“Propina”. I learned a new Spanish word Wednesday evening. The major part of the day Wednesday was spent at the Canadian Embassy with Sandra, a Consular trying to figure out how we were going to deal with all the red tape that was sure to follow. We can’t get our bikes, but do we even want to? Maybe we should ship them back home if possible and call the trip off. If we continue our travels will we just be heartbroken the whole time? Somehow the answer was clear. John would be incredibly upset and pissed off if we went home. After all, this trip was in planning for two years. At least we had time to delay the decision as we couldn’t go anywhere with the bikes in lockup.
That evening we went for a walk from our Hostal to a nearby market area. Passing many little open air shops I suddenly saw a basket of fruit with a sign that said “tuna”. Someone back home had told me that I must try tuna (not the fish) when I was down here. Apparently these are some sort of cactus berry, which I have since found out is called “prickly pear” in Canada. Pointing to one I was helped by a cute young lady about 16 years of age who worked there bag it.
Corinne spotted the bananas and figured she’d get one of those. She was helped with her purchase by another girl about the same age. The first girl then approached me and coyly said “propina”. I had no idea what she was talking about but Corinne figured out she wanted a tip! We had a good laugh over that, but I decided that the bit of relief from my mood was worth a couple of Nuevo Sols. Reaching in my pocket I discovered I only had a 5 Sol coin. That was a bit much but I gave it to her anyway making a cutting motion with my hand at the coin and pointing to the girl that served Corinne, to indicate that I wanted them to split it.
Walking away from the shop, we heard some laughing. Turning to look back we see the two girls hugging and giggling and jumping up and down. We obviously had made their day and they had made ours.
That evening we went for a walk from our Hostal to a nearby market area. Passing many little open air shops I suddenly saw a basket of fruit with a sign that said “tuna”. Someone back home had told me that I must try tuna (not the fish) when I was down here. Apparently these are some sort of cactus berry, which I have since found out is called “prickly pear” in Canada. Pointing to one I was helped by a cute young lady about 16 years of age who worked there bag it.
Corinne spotted the bananas and figured she’d get one of those. She was helped with her purchase by another girl about the same age. The first girl then approached me and coyly said “propina”. I had no idea what she was talking about but Corinne figured out she wanted a tip! We had a good laugh over that, but I decided that the bit of relief from my mood was worth a couple of Nuevo Sols. Reaching in my pocket I discovered I only had a 5 Sol coin. That was a bit much but I gave it to her anyway making a cutting motion with my hand at the coin and pointing to the girl that served Corinne, to indicate that I wanted them to split it.
Walking away from the shop, we heard some laughing. Turning to look back we see the two girls hugging and giggling and jumping up and down. We obviously had made their day and they had made ours.
