Sunday, December 13, 2009

South America, the last chapter

Four days ago I touched ground in Santiago de Chile for what is the last chapter of my trip. It is probably the most exciting chapter because Asia I did it to learn backpacking (and I did not think I would enjoy it as much as I did) while Oz and NZ were great but there was hardly any culture shock.
South America is for me (before arriving)
-a challenge to speak Spanish whereas I have never learned except the one lesson per day I did with my book in the last 3 months,
-a culture shock,
-a discovery because I barely know anything about these countries (history, food, habits...), and
-a challenge again because that's the only place I go to I was told to be careful with my safety.

After 4 days of being a gringo I really like it. I more or less digested the jetlag (my December 10th lasted 40 hours, my longest day ever) and I am about to go South to see lakes, volcanos and other natural beauties. I've had a wonderful welcome by Ricardo who introduced me to his family and friends so I already met more Chileans than I would have imagined in my whole trip. My Spanish is really bad especially my hearing but somehow I have managed to get what I wanted so far, thanks to French for being so close to Spanish.

5 comments:

Jonathan said...

Hey Ben!

Je sais jamais si je dois écrire en anglais :)

Content de lire de tes nouvelles! Tu es en amérique du sud jusqu'à quand ? Je sais que tu as déja ton billet de retour, mais tu peux regarder pour revenir sur un bateau cargo pour faire une expérience différente!!

Ciao,

Jo à Te Anau... là où il fait frette

Clairette said...

Benj,

savoure ton expérience latino....je ne doute pas un seul instant qu'elle sera inoubliable.
C'est top que tu aies déjà rencontré du monde, c'est tellement facile dans ces pays puisque les gens sont hyper chaleureux.
Et t'inquiètes pour l'espagnol, tu vas le maitriser en moins d'un mois :)

besos y cuidate!
hasta pronto
Claire

Marta Vilalta said...

Hi Benjamin!!! Nice to hearing you are already in South America. Hope you'll enjoy it and learn a lot of Spanish! ya verás como no es difícil!!! Buena suerte y disfruta mucho!!!!
Besos desde San Francisco

Anonymous said...

vite une photo avec un bonnet ppéruvien, à coté d'un lama sympa sur un sommet andin.
profite bien
papa

Luiza said...

All just AMAZING!!! How the hell will you be able to come back to Europe? Live a normal life... ?Please wait at least for a spring-time :)
All the best for 2010! You are my HERO already! Hug, Luiza