Nick and Darcie's Excellent Adventure: Peru: Maestrissima!

Ok, so that is a made up word for sure but I mean it as a superlative for the language school and the teachers we had therein. El Sol is really a great, albeit small and thus very personal, school. Perhaps we just got lucky with the teachers but our experience was a treat.

We were only there for what turned out to be 8 days instead of 10 as the last two days of this week were a national holiday for Semana Santa (Easter). but we were there six or so hours a day, 4 for regular instruction and 2+ for afternoon workshops that are included in the fee. We and our new friend, Edward, were the only people to show up for these afternoon classes so we got a lot of individualized attention.

Our teachers, Yeniffer, Elena, Carolina, Martin and Andres were very patient, funny and involved and the head mistress, Milagros, was very supportive and even taught one afternoon session and displayed an outstanding ability/flair for getting the point across easily – you could see why she ran the show.

Yeniffer in particular pushed us hard and with much consideration and coaching. One of the things we particularly liked was her follow-through. What I mean by this is that if we displayed some problem such as the ubiquitous por/para she would focus a portion of the following class to helping clear up the issues. Caroline (and to a lesser degree Elena) was ready to digress when something needed further elaboration or clearing up and was ready to do it on a whim, quite a skill.

We stayed with a local family during the time that we were in school, a nice arrangement with a very mellow family in a tranquil part of Lima about 3 or 4 miles from the school. A distance walkable in about 40 minutes of brisk walking. The family, Angela, Caroline and Katerine and their friend Roberta ruled the house with the help of the maid, Melina. The men, Napoleon Papa y Napoleon Chico did not live at the house, Papa lived at the hotel the family owns down at the beach 40 minutes south of Lima and Chico lives in an apartment in another district. The family dog, a Scottish terrier named Wallace (as in William Wallace), kept Darcie much entertained.