Friday, December 22, 2006
28-29-30 November 2006 Treated like a princess and out of the grub a butterfly emerged. Well maybe a moth - but whatever I am now is a darn site more comfortable and presentable than three days ago!
The amazing Paola arranged haircut and colour; pedicure, manicure and waxing; and a massage for me. She is such a kind sister-in-law. Think I might adopt her as a real sister. Could do with one of these! We also played dress-ups in her wardrobe - finding some appropriate clothes for me to wear to parties and functions with them. My travel dags are not right for lunch with the Peruvian President...
Went shopping for some dress-up shoes; window shopped; visited a huge craft market with all manner of gifts and souvenirs to give me an idea of the sorts of variety and prices to work with on my travels (benchmarking souvenirs - what a strategy); checked out gold prices and workmanship for comparison too.
Tried to organise an itinerary to get me to the sights of Peru and key places in Chile and Argentina. Re did this several times over the next few days and finally decided to stay in Peru for the whole 5+ weeks. The airfares for the Xmas/New Year period were ridiculous, the wet season seems to effect jungle and Patagonia visits terribly and of course I am very aware my poor language skills slow me down. Anyway, can come back and do Argentina-Patagonia and Chile-Chiloe with Hunter and MacLean (no excuses) and this time concentrate on seeing Peru properly and at a leisurely pace. It is important to put time aside for family too so with such a large and diverse destination and family time the 5 weeks will fly (and yes, it has, I can confirm - writing this down 3 weeks after I had the thoughts - it's Christmas in 3 days!)
HINDSIGHT: As I have travelled I have reconfirmed many times in my mind, I will definately be back in South America to explore Argentina and then Chile with top ups in Peru. And boys listen now - we are learning Spanish when I get home. Forget my silly dreams of French and Arabic. When it comes down to it, our familly speaks Spanish and South America is so easy to get to. It is cheap to travel in - and even more so if you know the language. If we can speak the language the locals can't trick us or inflate prices as much. We can meet more locals and have more fun. And at home we have our own private way of communicating that very few will understand of they over hear. Paola even has a friend coming to Australia to learn English that we could practise our Spanish on if she chooses Cairns as her base. And if they can speak two languages (or more) so can we. We have brains we just need to apply them.
The amazing Paola arranged haircut and colour; pedicure, manicure and waxing; and a massage for me. She is such a kind sister-in-law. Think I might adopt her as a real sister. Could do with one of these! We also played dress-ups in her wardrobe - finding some appropriate clothes for me to wear to parties and functions with them. My travel dags are not right for lunch with the Peruvian President...
Went shopping for some dress-up shoes; window shopped; visited a huge craft market with all manner of gifts and souvenirs to give me an idea of the sorts of variety and prices to work with on my travels (benchmarking souvenirs - what a strategy); checked out gold prices and workmanship for comparison too.
Tried to organise an itinerary to get me to the sights of Peru and key places in Chile and Argentina. Re did this several times over the next few days and finally decided to stay in Peru for the whole 5+ weeks. The airfares for the Xmas/New Year period were ridiculous, the wet season seems to effect jungle and Patagonia visits terribly and of course I am very aware my poor language skills slow me down. Anyway, can come back and do Argentina-Patagonia and Chile-Chiloe with Hunter and MacLean (no excuses) and this time concentrate on seeing Peru properly and at a leisurely pace. It is important to put time aside for family too so with such a large and diverse destination and family time the 5 weeks will fly (and yes, it has, I can confirm - writing this down 3 weeks after I had the thoughts - it's Christmas in 3 days!)
HINDSIGHT: As I have travelled I have reconfirmed many times in my mind, I will definately be back in South America to explore Argentina and then Chile with top ups in Peru. And boys listen now - we are learning Spanish when I get home. Forget my silly dreams of French and Arabic. When it comes down to it, our familly speaks Spanish and South America is so easy to get to. It is cheap to travel in - and even more so if you know the language. If we can speak the language the locals can't trick us or inflate prices as much. We can meet more locals and have more fun. And at home we have our own private way of communicating that very few will understand of they over hear. Paola even has a friend coming to Australia to learn English that we could practise our Spanish on if she chooses Cairns as her base. And if they can speak two languages (or more) so can we. We have brains we just need to apply them.
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 3:30 PM 
