Latin American Honesty

Here's our Boeing 767 which flew us from Easter Island to Lima. But meanwhile we have two brief stories for you, to help you understand the psyche of this continent:
Firstly, cast your mind back one week to the time the intrepid duo stood in the Arrivals Hall at the airport on Easter Island. We fully intended to camp for a week, but a friendly and persuasive woman enticed us to stay in her guesthouse. "Ten thousand Pesos per night!" she said, with both Simon and Jon responding "for the room?" to which she replied " for the room." Now the rest you know, until last night, that is. After staying for seven nights, it was time for us to pay, and as if by magic, 'for the room' had, of course, been transformed into 'per person'. Needless to say, the situation quickly turned ugly, and we called the police. Of course we refused to pay double, and pointed out that there seemed to be nothing in writing, and that it was quite wrong deliberately to mislead tourists with false statements and to double the price. What would happen if we stuck to our guns and didn't pay the extra? The police officers turned out to be just as corrupt as the landlady, and faced with the prospect of a large truncheon and a few nights in the cells, we duly paid up. But that's over a hundred quid straight out of the budget!

Next, we needed a taxi from Lima airport just now to get to the safe haven of Hostel Victor. All the streets in this sector of Callao are gated, with police checkpoints... So we agreed with the driver the fare of 25 Nuevo Soles, which is just below the ten US dollar mark. We arrived and the deal had magically turned into 25 US Dollars. Now this frankly isn't on, and the situation again quickly turned ugly.
"Mentira! Usted piensa que nos somos estupidos? Toma 25 Soles o va con nada! se no esta bien todavia, me voy llamar la policia! No puedes cambiar el preco que nos negociamos, especialmente en la ultima hora!"... Rant over. This Spanish may be far from perfect, but it's all we have to argue with and he started to get frustrated as he got the message.
We didn't pay, and we suggested that the police could help us to sort it out. $10 soon sent him on his grimy little way after the lady at the hostel agreed that his new price was way overboard.

As gringos, we're going to get screwed at some point: fact! The secret is: just how much? Well, it pays to be wise and stick to your beliefs, for twice in two days the scam has been to introduce confusion and misinterpretation into the original deal. In all this time travelling though, yesterday was the first time it happened. They can see us coming, but then by now, we can see them...