Coffee Break Spanish - CBS Travel Diaries 2.04 | Viaje a Machu Picchu

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

It's time for another episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries, Season 2! After a long journey, Ainhoa, Luisa and Esteban finally make it to Machu Picchu and take in the breathtaking scenery around them. As always, our hosts Mark and Marina are on hand to break down the language featured in Ainhoa's latest diary entry. This time, we learn more about the difference between para ahorrar and ahorrarse, as well as the preterite tense of subir and hacer.Our premium version includes lesson notes with additional examples and explanations of the language in each lesson, and a pronunciation practice video to help you improve your speaking. Click here to access the course on the Coffee Break Academy.At Coffee Break Spanish we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakspanish.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in Spanish, whatever your level. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coffee Brick Spanish Travel Diaries Season 2, Episode 4. Hello, all, and welcome to Coffee Brick Spanish. I'm Mark. And I'm sorry, Marina. How are you, Marina? Very well, how are you, Mark? Well, very well, very content. Desarra again in the studio with you. Yes, it's a pleasure, the truth.

We are back with another episode of our travel diaries, and today we are visiting a very exciting place, a place where I have always wanted to go my entire life, It's been one of my dreams. Never got there yet, hopefully after. Restrictions are lifted. I'll be able to think about getting there. Marina, where we're going today?

Today we're going to be here to Machu Picchu. Perfect. As always, we're going to hear the text, and then we'll be able to the grammatica, of the vocabulary, and of all, the interesting that there in the text. But first of all, we're going to listen to the text, and then we'll talk about it afterwards.

We're ready. We're ready. Well, then let's do for it. Never I never thought that Machu Picchu

were so complicated. Menos that Esteban was a local of the organization

and had planned the way the he had barrajado various

options and as we're we're a time to

we're the option more the option most to take the minibus a hydroelectric, where we're coming up more to 10 km to waters to-acalyntes.

There, we did nother to move to Machu Picchu to the day the next. The voyage in bus was tedious. Six long hours that I've used to sleep. Esteban me left his armory to support me. I don't know if I'd record about what the day

earlier, but me dave a question. In hydroelectric, we're we're doing to the train to

get to get to get before the anochecer. In waters, we're

we're we're in the market. At the day the day next,

we're we're we're we're we're we're photographs impressive.

The views were of infarct. The panoramic and the ruiners made that it was

the thing. I'm could be all the was doing. What is the

suerte that they have you and his friends, no? Yes, the is that

is that we we're a little more closer. Exactly. Okay, so in this

chapter of our study, there are quite a number of interesting idiomatic expressions and we'll talk about them as we go through it.

Marina, would you like to read each of the sentences and then we'll talk about what's included? Yes, let's start. Nunca Pensee that visitar Machu Picchu was a tan complicated. Right. Even in our first sentence, we've got something interesting here. And it's one of these things that depending on what kind of level you're at with your Spanish, you may want to just accept it as a piece of vocabulary or you may want to get into the grammar here. Let's look at what I knowa says

Nuka Pensei Kewitch, let's take it up to there So Nuka Pensei I never thought that to visit Machu Picchu Fuerra tan complicateo Now Fuera is part of the verb Ser. So if it's something to do with to be then what she's saying is

I never thought that visiting Machu Picchu would be so complicated But Marina, this is an imperfect subjunctive, isn't it? That's. It's. It's a bit complicated, but really if we learn how functioned the structure,

it's always equal. So, what we should is that we can see fure or fuese. Okay, so we've got two versions of this imperfect subjunctive, Fuerre or fesi. So in this kind of construction, it's

always the same. It just, you just need to make the choice between fueira or fesse. I never thought that doing this would be so complicated. Now, in English, we use a would-be. But could we say that in Spanish? Could we say, Nunca Pensee that visit Marcho Piccho,

would be so... Well, there we have it, so we've got the option, we can go for the complicated, or slightly complicated, imperfect subjunctive, or we can just use a nice conditional. I never thought that visiting Machu Piccho

would be so complex. However, there's one other thing I want to pick up on here, and that's that visitar. In English, when we say, I never thought that visiting Machu Picchu would be so complicated, we're using a gerent form, the ing form of the verb in English. However, in Spanish, here we need to use the infinitive, right? Yes, always the infinitive. And this is one of the errors more commonest, confunded this use of infinitive with a form in gerundio. Exactly. So it's one of the most common errors that students make. So just watch out for that. When you're looking at an ing form in English, there's a high likelihood you're going to be looking at the infinitive in Spanish. Okay. Let's continue on.

