Being near other tourists a lot has turned out to mean that I spend a lot of time translating between English and Spanish for other people. I´ve done it during a multi-person conversation in Spanish, where I had to recap every few minutes for a beginning Spanish sppeaker in Cordoba, Argentina; one day a taxi driver I exchanged pleasantries with asked me to ask two non-Spanish-speaking passangers where they needed to go in Bariloche, Argentina; I helped someone send money via Western Union at the bus station in Valparaiso, Chile; I regularly translate in stores, cabs and restaurants for friends.

And it´s not just for non-Spanish speakers. I´ve had shop keepers ask me how to say things like returnable and empty bottles, and a tour guide at a winery in Salta, Argentina asked me to write down and sound out instructions for tastings so she could memorize them in English.

All this experience came in handy this week when I went with a Danish friend to get a tattoo. She speaks almost no spanish so I spent about two horus translating back and forth at two different tattoo parlors about the design she wanted, where she wanted it, how much it cost, how to take care of it, etc. And I also learned that it´s difficult to convince Chilean tattoo artists to draw tattoos they don´t like - a bus in this case.