“Senorita, senorita. Mira, mira! Compra?” ” Little girl, little girl, look, look! You buy?” This is what I hear on the streets when we are walking. There are many street vendors on every corner. Mostly, they are selling things like Peruvian hats, shawls, blankets, and scarves. The men tend to sell paintings, carved gourds, and tour books. I even saw a couple of them selling memory cards for your camera!

When we came out of the airport, the vendors approached us rather quickly, because they knew that they would only get a limited amount of time to make a sale. They followed me to the bus, and even start tapping on the window to get my attention! At other markets, you could barter for the goods that you wanted for a lower price. When ever I bought something from a vendor, I always bartered. It was kind of like a game. I would start to low, they would start to high, and we would always end up somewhere in the middle. I wanted a necklace from a vendor on one of the stops before we went to Machu Picchu. She wanted five sols for it. That is the currency here in Peru. I thought that maybe I could get for lower, so I asked for about two sols. The lady agreed after a very short time, and I ended up subtracting three sols from the original price.
Read the whole post »