Menos mal that Esteban was a loco of the organization and had planned the voyage of P-a-pa. Okay, so I love this. Menos mal that Esteban was a loco of the organization So thank goodness Or at least I think thank goodness

works well Thank goodness that Estevan was literally a mad person of organization He was crazy about organization

and he had planned the journey from P A P A P A. A.

An expression very interesting No? Yes, is very interesting and very very

very good. So can in other words? Yes, what

means really is with detail. So when you do a pa

is that you do you do all the details. Okay,

so you look after all of the details. In English, we could say he

had planned the journey from A to Z or from start to finish

or the beginning to the end or just something like really thoroughly

or in detail. There's other expression in Spanish that we can use? Yes, we'd say, for example, de cabo to rabo. Okay, so de cabo

a rabo from head to tail, as it were, de cabo arabo, but a me me a piece to pa. Yes, a me more also.

And I've been reading a little about the origin of this expression and it It seems that it came of very, very

antigo of when no even existed the imprint And there so this

comes from when a printing didn't exist and there there were copistas

or scriban that the words and to demonstrate that was

a copy a final they they were the word

a word that then was the P to

P. Okay, so these were scribes who were copying out pages of ancient manuscripts, and when they completed one page, they would write at the bottom, the P-a-P-a-pe, so from P to P, and the P-Stand stood there for, the P-a-P-a-P-a, and this in time has become, the P-a-P-a. So there we go. That is. I love it. Okay, let's continue on. I had barrajado various options And as we're going to do a Baja

Bajomis, cogimo, we've got the option more d'Ura. Okay, now this is an interesting word barrajar. Barajar, if something – well, I always think of barajar linked to barajas, the airport in Madrid. And I don't know whether there's any link there at all.

But if you were considering the options of whether to fly to Madrid, or Barcelona or Malaga or some other city in Spain, then maybe that will help you remember that barrajar means to consider, to mull over, to look at different options. Yes, and it comes from like when we're playing cards, when you mix the cards, what we say in Spanish is barajar las cards. So when you mix them and you have various like cards to play,

it's like the ideas you have. Okay. So shuffling the cards in English barrajar, but again, we can use it in this different way. We shuffled various options. We considered various options. Or here, actually, what I know is saying is had barrajado various options.

So she's still talking about Esteban. He had considered various options. And as we wanted to do a journey or to make a journey of low budget, We wanted to keep things within our budget. Cojimos the option more d'Ura. We went for the most hard option. So we went for the most difficult one.

Let's find out exactly what that difficult one entailed. We're despertamos to take the minibus to hydroelectric where we came down something more of 10 km to waters and there

we did noche to make to Machu Picchu to the day next

okay so quite a long sentence they're giving us this journey that they undertook and some

interesting names of places first of all hydroelectric literally meaning hydroelectric and I believe it's

the location of a power station yes it's a place is like central hydroelectric. And then

Aguas Calientes, which literally means hot waters. Yes, actually Aguas Calientes is the name that they're that Machu Picchu Pueblo. So the Pueblo of Machu Picchu, so Aguas Calientes. Okay, so Aguas Calientes,

the last place that you can stay before you get to Machu Picchu. So it's sometimes called Machu Piccho, Machu Pueblo, or something like that. And Machu Picchu itself literally means old mountain. I believe, leave in Quechua. That's right. Perfect. Okay.

So let's go back and find it what I know I said about this. She said, Nos Despertamos Pronto. We got up early or we woke up early. To take the minibus to Hydroelectricaelectric, where we came down more than 10 kilometers to Aguas Calientis.

Where we walked something more than, a little more than 10 kilometers. as far as as the waters and there we did we did we

did nother to move to Machu Picchu at the next and there we literally spent the night we made night

after noche we've looked at before to make a Machu Picchu at the day

in order to climb or to go up Machu Picchu the next day the next day the day the day

so six large hours Okay, so the journey in bus, the bus journey was tedious, it was boring. Six long hours, so six long hours, that I took advantage of in order to sleep, that I used to sleep, basically.

