street vendors

Gator says on Nov 16, 2006, 11:42:

Say No Gracias! Yo Tengo. Then totally ignore-works at times. If not tell management you will leave-they will take care of your problem. Mrs. Gator handles with a total ignore as if they do not even exist-that also seems to work.

If you give ANY indication of interest you are dead meat.

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

mranderson says on Nov 16, 2006, 11:59:

ok thanks for the advice. I have tried the no gracias, and the ignore but your right about them being very persistent. I'm a very obvious gringo and sometimes I have a hard time getting rid of them. It seems that everybody just ignores them but they keep on staring at me and sometimes its a little creepy. At times I had to move to another table or if I'm walking I've had to turn on a differnt street that may be more crowded and kind of disappear in the crowd. For the ones that are extremely persistent and creep me out with their stare is it ok to tell them off?

nine inch nails says on Nov 16, 2006, 14:04:

OR TRY "POR FAVOR NO MOLESTARME" and if that doesn't help as I was instructed to tell the annoying gypseys in Andalucia Spain very loudly:

"Vayase!" which means like "Go yourself" or something like that.

Good luck and don't let it creep you out too much. They are probably very poor and just need a little dinero. I had one small boy in Parque Lleras try to sell me very expensive gum so I negotiated him down to a little more reasonable sum then bought it from him and he left saying "Gracias". I by no means buy everything but if they look real destitute I give them a little but is a double edged sword because they keep hanging around but again very poor.

"Bank owned" (www.foreclosurebyowner.com)

panthdave says on Nov 16, 2006, 16:40:

I Love the Peanuts in the inside dash Move... Just leave them there and before you go they will grab them back...That was the first time I seen that really good... Street vendors walking when you buy the white bag and black bag trick... One color means your a sucker and one not...So other vendors know...when your buying..Seen that in Lima and in Turkey..


panthdave Miami

panthdave Miami

mranderson says on Nov 16, 2006, 20:59:

thanks Thanks for all the advice. I understand better now why the girls I am with don't do anything or say anything. I'm very easily distracted so its harder for me but I'll just have to get used to it. Its tough to just keep carrying on a conversation when someone is standing right next to you starring and talking.

jbone says on Nov 17, 2006, 09:07:

If you give ANY indication of interest you are dead meat. The above advice of Gator is RIGHT ON.

The vendors regard your eye contact with them as an OPEN INVITATION to offer you their products or services, AND they can spot your eye contact a block away!

Why are they so aggressive? As ¨slick Willey¨used to say "it´s the economy stupid!" For most of them, it´s simple, they have to feed their family, and jobs are scarce in Colombia....especially without an education.

I have a number of friends that are street vendors and have asked many of them why they do some of the things they do? For example: There are two main reasons they do not post prices on their sales boards or wherever they are mentioning their product or service. One reason, of course, is that they feel they can wind up with more money at the end of the day if they target their prices to the type of client....trying to get the most money, for example, from Gringos and Canadians.

The second reason they do not post prices is that they do not want to PO their friends who also sell or offer the same product or service! If they post their prices, and because of this, make more money, their competition, and even the families of their competition, will ostracize the innovative vendor, AND the family of the vendor too!

Sometimes they may bother the hell out of us, but there is honor and pride among many of the vendors.

Regards,
Jim

jbone says on Nov 17, 2006, 09:38:

Take out insurance against the vendors bothering you! When I first lived in Cartagena my apartment was a half block from the most popular tourist area in El Centro.

At first, I was continually pestered by the vendors. But, as time went on many of them would ask me for a small loan, say 1,2,or 3 mil to "take some food back to their family for the night, etc." I felt they were sincere, gave each of them a LOAN, and made them promise they would pay me back as soon as they could.

Out of a couple dozen "loans" only one vendor paid me back. I returned it to him as a present for his honesty, and made him promise that he would not tell the others.

My other "debtor" friends would always say "Hola" and chat with me as an amigo, but they never again tried to hustle me!

My total cost for the Peace Insurance was no more than 30 mil! A small price to pay for tranquility as I could now walk around, and take in the "experience" of El Centro-the great and historic walled city!

