Blogs :: Free Weed!
We’ve been in Cusco a little over a week now. The greatest annoyance (and it is very annoying) is the countless women offering cheap massages, shady dudes offering drugs, and restaurant owners shoving their menus in your face. The level of hassle here greatly surpasses that of any other touristy town I’ve been in.
It’s gotten to the point where we walk an extra two or three blocks the long way around to avoid getting bombarded by offers for things we don’t want. Whatever tactic we try, nothing seems to work. Everything from ignoring them and walking by in silence, saying a polite “no gracias”, saying a less polite “no gracias”, to Brendon’s idea of muttering obscenities as we pass, all have failed.
Their persistence is quite remarkable. The other day we spotted (or I should say, we were spotted) by one of the infinite massage girls down the street. They are actually massage girls, not hookers, not most at least. We detoured around a large group of people, and in her attempt to follow us, she nearly crashed into them. No more than twenty feet down the same street, after dodging that bullet, a little girl selling gum walked right in front of Brendon and stopped, nearly tripping him.
We’ve come to the conclusion that Machu Picchu being closed is partially to blame. That means less gringos, and that means fighting desperately over those of us who are here. It’s understandable, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
You gotta give points for creativity though, and yesterday’s walk to lunch found just that. As we passed a couple waiters showing off their menus (which by the way, are the same as almost everyone else's) and ignored their calls of “Hey friends, good food, lunch, friends, hey, friends, hey...” one shouted just before we left hearing range, “Free weed!”
I wonder how that works…
Cusco, people, Machu Picchu, drugs, Cuzco, tourists, Peru, food
Posted By:
David
3/17/2010