My Spanish has improved by leaps and bounds since we first arrived in Ecuador.  Then Brasil happened.  Why do they have to speak Portuguese?  It’s so different to Spanish and to Italian that I could not understand anyone.  Wouldn’t you think that many Brasilians would speak Spanish? Well, they don’t.  And where is my Portuguese phrase book? Damn thing – been carrying it around in my heavy backpack for four / five months and now I can’t find it.  I think I dumped it somewhere when I was fed up of having a heavy backpack!

p.s. I finally found that rotten phrase book after we arrived in Argentina, rendering it useless!