Bargaining

Mostly, lowering a price through chatter is an activity I quite enjoy. But Peruvian bargaining is far more intense than it is in neighboring Ecuador. So far, I claim one big failure and one success.

The fail: After a Peruvian bureaucrat finally deigned stamp my passport following a three hour wait, I went to the bathroom. "Twenty cents," the woman in charge told me. As I was fishing for coins, a Peruvian lady walked up and asked how much the fee was. "Fifteen cents," replied the woman in charge, at the exact moment I was handing her my 20 cents. Does gringa equal idiota?

The success: As surf lessons are rather pricey, I began scanning the horizon of rates as soon as I arrived in Mancora. 45 soles for an hour lesson seemed to be a mantra among the various tents lined up along the beach. But on the chosen day, I went only with 30 soles-- albeit having a little change hidden in pocket of my towel-- and nothing else in my hands. When they chanted the "45" mantra, I replied that I only posessed 30... They laughed, handed me a surf and told me I had learned quickly in this town.