Speaking Spanish

People rarely lie outright to you here (although it does happen) but some people mislead and others are just amazingly unhelpful. We asked two girls where they got their ice creams from and I set off down the road where they had pointed. I arrive to the "shop" and start to talk to an small, old man with cloudy eyes.

Me: Do you sell ice cream?
Old man: What?
Do you have ice cream?
What?
Ice cream
What?
Ice Cream
Ice Cream?
Yes, Ice cream
No

At this point Luis comes in, who is a guy I vaguely know from trying to book boat tours. We have a very brief chat and I go back to wait for an aeroplane. We were told to arrive at 3 for a plane that left at 4. Actually the bus to the airport leaves at 4 and the plane at 5. It is now about 5.30 and you have to try very hard to get any response other than "Please sit down and wait a moment" from the officials. We are in the jungle and I am very hot. I soak my hair frequently to cool down but am wearing my heavy trousers as my others are drying in the hotel. I only realise this later when we take off, but more about that later. Anyway, Luis walks past and is clearly eating ice cream. I go back to see the old man.

Do you have ice cream?
No
The thing that Luis buy?
What?
Luis, be buy ice cream here?
Who?
The man here. He buy ice cream.
What?
The man. Here before 5 minutes. He buy ice cream.
No.
Yes. I see he eat ice cream.
No.

I am getting frustrated, but luckily his son walks in with an ice cream. I explain that I want one. The old man smiles slowly as understanding dawns. "Aaaaah, you want a picolè". To be fair its more ice lolly than ice cream but I still have to count to ten. This sort of thing happens all the time.

We are in Chile at the moment and the accent here is difficult. We are often helped out by holidaying big city Chileans (who speak relatively normally) who translate from Spanish to Spanish for us.