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Well the first 48 hours have been INTENSE!!!
I was so nervous at the airport but luckily most people spoke English. The ATM was a struggle! Didn't think to learn ATM words in Spanish did I??
I prepaid for a taxi ticket (expensive!) and then this lovely man who spoke English told me he would help me which I gratefully accepted and he whizzed off with my bag and after a moment I though uh-oh, this is one of the things you are not supposed to do!! If this is anything like Bali he's going to ask me for a tip, which he did! But luckily he accepted my "sorry, I have no money".
My hostal is great, the owner speaks English thank goodness. Eating has been a HUGE struggle mostly because I'm so keyed up my stomach just shuts itself off at the sight of food even if I'm starving! Yesterday's dinner was gross and probably not in the safe category because it looked like it had all been rinsed in water (of the tap variety). It was some sort of strange salad with cold broccoli, cauliflower, rice, etc.
After dinner (I didn't eat much) I managed to order papas fritas (fries) from McDonald's. The guy spoke a mile a minute but just laughed when he realised I couldn't understand a word he was saying and we got through it.
That's the thing, some people are super nice like the lady at the shop today who put the number on the calculator for me when I couldn't understand what number she was saying (and I thought I was good at my numbers!), but there are a few who just stare at you and keep talking fast making no effort to help you understand. Speaking of staring, no one on the street smiles back at you if you give a friendly smile while walking past! Which I actually find kind of awkward!
Today stated off on a low, I hardly slept at all last night (a combination of the time difference and traffic noise I think) so was real tired this morning and felt ill. At 1:30pm I forced myself to head outside and it's great that I did. I walked down to the funicular, a type of cable car thing which takes you up a mountain where there is a giant statue of Mary (the mother of Jesus) and a gorgeous church plus great views if the city (though covered in a layer of smog).
I bought my ticket in Spanish! And then the guy responded in English, typical! And when I bought my lunch today I had the line already to go in my head then opened my mouth and poof - it was gone! But the waitress spoke English so I got lucky there. By that stage I was feeling a lot better about everything and managed to eat most of the meal which was kind of a relief. Oh! And when I asked for lemonade I was met with "basil or mint?" Say again??? I chose basil and that green lemonade was delicious! Wasn't really lemonade at all but I wish we had it in NZ!
Tomorrow a taxi will come pick me up at 5.30am (hopefully) fit my flight to Ecuador so I will try have an early night. I will try put some photos up here too.
That's all for now!
- comments
Fiona Glad you are working things out. Enjoy!! Might have to recreate that basil lemonade when you get back.
Kelly Go you I'm sorry it got off to a rocky start but good on u for getting out there :)
Susan Heath The adventures have begun! Sending you positive vibes from NZ...will look forward to your updates