.blog

CA Travels Day 19 – Bartering

Posted by Dave Hill | Filed under general

I slept drunkenly with my mouth wide open, and woke up with a really sore throat and feeling dehydrated.  That wasn’t ideal in a country where drinking the water gives you diseases, and I’d forgotten to buy a bottle of water the day before.  I drank some stale leftover beer from the night before and went for a piss.

Wooden Mayan masks

I hadn’t bought any souvenirs up until that point, so I took a look around the shops for a bit.  I found some wooden masks, carved and painted Mayan style that I liked.  Claire did some bartering with her Spanish skills and I got them for nearly half price, wicked.

Claire and the other girls got quite into the shopping, and Claire spent some hours talking shop keepers down and taking the best offers where she could get them.  That included a pretty dodgy tourist T-shirt, with a pretty dodgy bit of word play, “Guatever!”.  We got hassled about once per minute to buy jewellery, cashew nuts, ornaments, a shoe shine, and alternative medicines.  The last one by a pretty obnoxious guy who I think was from London.  Even shopkeepers, waitresses and taxi drivers stand at their doors shouting offers at you. “Nice food, low price for you my friend!”.

Me, Claire, and a fountain in the park

Claire and Anna had been recommended and Irish style pub by someone they met earlier in the trip, so we went to check it out.  It had loads of beers to try, so I sampled some new local ones and also drank Brahva and Gallo, Guatemalan favourites.  Did you know Brahva is Brazilian and more commonly known as Brahma in England?  Well there you go.

I went to sleep with my mouth open again. Damn!