Don't Get Mad, Get Civil

It took a while for me to notice that Bolivians in general don't raise their voice. You hardly ever hear quarrels on the street, public transportation, between customers and vendors. I guess they just don't like to argue. If you are not happy about something or want to complain you employ the "whine" I have mentioned previously. Being used to almost constant grumpiness and complaints back home (Bulgaria) and the eternal quest for perfect customer service in the U.S. (so much so, people often end up telling others how to do their job), this "state of things" in Bolivia, took me by surprise. I felt like a jerk when I had to argue with a woman to change our cinema tickets to another movie only minutes after we had bought them (as a result of a misunderstanding by both me and her). But in my world, when something isn't done right, it has to be fixed. And if it can't be fixed, you at least have to let off some steam. Shows what I know. This weekend showed me that perhaps, just perhaps, I may be wrong.

We traveled to Coroico for the weekend, a town approximately 2 hours away from La Paz, in the warmer Yungas region. We had it all planned out - where we would stay, what we would do, how much money we would need. In general, we try not to take our credit and debit cards around with us out of precaution for having them stolen. All was well until the time came for us to check out. What we had thought would be the cost of the room (and therefore what we budgeted for) turned out to be the cost per person. Gulp. We didn't have enough money to pay our bill. We were about $15 short. There are no words that can truly capture how I felt once I realized this - embarrassed doesn't begin to cover it. We had no credit cards, no debit cards, no other money at all. I explained that when we booked and been told the cost, no-one had clarified it was per person. (Granted, we could and probably should have verified, or at least over-budgeted.) But what was done was done. We remembered the hotel site mentioned they accepted Paypal. However, their account wasn't working or something of the sort. I mentioned that I know one of my credit card numbers off by heart, but that didn't work either. The card had to be scanned through a reader. At this point, I thought that the lady at the reception would get really mad or at the very least lecture us for being so stupid. Instead, she was super calm and helpful. There wasn't a hint of an attitude. She asked us if we lived in La Paz and then told us we could deposit the remainder we were missing into her account the following day. She would cover the bill for the time being. I apologized profusely several times. And all she said was, "No se preocupe" (Don't worry about it). I am still in a state of astonishment - not only at her reaction but at her level of trust towards us. Fine, we are not talking about hundreds of dollars here, but still. Maybe there is something to this more zen-like attitude.