Hi All! Long time, no type. It’s been a crazy whirlwind of a year. I have a lot of thoughts and experiences that I need to share. And I swear, I will get to them all. But until then, here is one that is on my mind right now.
On Saturday, I left Lima, Peru and traveled to Medellín, Colombia with my remote year crew. I’ve only been here for 2.5 days. Two of those days were spent in our amazing workspace, grinding, and 1 semi-rainy day was spent exploring the city on the Metro. Here’s my two-word review of Colombia so far: It’s great!
So, even though I haven’t been out and about tooooooo much thus far, there are a few experiences that are fairly universal everywhere you go; eating and sleeping. Both have been going pretty well. The food, so far, is way better than I anticipated it would be here. I really though Lima would have raised my food expectations to a ridiculous level, but MedellÍn is keeping up quite nicely.
But I’m not here to talk about the food per sé. I am here to talk about the one thing we forget to ask about a place until you get there, and that is “What is the tipping culture here?”
My very first night in MedellÍn, I found a local brewery to eat wings and try a beer that was right around the corner for me. When we went to pay our bill, our waitress, who spoke no English, asked me a question about my bill. I, who do not speak Spanish, struggled to understand what she was saying. Google translate did not help either. After a short bit, she gave up and just brought us a bill. I paid on a card, and as we were leaving I handed her a 10,000 Peso bill. This was less than 10% but I didn’t have smaller bills. The waitress looked at me, annoyed, as she accepted the cash. Needless to say, I was very confused by this interaction. Why was she annoyed? Did I not just give her money? Was it not enough?! Or was that SUPER insulting?! Uh oh! I need to get to the bottom of this.
Americans, I will tell you, tipping around the world is very different than what we are used to. In the USA I tip around 15-20% at restaurants no matter what. We don’t pay our servers a living wage. I would have to see them spit in my food from me to not to tip. A lot of places around the world won’t let you or will purposefully dissuade you from tipping on a credit card. In some places, they don’t expect you to tip. In others it’s encouraged, but not necessary. In Argentina, you tip the wait staff, but not the Taxis. It can be difficult to keep track of after 10+ countries.
So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of Tipping in Colombia. Here we go:
1) Tipping isn’t really a thing here.
2) Only in nice restaurants will you tip UP TO 10%.
3) If you are in a nicer place, they will ask if you want to put the tip on your in your bill.
a. Propina in la cuenta?
Bonus Tip: They may ask if you want to pay each item individually or all together. Say UN or UNO to get it all together. No one needs that shit itemized.
So why was my waitress annoyed at me, you may ask? Well, it’s because I double tipped and made myself out to look like an over-privileged, white tourist. Which, to be honest, I am. But in my naivety, made myself out to be a bit of douche who throws money around. I was told by a friend who lives here that 10,000 pesos (around $3) was really quite a big tip as well. Oops! Won’t make that mistake again.
That’s all for today. Until next time, let’s YanSEE YanDO this thing!
Header Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash