The story begins with a 12 hour bus ride. 12 hours without many stops, without much food, and with virtually no sleep. My friends Cassie, Sarah and I are all currently residing in Peru, and we were required to cross the border and come back to renew out visas. We decided to go to Chile for the weekend, so we could get in a little beach time. Cusco Peru is pretty far from any significant body of water, and we were itching to get out of Peru's rainy season and into some nice weather further south. So we bought our tickets about a week in advance, and hopped a bus to Arica, the closest Chilean city to us.
Long Bus Ride, but Great Views
Needless to say we arrived, tired disheveled and hungry. The bag of peanuts, almonds, and oranges I brought with me on the bus didn't last me nearly as long as I hoped. We promptly hopped a taxi and headed to out nearby hostel, Hostel Sunny Days. (This is a real place). We found it to be just what we needed, really clean and quiet. I've stayed at many hostels in my travels, and this one'd poshness took me by surprise.
After dropping off our stuff, we hit the town to explore our food options. We didn't go far, as we were all but starving at this point, and picked the first menu place we came to. To those not familiar with this type of establishment, many restaurants in South America serve a set menu with maybe one or two different options for an entree. What you lack in options is usually made up for by the extremely reasonable price, and quick arrival of the food. After explaining to the waiter that Cassie and I don't eat meat, we were assured that the cook could throw something together for us.
When I first arrived in Peru, I was always nervous about explaining my diet to people at restaurants. But I found that if the restaurant has the means, the cook will usually accommodate you. And while the options aren't always good (see photo below, meal is generally a conglomeration of sides) they are usually able to come up with something if you explain and are polite. They want your money, and they will do what they can for you!
CAAAAAAAARBS!
I wish I could say this respect continued to be afforded to us for the rest of our trip to Chile. However, I suppose this would be a pretty boring story if there were no conflict, eh? After our very late breakfast, and a trip to the beach for a lot of of body boarding, swimming and sun tanning, we headed back to the hostel for a shower and a little discanso (rest) as the South Americans say.
After all the swimming, we were starving again and ready for a proper meal. We knew that since Arica was a semi-tuouristy area, especially so near the beach, there had to be a few sit-down restaurants. We headed to the front of the hostel where we encountered one the the two owners (the husband) of Hostel Sunny Days. We approached him and I politely inquired where we might find a restaurant that would have some veggie options. There was an awkward pause, after winch he replied. "You are vegetarians?" In a voice like he was asking us if we were lepers. "Yes" my friend Cassie responded, clearly a bit uncomfortable. There followed and even longer pause after which he asked us in all seriousness "Well, what are you going to do when you get pregnant?"
I think I may have seen red for the rest of the exchange. My friend Cassie basically had to take over the conversation after this. The owner launched into a personal anecdote about how is daughter used to be vegetarian, but had to quit because she "wasn't getting enough protein" when she got pregnant. After, he lectured us about how we must not understand the extent of protein requirements for pregnant women (which was even more ironic considering he lacked a uterus). Putting aside the fact that most of what he was saying was completely incorrect, I couldn't get over how inappropriate the whole exchange was.
To top it all off, he didn't even give us any restaurant recommendations. He just said we could get salads at the nearby market. It didn't matter how many times we told him we wanted a restaurant, he kept pushing the salads. After a while, we just left and resolved to find something ourselves. So there you go, two stereotypes in one. We weren't getting enough protein, and we would be satisfied with only salads for dinner.
Its hard for me to even begin to sum up why I was so offended, and I feel like if I try to explain in narrative, this post could go on for a while. So here it is in bullet point form
* He's in management. And not only did he not give us what we asked for, he engaged us on totally inappropriate topics, and put our lifestyle choices down.
*The whole conversation was operated under the assumption that because we were women, we would inevitably get pregnant, and that our lifestyles should cater to that eventuality. *cue feminist outrage*
*That even if we did choose to have babies, he knew better about the requirements for caring for said baby. *Feminists are up in arms at this point*
*All of the nutrition facts he was spouting were incorrect. Women don't need much extra caloric intake when they're pregnant. For the first 6 months of pregnancy, you don't need any extra calories. Then in your third trimester, you need roughly 200 more calories than you were eating before, depending on your weight. (This is less than a bagel with peanut butter a day).
*He didn't give us a restaurant recommendation, he just kept pushing the salad stereotype on us. We didn't want any damn salads. We'd just gotten a bunch of exercise.
One good thing did come of this though, Cassie and I now have a couple great inside jokes.
"Anastasia, you're looking a little protein deprived. You better head over to San Pedro market and get a salad."
"Cassie! What are you eating? You know you can't have that when your pregnant! Because that could happen at any moment you know!"
Needless to say, his business got a less than perfect review on Trip Advisor. I wasn't unfair, and I didn't attack him, I simply stated the facts of the exchange. The hostel itself was nice, clean and convenient, but I couldn't overlook the uncomfortable exchange we had with one of the owners.
On a positive note note, we did have a good time at the beach, though we were all a bit sunburned, and we made it back over the border ok and even got back in time for work in the morning. (We rolled into Cusco at about 6:30 a.m. after about 14 hours of driving up into the mountains from sea level).
The Weary Travelers Make it Back Just After Dawn
I hope you enjoyed this little story. You'll be glad to know we did find a restaurant right on the beach with a couple options that suited us. ;) Stay tuned for a post where I bust the myth about vegans and salads!
*My source for the pregnancy info: Baby Center UK Nutrition Info
*Check out my post on protein for more nutrition information.
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