Internet says no photos! Sorry.
Standard Bolivian greeting: (and believe me, greetings are VERY important, to the taxi driver, the neighbour, the shop owner in the market, you MUST say good morning/afternoon) If this is a person you are officially meeting (so, not the waiter, or taxi driver, but someone you will talk to), you must shake hands and give them a pretend kiss, your right cheeks touching. You don’t actually contact their ear/cheek with your lips at all. Make a slight kissy sound, and voila, you are not a rude person. This is only for females greeting females, or males and females, not JUST males. Overall, be more friendly than less friendly! Unless you’re a female alone somewhere, then maybe not as good an idea.
Approaching someone’s house: yards/compounds have fences/brick walls around them, so either right before you enter their compound, or right after, you clap loudly a couple times. This is the doorbell. Give them time to come outside, don’t approach the house right away.
Restaurants: don’t bother asking for a menu, they do not have any. Or if they do, they won’t have what’s on there anyways. There are usually 2 or 3 options, chicken, beef, maybe pork, with rice/potatoes/fries and some veggies, plantain, etc. You pick the meat, and you get what comes with it. Chicken is very very cheap here, fyi, and pork is the most expensive. Also, some restaurants carry only 2 or 3 L drinks, so don’t EACH order a drink, or that’s a lot of pop!!
Pepper is not a normal thing here. You can buy it, in a few places, but most don’t use it. This is so sad to me, I like to pour the pepper on. Also, MUSTARD. It exists, but again most don’t use it. Heartbreaking! I love mustard. Fruit and vegetables are very cheap, perfect for my ideal sustenance:) I am particularly loving the papaya, green grapes, watermelon, lemons and string beans. I go fruit shopping a couple times a week, sometimes a fruit truck comes down my road and I buy it right there on the street.
Umm… I’m forgetting lots. I will experience more of these I’m sure!
Ciao
Standard Bolivian greeting: (and believe me, greetings are VERY important, to the taxi driver, the neighbour, the shop owner in the market, you MUST say good morning/afternoon) If this is a person you are officially meeting (so, not the waiter, or taxi driver, but someone you will talk to), you must shake hands and give them a pretend kiss, your right cheeks touching. You don’t actually contact their ear/cheek with your lips at all. Make a slight kissy sound, and voila, you are not a rude person. This is only for females greeting females, or males and females, not JUST males. Overall, be more friendly than less friendly! Unless you’re a female alone somewhere, then maybe not as good an idea.
Approaching someone’s house: yards/compounds have fences/brick walls around them, so either right before you enter their compound, or right after, you clap loudly a couple times. This is the doorbell. Give them time to come outside, don’t approach the house right away.
Restaurants: don’t bother asking for a menu, they do not have any. Or if they do, they won’t have what’s on there anyways. There are usually 2 or 3 options, chicken, beef, maybe pork, with rice/potatoes/fries and some veggies, plantain, etc. You pick the meat, and you get what comes with it. Chicken is very very cheap here, fyi, and pork is the most expensive. Also, some restaurants carry only 2 or 3 L drinks, so don’t EACH order a drink, or that’s a lot of pop!!
Pepper is not a normal thing here. You can buy it, in a few places, but most don’t use it. This is so sad to me, I like to pour the pepper on. Also, MUSTARD. It exists, but again most don’t use it. Heartbreaking! I love mustard. Fruit and vegetables are very cheap, perfect for my ideal sustenance:) I am particularly loving the papaya, green grapes, watermelon, lemons and string beans. I go fruit shopping a couple times a week, sometimes a fruit truck comes down my road and I buy it right there on the street.
Umm… I’m forgetting lots. I will experience more of these I’m sure!
Ciao
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