Holidays and absences [2]

Rio and the Amazon are on my list. Galapagos,  Inca trail,  La Paz,  .... All sorts. I am looking through a proper tour company but I think I might arrange flights and the galapagos and then wing it from there.

That's going to be a cool trip, Lance! Do you speak any Spanish?

Ermm, no. Sure they will speak a bit of English and I will try and learn a bit before I go.

all the Spanish you will need is ''Tell Juanita (the donkey) not to bounce too close to the edge of the 1000 ft Cliff while I am sitting on her. Thanks''  and ''is the filling in that tortilla made from grubs?'' and ''something swam up my boy tube, can you fish it out senorita?''.

Lancebloke wrote:Ermm,  no. Sure they will speak a bit of English and I will try and learn a bit before I go.

The reason I asked is that you might want to consider spending your first week at one of the hundreds of Spanish Language schools.  It's a major cottage industry in many Latin American countries. Many of them board you with a host family, which can be cool too, all for about the price you'd pay to stay in a modest hotel.

While I'm sure you'll be able to find people who speak a few words of English almost anywhere you go, especially in the cities,  if you want to go out into the rural areas you'll find that they often speak a local indigenous dialect with Spanish as their second language, and no English at all.  If you don't understand at least some of their Spanish, they just shout it at you louder and faster as if you were deaf and stupid.  

A week in a Spanish Language school solves that, and allows you to wander farther outside the organized tour group zones.  Places like Patagonia. 

The smartphone translator apps may not work too well when way out yonder. And the international roaming fees may break you. I think Dave's idea is cool, just hope you get a fun family!

avoid anyone called Escobar. I am not like Halfy and Dave who are open to talking to the 'colourful' locals. I dont trust anyone, I wont even talk to the local cats in case they try to slip some freaky Kitekat into my luggage. Its a jungle out there, unless you go to the Amazon and then its a real jungle with man eating spiders and stuff. I have had too many near misses with nice smiling locals luring me down dark alleys to sample their nick-knacks. I know its sad but I really dont trust anyone an inch.   My best friends Marie-Claire and Rebecca were trusting souls and we got ourselves into 7 shades of shit because of it. I was always the party pooper trying to haggle our way out of the local nick with my Miss Selfridge earings. Every self respecting traveller knows you can never have too many shiny beads.

Well, remains to be seen how I do it yet. Need to get my boss to agree to 3 months off first.

Sure nobody fancies tagging along? Figgy? Or don't you trust me neither!

I do trust you Lance.   I trust you would take us on an uncomfortable Aragornesque type adventure when I prefer mooching round coffee shops and looking at shoes. it would end in tears.

Mrs Figg wrote:avoid anyone called Escobar. I am not like Halfy and Dave who are open to talking to the 'colourful' locals. I dont trust anyone, I wont even talk to the local cats in case they try to slip some freaky Kitekat into my luggage. Its a jungle out there, unless you go to the Amazon and then its a real jungle with man eating spiders and stuff. I have had too many near misses with nice smiling locals luring me down dark alleys to sample their nick-knacks. I know its sad but I really dont trust anyone an inch.   My best friends Marie-Claire and Rebecca were trusting souls and we got ourselves into 7 shades of shit because of it. I was always the party pooper trying to haggle our way out of the local nick with my Miss Selfridge earings. Every self respecting traveller knows you can never have too many shiny beads.

I've never tried the shiny beads trick, Figgy. I'll keep it in mind, but somehow I think it might just get me in deeper....

Trust is not something to be given away willy nilly, whether you're traveling or not.  There's honor in most cultures, and I try to find it. And when I find it I trust it.  

An example from when I was a young backpacker in Milan.  The evening was starting to get "interesting" and my traveling partner and I were realizing we were targets.  So we went into a small working class joint where we clearly didn't belong, but we figured we wouldn't be targets. The young man who seated us (probably the son of the proprietor) was surprised to have two young backpackers who didn't speak Italian walk in the door, but he welcomed us to the hospitality of the house,  and selected a suitable table for us with a man who could entertain us by juggling cigarettes and toothpicks while we showed him photos of America.  No language necessary.

We instantly sensed the family honor and pride in the establishment.  We knew that for the price of a pizza and drink we were completely safe as long as we behaved as guests.  Nothing was going to happen that evening to reflect badly on the family's honor, or the honor of the house.  THAT is what I trust.  Latin America is full of that kind of honor.

Just wear a kilt- its a passport to friendliness the world over   

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Just wear a kilt- its a passport to friendliness the world over   

Though perhaps an invitation to over-friendliness in some places...  

Thats why you need the buckie   

I thought wearing a green hat and having a shamrock was an invitation to friendliness... A kilt is an invitation for a fight.

Figgy - but in all the best stories, the ones that really matter, there is no shoe shopping!

A kilt is an invitation for a fight.- Lance

  You sully the great name of the Tartan Army Lance! Now that is fighting talk!!!

Fighting talk!? Right where are the keys to the XR3i? I'm coming up!!!

I'll get the buckie ready!

And IL sell the tickets !
Aint missing this match  

Lancebloke wrote:.

Figgy - but in all the best stories, the ones that really matter,  there is no shoe shopping!

theres Always shoe shopping   

I have to at least halfway agree with Lance.  Had a crush on a junior girl while I was a new grad student in physics.  I took one of her shoes while she was in class, disappeared with it to dunk it in liquid nitrogen, brought it back smoking with cold vapor.  She was actually suitably impressed.  But the hard freeze cracked the sole.

So I offered to buy her new shoes and took her shoe shopping.  Off we went....and it got me nowhere.     Shoe-shopping: that's just no place for a guy to shine.

I have to think it would have ended as a better story (for me at least) if I never took her shoe-shopping.

erm I think it was probably the liquid nitro. girls dont like their shoes being fiddled with.   

halfwise wrote:Had a crush on a junior girl while I was a new grad student in physics.  I took one of her shoes while she was in class, disappeared with it to dunk it in liquid nitrogen.

Jeeesh!   
And physicists have the gall to criticize mathematicians for the "doughnut homeomorphic to coffee cup" pick-up line!

I think shopping for any kind of apparel is the province of girls. Most men just don't seem to be cut out for it. I know I'm not.

I hate shopping with women, they never seem to know what they want before they go- when I go shopping I already know exactly what I want- and I go and get it and leave again. Quick and simple- women seem to wander about all over the place just looking at stuff, changing their mind a lot and then after an entire day drag you back to the first shop you went to and buy what they want there, which will have been one of the first things they looked at anyway before wasting the rest of the day! 

dude. its evolution. You are hunters, we are gatherers, thats why we NEED bags and good shoes and stuff.