And so starts every bus shpiel in Ecuador.
From there, there is no telling what direction the vendor will go.
• You have the guys carrying a briefcase selling the health benefits of noni, claiming that it will cure cancer, gastritis, kidney problems, and chronic liver issues.
• Other guys will claim that this is the only way for them to make an honest living. They have decided to offer you the opportunity to buy some candy - at 300 percent the listed price. Sometimes they play up the "otherwise I would rob this bus" angle, while others say this is how they pay for their education.
• A guy goes on about the importance of learning languages before giving everyone the chance to buy an English-Spanish dictionary.
• I like the guy who passes through the bus giving out a pack of four DVDs or CDs to each passenger, allowing them the chance to look over the discs and different tracks, before he goes back to make the sale or recollect the unwanted discs. When he is handing out the discs, he takes a few seconds with each passenger to make you think that he is choosing those four discs especially for you.
Then there are the performers.
• My favorite musician is an old "guitar player"/"singer
/"songwriter" who rides the CIFA between Arenillas and Huaquillas. Now, I call him a "guitar player" instead of a guitar player because his guitar only has one string. I call him a "singer" instead of a singer because he is more of a whiner or bellower, not too much rhythm in his voice. He is a "songwriter" because most of his lyrics are just repeating the name of the city we are heading to.
If he ever made it onto YouTube, he would be a legend.
• A clown comedy troupe sometimes rides the local bus, making crude jokes and screaming in a really high-pitched voice.
• A one-man band also frequents the bus line from Santa Rosa to Machala. He is not that bad.
The amazing thing is that every single one of these guys cleans up every time they board a bus. There is some cultural phenomenon here where people will buy anything that is offered to them.
(Cleaning up in the sense that they make a lot of sales. Nobody cleans the buses here. Many buses have signs that tell passengers to throw garbage out the windows.)
1 comment:
I have been on some of these buses, as always Yoni speaks the truth..
I like the children entertainers also
It may be a different subject, but the juggling macete guys at the street corners are a favorite of mine.
Yoni's bus traveling madre
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