their new Australiana daughter and that I was to make myself at home. Mi Casa, Su Casa was most apt!

I was delighted when the next morning, after several hours of conversation practice, swapping life stories they took me in to the kitchen and sat me down….. ´Yacki,´ as I am now known, ´Now, is the time to do the cooking lessons!!!´
Anyone who knows me well knows I love to cook, and this was so awesome! Not only were they teaching me to cook traditional Peruvian food, they started off by teaching me to make cocktails…. Pisco Sour! Beuno! Hahaha!

So, half drunk on Pisco Sour we cooked a delicious meal, spent the afternoon visiting their local social/sports club by the waterfront and I learnt a lot of Spanish. It´s absolutely amazing how much you can pick up when your in the right environment. Adi and Luis´s daughters live in Canada and Miami and they are very keen to improve their English. They are very good teachers, very patient and make an effort to teach and learn. I´m loving it! Although, if I was to describe my attempt at speaking espanol it would be similar to a half Aussie, half British robot……. Many. Words. Kind Of Make. Sense……. You get the picture!

School

God, I felt like a little kid going to school for the first time. All excited, a little nervous (especially about catching the bus), worried I wouldn´t know enough to understand. But, alas, it´s all good. I´m in a ´class´of two people. Me and another guy from USA. I´m not as good as he is but I´m practicing and we´ll see how the week pans out……

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Photos

Cooking lessons
Luis and Auri show me how to make the renowned pisco sour cocktails. Followed by lessons in cooking traditional peruvian food such as Lomo Saltado... yum!

Lima regata social club
My host family took me to visit the social club that they belong to. They play tennis and do activities such playing the cajón.

View over Lima bay
This view is back to the social club. The weather at this time of year is constantly misty and cloudy. Not too cold though.

Comments

[Kim]

divertirse en Lima!
sounds great Jac, keep the blogs coming, you make my very dull work days a little bit brighter :) stay safe. xoxoxo

[Hannah]

Ahhh how I miss the pisco sour...
...I forgot about them, they're quite addictive aren't they? Glad you got there ok and hope the flight was fun, probably not as much as when we flew to Delhi playing Top Trumps and getting drunk, but then that's because you're missing me and paulie. Your family sounds cool, what a great idea. I will sort out my snippets of information which I can recall from my time there and email over to you. Enjoy your cooking lessons, when is guniea pig on the menu/ Its called cuy so you should say something like "me encanta cuy" Take care and speak soon x

[LobsterCheeks]

Pisco Sour... mi bebida favorita!!!
Ah, the joys of Pisco Sour! A few of those and your Spanish will improve immensely, even if your coordination doesn't. . Sounds like you've got off to a good start. Keep up the good work! Pete x

[kath]

hey jax
Your trip is sounding amazing so far and you've only been there a few days! Keep the stories coming. We leave Tuesday for South Africa and then on to London...sorry we're gonna miss you again! Have a great time away Kath x