A (not-quite Fairy) Godmother

We were arguing with our fourth taxista when a woman about 65 walked passed.

The ride from Miraflores to Surco (Lima) should cost about 8 soles (~$3.00), but it was shaping up to be about 15, an unfortunate byproduct of being blatantly foreign. The woman, with perfectly coifed hair and a brightly colored pantsuit decided that that was just not acceptable.

She asked us where we were going, which was not wholly uncommon. People are usually curious about where we're from and headed. We were polite but non-embracing and moved onto the next taxi, who, again wanted 15 soles.

The woman, now really appalled, interrupted, stuck her head inside the window and proceeded to ream out the driver. While the conversation in its entirety was out of my earshot, she said things along the lines of how terrible he was for trying to take advantage of innocent tourists and how foreigners are people too and how Peruvians need to be kind to visitors so that they will come back and tourism will continue and help pick them out of this miserable recession. And oh, by the way, you selfish jerk, the trip costs 8 soles. Not 15.

In the end, she insisted he give us the trip for 8 soles and then – can you believe this? – she PAID for it! She gave the driver a 20, demanded her change and then turned to us to apologize for her fellow countrymen's rudeness.

We thanked her profusely, but she waved it away and thanked us for wanting to visit her country. With that, she shook our hands with both of hers and headed back down the street on her way.