On our last day in Peru, SarahKate and I went for lunch at a local place. Lunch was two courses. The first course was a large bowl of soup with large rigatoni pasta, chopped vegetables, a warm tasty broth, a potato, and one chunk of some random beef part. It was very tasty. The second course was a plate of hot food consisting of lentils with bits of chopped beef in a thick sauce. The lentils were served on rice with fresh chopped onions and a tomato slice. A spicy ‘ahi’ sauce is also served with lunch. Finally, a fresh cup of juice is also served with the second course.
This is a very typical lunch in South America know as ‘almuerzo’. It is generally two to three courses and cheap as chips! We loved it. The almuerzo cost 2.50 Soles, or about $.90 US cents. Therefore, the total was 5 soles for both of us for lunch or the ‘menu of the day’.
On the way to lunch, we were being very green and recycled our empty beer bottles from the previous days. We had five bottles, so we got 5 soles from the lady who runs the local store. They are very good about reusing bottles in South America – glass ones that is.
Therefore, when we went to pay for lunch, we used the 5 soles that we’d gotten back for recycling our bottles! Our recycling from earlier in the day paid for lunch. What a bargain!! You gotta love South America where it pays to recycle!
