Then I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina and decided to try out the famous Intercambio concept. Put simply, an Intercambio is a language exchange between two people. You meet up, spend half the time talking in your native language and half the time in theirs. This usually takes the form of meeting for a coffee and chatting for an hour in English and an hour in Spanish, although some Intercambios I have done have lasted 5 hours or more…!

I have been using a website called Conversation Exchange to organise Intercambios in Buenos Aires, Madrid & Barcelona. You need to register and add a brief profile (no photos allowed incidentally), then you can either contact people or wait until people contact you.

Intercambios also have a bit of a reputation as a means of meeting potential partners. Out of 15 people that contacted me in Buenos Aires from the Conversation Exchange website 14 were women between the ages of 28 and 33. My Colombian friend suggested to me that they were all after European visas. Or maybe it’s simply the fact that more women are learning English?

Whatever the underlying motivations, intercambios are a great way to practice your Spanish, get out and meet local people, and make new friends.

I quickly found out about the Fairplay Spanish School, a relatively new Cusco-based NGO that trains local Peruvians who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to become Spanish teachers – especially single mothers – to teach Spanish. Fairplay then acts as their agent finding them work and then taking 33% of the fee with the rest going directly to the teachers.

As I’ve already studied 8 weeks of one-one-one Spanish on this trip in both Guatemala and Ecuador, and have done huge amounts of Spanish grammar, I specifically requested to just spent my time on conversation practice. I spent my time with my teacher (Marta) pictured above, strolling around the museums, plazas, shops and markets of Cusco, chatting away. The photo above was taken at San Cristobal church overlooking Cusco in the middle of one of my Spanish ‘classes’.

I would highly recommend Fairplay Spanish School and especially Marta (herself a single mother) to anyone thinking of studying Spanish in Cusco, Peru.

Further information

You can contact Fairplay Spanish School through their website at http://www.fairplay-peru.org.

The Fairplay Spanish school charges the following:

$15 or $30 enrolment fee (the higher fee includes the Fairplay grammar book)
$4.50/hour – for one-on-one lessons with a less experienced teacher
$6/hour – for one-on-one lessons with a more experienced teacher

Whilst in Cusco, I stayed at Andes de San Blas guesthouse. It is located in the heart of San Blas (Calle Carmen Alto 227), and costs about $10 a night including breakfast and free wi-fi internet.

You can contact them at andesdesanblas@hotmail.com or by phone on (+51 84) 242 346.

Although the main beach at San Juan del Sur is a pretty horseshoe shaped bay, flanked by tall cliffs, like all town beaches, it is not particularly clean. However, North and South of San Juan are a series of very unspoiled beaches with either very little, or no development whatsoever. These beaches can be reached only by private taxis from San Juan, or by one of the organized buses/trucks that run several times daily from the main guest houses in town (about $5 return).

The main draw to the area is undoubtedly the surfing. A steady stream of surfers arrive in San Juan with boards at the ready, hoping to catch whatever the Pacific throws at them. Generally people either stay in San Juan del Sur and make the daily beach shuttle trip, or stay at one of the ‘surf camps’ at Playa Maderas – an unspoiled beach about 10 KM north of San Juan famed for its beach break.

San Juan del Sur is now firmly on the backpacker circuit, and with plenty of other activities available in the area – from turtle-watching trips, to horse riding, ATV driving, Spanish classes, fishing, and of course partying – it is sure to develop massively in the next ten years.

Whether you’re a beginner or more advanced surfer, because of the many varying beaches in the area, there will usually be somewhere suitable for you around San Juan. You can hire a surf board for about $10 a day, and lessons vary from between $10/hour and $30/hour depending on who you choose.

I liked San Juan so much, I went back and spent Christmas there surfing. The first time I stayed at "Crazy Dave’s" Surf Hideout on Maderas beach, but he was so obnoxiously loud he drove us away (more about that later). The second time I stayed in San Juan itself, in Hospedaje Don Wilfredo (right next to Big Wave Dave’s), which was a small, friendly, locally-owned hostel about 50 metres from the beach with private rooms for $4 & $5 a night – about half the price of a dormitory room in Casa Oro which all the younger backpackers seems to flock to like headless chickens. Must be the improved mating potential?

San Juan del Sur is probably less than half the price of Costa Rica, and you pretty much get the same in terms of surfing and lifestyle. In fact, having now also been to several Costa Rican beaches, I’d say the beaches around San Juan del Sur win hands down.

Links

Photos of San Juan del Sur & Maderas beach.

Our podcast from San Juan del Sur