Regards,

Jim

. says on Nov 17, 2006, 12:38:

Just ignore them, if they are still around and telling you to buy something, then you can say....."abrase bobo hijueputa".

Robert Jorge says on Nov 17, 2006, 21:45:

Jbone. Great story and idea. (about the "inurance") It reminds me of that scene in "A Bronx Tale", where the kid is pissed that a guy won't pay him back $10. The mafia boss tells him "$10 is a small price to pay for that shit never bugging you again." or something to that effect.

kat1 (Moderator) says on Nov 18, 2006, 03:28:

huh! JB estrato 6 eh? hehehe ;) o/j

I would not recomended Me and my sister replied to those guys in Zorras, they started telling us vulgar piropos, you know how they are *rolling eyes* and we replied nastily too and we ended up in nasty row of word, oops, and those people are really nasty with words, we just run an left. the best thing is to said no gracias. and ignored them.

. says on Nov 18, 2006, 04:11:

Kat, I am estrato 6 but behaviour estrato "0". The trick is to say "habrase bobo hijueputa" and start running as fast as possible from them. Or the other way is to put their asking price so low that they have to go away, for example sun glases, if a sun glases vendor comes to you, you ask him how much does the sun glases cost, he will say, it costs 10,000 pesos and then you say, I have 2,000 pesos, take it or leave it, they will say then...ok, take the glases for 5,000 pesos, and you say..I give you 3,000. The vendor will run away from you.

kat1 (Moderator) says on Nov 18, 2006, 10:21:

chicken :P
chicken :P

jbone says on Nov 19, 2006, 04:44:

Kat 1 ...yes estrato 6, BUT... my "hotel" cost was 5 mil a night paid one month in advance! AND, living alone, with no kitchen and little money to "waste", I usually bought my "food" from the street vendors.

Kat, I like the estrato system, but it is not always a reliable indicator of your personal standard of living. I'm not complaining one bit, as I really enjoyed my two years in El Centro.

Now, in my small apartment, right ON the beach in Laguito, the estrato 6 more closely replicates my current standard of living. A Poor But Happy Gringo with a Business Visa, earning Pesos, and slowly: "Moving on up"!

Regards,

JBone

morphus says on Nov 20, 2006, 19:54:

Pounding the elbows means you're cheap.

morphus says on Nov 20, 2006, 19:57:

? "And most of the girls that I am with don't stick up for me"

Are they street ho's?

gringolondinense says on Nov 21, 2006, 05:59:

what does pounding elbows mean? why would anyone do that, and how exactly? do they punch their own elbows. This stuff is new to me!! lol

morphus says on Nov 21, 2006, 12:37:

They smack the bottom of the elbow with the other hand. It has happened to me a few times. I don't care.

vicshere says on Nov 21, 2006, 13:48:

not smack with your left hand open plam touch your right elbow a few times....you dont have to smack

listo
"con mucho gusto"
Vic

listo

Terry2 says on Nov 21, 2006, 17:09:

Street vendors... or vendors anywhere you go... I just spent a week at the Hotel Dann in LaGuito and should I go again, I will make sure I have a couple of T shirts with NO, GRACIAS on both the front and the back! As soon as we would enter the beach area, we could see the hordes of vendors coming toward us like we were magnets. At first we try to be polite but this only encourages a longer conversation from the vendor.. which doesn't really bother me as I speak no spanish, but my fiance has to take the brunt as she is Colombiana.

I understand that this is how they make their living and feel bad refusing but enough is enough.

'No, gracias' was my spanish lesson for the week.

Terry2

goin_south says on Nov 26, 2006, 18:42:

morph... if the pics you post here are real, then I (we?) find it hard to feel much for you because 'your girls don't stick up for you'. A 95-pound, 17-yr-old is likely thinking The Gringo Hulk can stick up for himself. So,... que pasa?

why can't the freakin Chung King Chinese just LEAVE THE FREAKN DOLLY LLAMA and Tibet ... ALONE!