David Myers lived in Perú for two years in 1977-8 as a proselyting missionary. He spent about one half of that time in the people's homes and working directly with the natives. He spent his last six months in Cajamarca, a small town in the northern Peruvian Andes, without another gringo within 100 km in any direction. He says, "At the end of my precious time in Perú, I was totally and completely immersed in Spanish. I ate, read, spoke, dreamed, and thought in Spanish. It permeated my soul."

• "Tu buscas", present tense, is usually translated into the present progressive in English. Thus, it becomes "You are searching for".
• I opted to use Ocean instead of Sea as a translation for "mar" to augment the difference between a desert and a body of water.
• The word "viejo", when used in this context, is non-gender specific. When used as an antecedent adjective, it refers to any long-time (or old) friend, not necessarily a male friend or a friend who is old.
• The word "fondo" literally means bottom. An English-speaker might say something such as "When you get right down (to the bottom of) it ..."
• The infinitive "Alejar" means to go far away, or to put distance between two objects. My preferred translation is "to distance".