My wife and I went to the Sacred Valley / Cuzco Peru a few years ago, mostly to visit Machu Picchu, and I have already written my 5 things to bring to Machu Picchu and 4 tips for taking the train to Machu Picchu. During our time in the Sacred Valley, we also took several day trips to visit things like the salineras of Maras, Moray, and other architectural sites (SEE: 7 things to do in the Sacred Valley BESIDES Machu Picchu). We stayed for 5 nights at the Tambo del Inka hotel in Urubamba, and there were lots of things to do in Urubamba as well.
Speaking Spanish in Peru
They speak Spanish in Peru (obviously), and in Urubamba itself, there were not very many people that spoke English at all. Many of the staff at our hotel itself did speak decent English but out in the town itself it was all Spanish all the time. Same thing went with all of our drivers as we went throughout the Sacred Valley
I served 2 years as a Mormon missionary in the Dominican Republic, and at that time, I was completely fluent in Spanish. But…. that was 25 years ago. And while I had some reasons to speak Spanish soon after I returned home, I haven’t really spoken Spanish much at all in the past 15 years or so.
Still, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to communicate decently in Spanish while in Peru (SEE ALSO: Surviving Peru with my gringo Spanish). Yes, there were definitely times when I was missing some vocabulary and/or stumbling over exactly what I was trying to say, but for the most part, I was able to understand and make myself understood.
Explaining miles and points in Peru
Until the subject turned around to miles and points. Carolyn and I were sitting in a local restaurant, having a little lomo saltado
It was just a mom and pop shop (literally when we got there, they had to call the guy who turned out to be our “waiter” from across the street where he was hanging out), and since we were not really in prime tourist season, we were the only ones there. So we had a fairly long conversation with him. We talked about family, travel and a variety of subjects.
When he found out that we were staying at the Tambo del Inka hotel, he commented on how expensive it was. And it’s true, even compared to other Western-style hotels, the TdI is definitely a “luxury” hotel.
(SEE ALSO: How hotels define themselves – what’s the difference between upscale and upper upscale? )
(SEE ALSO: Tambo del Inka review – hotel in Sacred Valley Urubamba Peru)
And while I understand that even though I don’t consider myself “rich”, comparatively to most Peruvians I probably am. So I was wanting to explain that we hadn’t paid cash for the hotel rooms. But where to even start, given that most local Peruvians don’t even USE credit cards.
I ended up starting with talking about credit cards, and how every dollar that you spend on the credit card got you “points”. And that there were tricks to getting lots of these points, and you could use them to pay for hotels or other travel.
I’m not sure I got the message through 🙂
What about you? Have you ever tried to explain miles and points in a foreign language? How’d it go?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Not sure if your food pic was supposed to be lomo saltado, but it isn’t
Totally off topic, but I read your blog regularly and I randomly know the lady you have pictured in the post. Did you just find the image online or do you know her too?
Hilarious. She’s on this Pixabay free stock photo site – https://pixabay.com/en/poses-female-education-posing-1367416/
explaining travel hacking to someone in another language…hahahahahaha.
Yeah. That basically sums it up 😉
I lived in Medellin, Colombia for 5 years about a dozen years ago…and an older (40ish+, maybe early 50ish? at the time) maintenance woman who worked in the upscale high rise I lived in had never seen the ocean / been to the ocean.
This struck me as really odd. Quite shocking. And a serious lack of exploration instinct. Medellin, being in the mountains is relatively isolated from the coasts, but it doesn’t cost that much to get on a bus and dip your toes in the ocean. You can get there in a day with a 10 hour+ or so bus ride.
And yet she never had that inclination in all her years.
Nevermind super cheap airfares that were sprouting up on budget airlines at the time. Like super super cheap – even in Colombian terms.
Sure, I don’t think she made much $$ relatively speaking, but to never take the effort to see the ocean? I remember she was complaining about the cost of medicine or something.
I gifted her some stuff from when I was clearing out my apartment as I was leaving the country.
…it’s one thing if we were in some African village deep in the forest with limited transportation options – but Colombia is highly developed with buses going all over the place.
…I wonder what % of Americans 30-40+ years old have never seen any ocean with their own eyes. What % of Americans have never left their state? What % of Americans have never left their county?
If you believe the statistics…a significant % of the world does not have access to a telephone. Though that’s changed with the advent of wireless radiation. Haven’t researched it of late.