La propina

I would just like to share something with you all that may come as a surprise to you. In this culture, I'm generous. Today, I went to eat at a restaurant in my town with some of my local volunteers. (I know, I forgot my camera again to take a picture of the food.) It's really cheap to eat here. For a big bowl of soup (as an appetizer), your "segunda" (main course...today it was a type of Peruvian sauteed chicken with salad, potato, and rice), and your "refresco" (today it was a juice made from purple corn), you pay only 4 soles...ie $1.33. (For some places, it's even cheaper but I splurged today.)

Normally I eat with my host family so to be going out in my site is a rare treat in itself. And then the service was so good at the restaurant. Usually restaurant people don't like to explain things or they walk away if you start asking questions. But, today, they explained everything and was so patient with our broken Spanish. So I gave them a 3 soles tip ($1) to which my friends all ridiculed me to say it was too much and blah blah blah as people don't tip here. But you should have seen the waitress' face when I told her that the rest was for her to keep. She was so happy and asked me over and over again if I was sure. Could you imagine someone in the states being that happy if you only tipped them a buck?!