Bureaucratic buck passing is as unpopular as arriving too late for dinner in Pasto, although both are standard fare in Bogota.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A very different face of Colombia

It was my wife's birthday and I was late for dinner.

ECONOMIST: Machine politics

One evening in mid-September, the day after she turned twenty-seven, Arianda and I met for a late dinner.

NEWYORKER: The Natural

When I arrived, late, they had a huge and delicious dinner waiting for me - as they did every evening I stayed with them.

BBC: Deserting the bush

Similarly, if invited for dinner at 9pm, showing up half an hour late is fine, unless the host specifically requests punctuality (in which case arrive around ten past).

ECONOMIST: Gulliver | The

Legend has it that back in the Roaring Twenties when 1, 200 people would attend nightly dinner dances into the wee hours of the night, then descend on the coffee shop for late breakfast, one asked executive chef Fred Schmidt to create something different.

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