Differences in Latin American Spanish?

I am headed to Peru and am trying to learn a bit of castellano/espanol before I go... besides working on this course, I also picked up a 'Lonely Planet' phrase book to take with me. But I'm getting confused because many of the words are different. (For example: phrasebook suggests 'quisiera' while RocketSpanish says to use 'gustaria' for 'I would like') Will both words work? What do you suggest for when I come across other differences? Or is the phrasebook totally useless?

My opinion is that you should learn .........just Spanish and pick up ( read: adjust to ) the differences as you go. You will find the same differences between north and south. That's what my Peruvian friends said. About the phrase book.........no, it is not useless, but also you never know what, when and where you will need any of those phrases. Best is ...Learn ( any ) Spanish and adjust/adapt. The same goes for Japanese, French, German and any other language. Note for amusement: I come from a country where they speak their native language on 25 different ways :) :) Antonio

There's differences in whatever country you go to. Some countries use "usted" much more than others, for example. Even within the country people speak differently. The best option is to learn as standard as Spanish as possible (e.g. from Spain, Miami, or Colombia) then just immerse yourself as much as possible when you get to Peru. Don't feel embarrassed about speaking either. Just know that when they make fun of you for speaking poor Spanish that's actually a good thing. What would be worse is they just ignore you or don't even know you're trying to speak Spanish. Also, since you're going to Peru, you'll find that people in Lima have a different accent than the people in the campo.