Lost in Translation

This blog post is devoted to small miscommunications and misunderstandings. Most of them have nothing to do with actual language barriers.

At a restaurant in Huaraz:

-I would like to order a yogurt with honey and cinammon.
-We don´t have that.
-Do you have yogurt?
-Yes.
-Do you have honey?
-Yes.
-Do you have cinnammon?
-Yes.
-I would like to order a yogurt with honey and cinammon.
-Ok, what size?

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At the Hare Krishna place a while ago:

Him: Did you bring your monk garb?
Us: What?
Him: Did you bring your monk garb?
Us: Bring WHAT?
Him: Your MONK GARB.
Us: No, no we did not bring our monk garb.

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After a really easy sport climb in Hatun Machay:

Me: What was that route rated?
Brazilian guy: 6a
Me: Oh, what does that mean in the other system, like 5.6, 5.7?
Brazilian guy: (spits out his tea, says to his friend) She just called that route a 4! (Then, to me). 6a is like 5.10.
Me: Oh, oops.

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A story our new British friend Tom told me.

"In England no one is named Randy. I was in Las Vegas once getting a haircut. The barber introduced himself. He said "I´m Randy." I replied, "Oh, is that so? I´m not.""

p.s. Thanks Tom for letting me climb with you guys!

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During a particularly bad collective taxi drive from Chavin to Huaraz, we felt that our taxi driver was going much too fast but we did not say anything at first because we thought we would just be imposing our gringa ideals about driving. Thankfully, the two local women in the car also thought we were going too fast and they spoke up first. During the rest of the two hour drive, we kept having to remind the driver to slow down, and by the end we were all basically in an argument with him, especially because he nearly crashed us into a bus. When we got out of the car and it was time to pay, we did not want to pay him the full cost because we did not feel he deserved it.

Me: Here is 35 soles for the two of us. We are not paying the rest because you scared us too much.
Him: You need to give me 10 soles more.
Me: No, we are only giving you 35 so you learn to respect your passengers.

We left before he had opportunity to regain his senses from the shock of being told what´s what by a girl. Justine later ran into one of the other women from the taxi ride. The woman told her that the taxi driver had a few things to say after we left.