The Fake Money Fiasco (April 23, 2007)

Continuing my promised recap of my travels, we're back in Peru! Enjoy!

Monday morning we got up and found that the guarantee of 24-hour hot water was untrue. As we left, I paid the desk 100 soles and they gave me 50 soles back. Since no one takes big bills, I asked for sencillo (smaller bills) and was given two 20s and a 10.

We headed out to see Qoricancha and the Templo del Sol. We got a guide, Raul, and he took us through. We asked a lot of questions and were amazed at what we learned about the Inca religion. They believed in different different levels of the world, a trinity of sorts, consisting of the Father (thunder), the Son (lightning bolt), and the Brother (the lightning). We thought that was a pretty fascinating parallel to what we believe. There were temples to the sun, the moon, and stars...and a great veneration for the dead. Extremely interesting.

At the end of our tour, we had to pay Raul 15 soles for our tour. I gave him a 20 and, of course, he doesn't have 5 soles change and probably expected us to pay the 20 soles and call it good. But I was determined to only give him 15. He was good, but not that good! So we went to the desk at the entrance and asked the girl for smaller bills. Unable to conceal a smile, she barely glances as the 20 I had put down on the counter and says "Es falso" Fake?! What?! Raul said it wasn't and he'd take it anyway. I was so upset. I felt like it was all part of a big ploy to get our money...he doesn't have change, she won't exchange it because it's "fake." Aughhhh! Finally we gave him a 10 and 6 soles in coins. I asked for one back and got it (yes, I was being very tight-fisted). I was just completely floored by this supposed fake bill.

Alison had gotten a tutorial from a store owner the day before on fake money and compared the bill to another that we had and informed me that it was indeed fake. It was missing a watermark number, the security strip was on the wrong side...dang it! I had gotten that bill from the hotel that morning and was upset that they'd slipped me a fake bill!

We went to the Qorikancha museum that is under the grounds of Qorikancha (which is also a Dominican monastery) and it looked like a seventh grade fair exhibit. A number of the timelines and informative displays were made with construction paper and glue sticks! There were some items, pottery, replicas, photos and drawings, but nothing too fabulous. We followed the museum through to the end and the exit, which was up some stairs. The exit, however, did not lead back to the street. Rather, it opened to the middle of the fenced-off grounds. We popped our heads out and I asked Alison if she felt a bit like a gopher :)

We went back to the hotel to get our bags and I told the woman at the front desk, as non-confrontational as I could possibly be, that I had been given fake money when we checked out that morning. I showed her and I really didn't expect her to do anything about it. I mean, we had already left and could have gotten the bill somewhere else (which we hadn't). But, surprisingly, she called the girl who'd given me the wrong bill and the guy who had checked people in the night before. Apparently one of them accepted a false bill and that is how it got to me. After 20 to 25 minutes, the owner gave me a new 20 soles bill and I thanked her profusely for making it right. So good of her.

While we had been waiting for the other employees to show up, she gave me a lesson in fake money and how to recognize it. It made me all skeptical, so I checked all my bills. One suggestion was to "snap" the bill by tugging on it, to check if it was paper (fake) or cotton (real). As I was snapping one of the bills, I ripped the corner off a 20 soles bill! [Underestimated my own strength!] Alison was probably thinking, "Way to go, Amy!" It was kind of funny, after the whole issue we'd just gone through! The ripped corner automatically made it undesirable/unusable. Good grief!