Something interesting here is sometimes when people are learning Spanish, they ask me, And do we place the adjective always after? Like here we have six large hours. And normally when we have the adjective before the noun, it's just like letting us know that these are long hours. So it's emphasizing these long hours. So we could have had here six hours largas, but that maybe is not emphasizing as much

on the fact that they were really long and boring, yeah? Mm-hmm. That's it. Okay, very well. Okay, let's find out the next thing that happens. It's getting a little bit interesting. Esteban me dejo to support me. No,

I know if recordaba or no, what he passed the day anterior. But me daba cosa question. Okay, a fantastic expression there at the end. But let's just go back to the beginning. Esteban, me dejo his ombro

to apply me. literally Esteban let me his shoulder to support me okay basically he's letting her put his put her head on his shoulder Appoyar a alien is to support someone Okay then she goes on no saviya si recorda lo que paso the day anterior This is quite interesting because we don't have any subjects in here

As we know Spanish verbs can be used without subjects Or subject pronouns at least But no saviya if he recorda I don't know if he remembered okay I know

if he recorded of course we know that Esteban was enjoying the Kuzko beer and he was flirting a bit

with I know but she's not sure if he remembers that had happened what happened the previous day but this is a great expression me dava

a question So, Marina, you'll need to help us understand dar, cause to do something to do something. Yes, this is an expression as a very actual. The people young it's very useful, and it's very useful, when you want to

say that something, you know, you can say, me da a cause. So it gives you pergwenza, which would be embarrassment, you would be embarrassed by something, but you can say, me da cosa, it gives me thing literally. It's when you kind of feel a little bit awkward.

It would be a bit weird to ask them. I didn't want to ask them. I would be embarrassed to ask them, something like that. Yes. And I'm thinking that because this is a bit like general, maybe if you feel something is a bit disgusting or you don't like the texture or something,

you could also say, hmm, I don't really want to touch it. I mean, I do a little of COSA. Me Da a Posa. Okay.

Could you say there me do a little a little a bit of ASCO? Yes, it's

a very but maybe asco is a bit more more more more than okay,

so disgust. Asco is disgust, but you can use COSA in that sense. I've never heard it

used like that, so that's good I'm learning something today. Excellent. Okay,

we're going to take a short break and we'll be back in just a moment to look at the

rest of this passage. We wanted and this includes a set of lesson notes where you'll be able to read the text from each of the diaries and work through the vocabulary and any explanations that we've provided. There's also a video version of the text where we've left space for you to repeat the words and phrases used, giving you an opportunity to practice your speaking and your pronunciation. For more information about this, head to coffeebreakacademy.com.

Welcome back. Today we are visiting Machu Picchu in Peru with Ainoa, Luisa and Esteban, and they're just about to head up towards Machu Picchu. So let's continue our text, Marina. Yes, that's very emocionante. In hydroelectric, we're coming up to the ways of the train, to arraurs the bus. Okay, so in hydroelectric, we're going to junto to the trains. So we walked literally beside the train lines.

They walked along the train lines. This literally means to save ourselves the bus. So what they're saying there is to save having the expense of the bus. Marian, tell us a little bit about ahorrar and aorarse. Because here we've got to be aorarse, no? Yes. We use to arrarses when we've got to pay something. in this case, for example,

the ticket of the bus. We'd say if there's a discount special, then you're you're aorras the 20% for example.

For other part, we know the verb to be ahorrar. In this case, it would be to save money to earn money.

The tricky thing I think from the English speaker's point of view is that to save money can mean going to the bank and putting in that money to save it for a rainy day, but to save money is also what you do when you get that 10% discount. So the tricky thing is in English to know whether to save money is going to be aorar.

That means going to the bank and putting the money in or aorarsi, where you're getting that discount, or you're saving the expense of doing something. In this case, they're saving the expense of taking the bus. A little bit tricky. Pero, well, let's continue. Okay, so we managed to get there before nightfall, anochecer, and to continue to do something, to succeed in doing something.

In waters calientes, we're going the hostel, and we're going to, okay, so, the variety in aquas calientes, we're going to, We left our things in the hostel. We left our things in the hostel and we ate in the market. At the day next, we subimus to Machu Picchu

for fin. Okay, so, all the day on the next day, the next day, we subimus to Machu Picchu for fin. We finally got up to

Machu Picchu. We did photos impressive Okay, so we've seenos Arean de infarto. Okay, so we did some impressive photos.

