Burro Talk

One thing we like about walking in the countryside, is that you have good opportunities to chat with the locals. This is especially important when, like us, you're studying Spanish at an evening class, and need lots of practice. We're learning Spanish in preparation for the big trip later this year, which we've hinted at previously, but not yet unveiled. Don't worry, all will be revealed ... but not just yet.


This fine burro that we came across was very talkative and spoke not a word of English. He was therefore a great candidate for Yorkie and myself to practice on. While Yorkie was still rifling in the rucksack for a dictionary, I got stuck in, with my 'ola senor burro, que tal?'.

We had mixed success. We could chat away happily to the burro and he would answer us back, but in truth we only caught about one word in three of what he said. We therefore had to make a lot of assumptions and as a result the conversation didn't exactly flow, and he must have thought us a bit mad. In the end we found that mime was equally productive, and ended up having a great game of charades.

We tried again later when we met this fine snake basking in the sun ...


... but it turned out that we knew more Spanish than he did. He had a few words of Menorcan (which was different from our Castillian Spanish) and apart from that he spoke parseltongue, which we knew all about from our Harry Potter readings, but sadly can't speak. We therefore didn't get as far as deciding whether he was poisonous or not, but we thought it most unlikely, as he seemed a pleasant chap.

There was still plenty of holiday ahead of us to keep practising our Spanish, so we weren't worried.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx