If ever I needed a day of doing nothing, today was that day. Clearly the gods were smiling on me as both the town's museums were closed and the modern art gallery was only open until noon, which I noticed at 12.50.
Today I spotted the rarest of things, for the first time since arriving in South America I found a tourist information office that was actually open, I ventured inside – more for novelty value than the hope of finding any useful information – and was astounded to discover an accommodating and bilingual staff member who seemed genuinely interested in giving me some help. It was with no small amount of amusement that I listened as she informed me 'It's Saturday, nothing is open on a Saturday, go for a walk'.
We met the Canadians in the evening for some food before they caught an overnight bus to Lima. It was over the course of the next hour that I realised that traveling in Peru may be a little more frustrating than Ecuador. We watched through varying degrees of bewilderment, hilarity and anger as a legion of staff attempted to supply our table with two cheese rolls and four beers.
In this particular restaurant food had to be ordered from one queue (which seemed simple) however drinks had to be ordered from another queue (simple, if annoying). After placing both orders you are given two receipts (still simple, but pointless), which you take back to your seat before a waiter takes them and forwards them onto the cook or bar staff respectively. Sometime later you may be fed and watered.
If the above does not seem convoluted enough, our troubles doubled when Ciara and I got two beers but the waiter refused to serve the Canadians theirs as he insisted Ciara and I were already drinking them. It took a conference of four irate diners, three waiters, a receipt handler, a cook and a barman before things were rectified.
By all accounts, the cheese rolls were not worth the wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment