I recently visited a bathroom in Peru.

[social_buttons]Check out the sign I saw.

Not to be rude, but do men from Peru know where to pee in a bathroom?

After snapping my photo and pondering if Peruvian men truly need that much guidance, I left the bathroom and mentioned what I had seen to my wife and mother-in-law.

It is without a doubt true that in Peru many public bathrooms –if not most– are disgusting. The threat of toilet paper and soap being stolen from bathrooms by impoverished individuals leaves many public restrooms without these highly important supplies. This fact, as well a lack of initiative to clean bathrooms, often results in unsanitary conditions. It has a large ripple effect, from contamination of foods, to the pollution of water, to the spread of disease. It also creates a feeling of low national self-esteem that does not inspire people to cherish landscapes in both natural and urban environments (of course, this later statement comes with considerable exceptions).

But why would men pee on the floor purposely? If they are going to pee on the floor, why enter the bathroom in the first place?

I don’t know the answer, but I do know one thing. My mother-in-law summed it up defensively and concisely: “In the U.S. I saw pee on bathroom floors too!”

Touché.

So perhaps for a future article I should ask: Do people in the U.S. know where to pee in a bathroom?

Photo Credit: © Levi T. Novey