Las vistas are de infarto. Now, an infarto is a heart attack, isn't it? Yes, geez. So the views were, I guess, to die for we could say in English, but you can say something

is de infarto, and it means it's absolutely mind-blowing, it's amazing. Yes, or when you want to say that something is exaggerated to, because we can't say, for example, she was wearing unos takones of infarto. Imagine a super high heels. Okay.

So you can say that too. Right. So, and does that mean they're too high? Are you passing judgment on them? Or are you just saying, wow, they are so high? Wow, they are so high. Okay. Okay.

There we go. So tacones of infarto or vistas here de infarto. I would suggest that you don't wear tacones of infarto for a Machu Picchu, however. No, it's a very good good. Okay. The panoramica and the ruins made sure you're

that mercieste the pen. Right. This is tricky. La panoramica, the view, the panoramic view, and the ruins, they made that, so that's from the verb Acer, they made that mercese la pen.

Mercer la pen means to be worth it, to be worth the bother, to be worth the pain, literally. Or to merit the pain, if we're going to be really literal here. However, Isieron that merciese la pena. That merciese is another imperfect subjunctive.

And it comes from the fact that they made that it do something. It's kind of like saying, I want you to do something. In English, I want you to do something. In Spanish, I want that you do, subjunctive, something. So I want that you do something would be, Quero, that you hagas, algo. Okay, so far so good. What about I wanted that you did something? So there we've got Kerea, imperfect, that you did something or that you did something

in the imperfect subjunctive. So I wanted that you did something, I wanted you to do something. And now I made you do something. Te I said that's quite a strange sentence. I made you do something. But te I said that's a strange sentence. that you didas

something. It's the same construction. I made that you did something using the imperfect subjunctive. And that's what we've got here. The ruins and the view made that it was worth the pain. It merited the pain.

It sounds really strange to say that in English. But in English we'd say something like the view and the ruins made it worth the while or something like that. The panoramica and the ruins did that merit yes of course this could always

have been with a different imperfect subjunctive ending Merecia Perfecto No me could be to hear all what I was being Okay

No me couldia believe All that I was seeing Now when we say I couldn't believe it You would say No me lo Pohia creer

I could not believe it But here it's not it, it's everything that I was seeing. No me podia creer everything I was seen. Very well, very bien, very interesting. There have been quite a number of tricky things in this particular passage and I really would stress

don't worry too much, especially about these subjunctives. If you're not at that stage, as you're listening to this, don't worry at all. These will all become clear as you travel through your journey of learning Spanish. Instead, look at them as a bit of vocabulary and see how much you understand. Marina, we'll listen again again the text. Yes, we'll see.

Never thought that visit Machu Picchu was such complicated. Menos' bad that Esteban was a loco of the organization and had planned the voyage, P to P. Had I barraged various options and as we'd

do a big a big a option more the option we're

we're we're we're almost more to 10 kilometers to

a wos to there we're we're we're to make to

the day the next the the Tedios. Six large hours that I took uproveted for to sleep. Esteban me

he left his ownro to apply to me. No, I knew if recordable what passed the day anterior, but me gave a cause to asker. In hydroelectric, we're going to the bus. Consiguing us

get before the anochecer. In awas calientes, we're the hostel and we're in the

market. At the day next, we're up to Machu Picchu for

fin. We did photographs impressive and the vistas were

of infarto. The panoramica and the ruinas did

that were that I'm could think all what

was being That's it for another episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries. We hope that you're enjoying this journey around Peru. And next time we're moving on, continuing Peru, but also moving on to another country, when we're going to be visiting Lake Titi Kaka, which I think is another amazing place. Now, if you'd like to find out more about this episode and indeed all the episodes of those travel diaries, you can head over to the Coffee Break Academy, where we have the lesson notes and vocabulary

and additional examples of the words and phrases that we've covered in this lesson. There's also the video version of each episode, which will help you practice your pronunciation as you read along with Ainoa. All of that is at coffeebreakacademy.com. And don't forget that you can follow the travel diaries on Instagram too. Each week we're posting photos of the amazing places visited by Ainoa. Luisa and Esteban on the Coffee Break Languages Instagram account. Perhaps you've been to some of these places too.

Let us know. Search for Coffee Break Languages on Instagram and we look forward to your comments. Do let us know if you've been able to visit Machu Picchu. I will be very jealous if that is the case. Someday, someday I will get there. I'll get there. Yes, yes, yes, sure, yes. A sure, yes, yes, please.

Well, then, much thanks. And after very Pronto. After Pronto. You have been listening to

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