"Happy Hour"

A Note from my previous blog post and for this one since several people have asked - there are no pictures in it because unfortunately I can't seem to figure out how to upload the pictures since blogger's editor turns into Spanish when you get to a Spanish speaking country.  Unfortunately, my Spanish is limited to things like discussing cerveza and asking for directions to the closest restroom, so my blog posts will be suffering until I can figure out which words under the photo link mean "upload from file."

December 14, 2011

On our first day in Aguas Calientes, we were pretty sure we were about to start an international incident.  

I'm going to start this blog post with a little quiz.  If you see a sign that reads "Happy Hour 4 X 1" what would you assume that means?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Beuhler....

Personally, I would assume that means you get 4 drinks for the price of 1 since that's what it means in the rest of the world.  That said, just to be careful, I asked (in Spanish I might add) if it included ALL the cervezas on the menu.  I was told that of course it did so I ordered my 4 for S/7 (that means 7 Soles - the equivalent of just over $2 USD) beers and proceeded to have a very nice afternoon with Nando - chatting, people watching and watching the rain pour off the tin roofs on the buildings around us.

When it was time to pay, I got a bill for S/20 for my beer.  I politely asked why I was being charged S/7 when the sign clearly showed 4 X 1 and I was told that the "happy hour" price was S/20.  I asked them why that wasn't on the menu or at least why they hadn't told me that the price was different than the menu.  I was told that our waiter didn't speak English to which I replied that I had asked in Spanish.  The manager rolled his eyes and started yelling at me about showing him where in the market I could find 4 beers for S/7.  I told him I couldn't and that's why I was drinking in his restaurant rather than buying beers in the market.  Now, anyone who knows Nando, knows he doesn't take very kindly to his wife being yelled at.  I realized that he was about blow up at the manager for yelling at me, so I figured we better just pay and get out of there to avoid the aforementioned international incident.  We paid the bill partially in pesos and partially in US dollars and set about finishing the last of the beer.  As we got to the last sip and were getting up to leave, the waitress came back to us with one of the US $5 bills that had a tiny tear in it and told us that in Peru they don't take torn US bills.  We told her that was all we had and promptly got up and left. 

A few feet down the road we realized we were being followed by another guy from the restaurant.  We took an immediate right down the next street, followed by another right into what I thought would lead us into the market.  Unfortunately, it was just some guy's souvenir shop with no outlet.  Trapped!  We waited breathlessly, hiding behind piles of souvenirs, watching for our tail to pass the shop looking for us.  As soon as he passed us we ran out of the shop in the opposite direction and hurried down an alternative street, snaking our way through town back to our hostel hoping there weren't other thugs looking for us as well.  We passed cops on every corner and I silently hoped that they weren't being paid off by the Aguas Calientes gangs to drag us down to the station and demand a nice crisp $5 bill or else....

Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly like that...  As soon as we walked into the souvenir shop, we left and turned back toward our hostel along a different road.  But I WAS watching for the tail...  When we came to the cross street where we'd last seen him, we hurried across it hoping he wasn't looking since he was still several blocks down in the last place I'd seen him.  Hmm....maybe he wasn't following us after all....