The Casco Viejo section of Panama City is quite possibly my favorite place so far. Full of contrasts and modern ruins. A lot of money being put into this place to renovate the historic buildings, but as it is, many buildings are just shells...modern day ruins. Casco Viejo is still home to many locals who have yet to get bought out by developers. Even squatters must get bought out and go to court to finalize the deal. I liked being so close to families, and walking passed kids playing ball on the street, even though many did not seem to notice me.
My flight left at around 10pm on Tuesday, and one hour later on the very small plane I landed in Cartegena, Colombia. South America! It´s been a long time coming (Thanks Parreño Family!). I have had a poster of South America hung in every room of mine since late 2003. I have touched that poster with such affection on so many occasions....
Met a Canadian journalist and we took a cab from the airport to the historic area, surrounded by massive concrete walls built by the Spanish to ward off pirate attacks by the English. Now, more than 3 centuries later I rolled right in. The taxi driver ripped us off though, we later found out. Only about $1.50, or 3000 pesos, but it´s the dishonesty that kills me.
This leads me to the Gringo Fare commentary. Many of you have had the experience of paying the gringo price while traveling. I am totally okay with paying more than locals in a developing country, I look at it kind of like progressive taxing. BUT, paying the gringo price becomes difficult when you come across people who cross the lines of fairness and enter the nasty territory of greed and dishonesty. But then I think again to myself, ¨even though this is 10 times the local price, it`s only an extra $5¨. I guess it`s the principle. And if I fail to negotiate to a fair gringo fare, I leave myself vulnerable. But how does one find the fair gringo fare?
An example: I´m in Leon, Nicaragua and a women cackles at me ¨post card?¨. ¨Yes, actually that´s exactly what Im looking for. How did you know that? I do not deal with soothsayers.¨ Long story short, this women did not have the post card I was looking for, but left and came back 5 minutes later with the exact post card I was looking for. ¨20 cordobas ($1 dollar).¨ ¨What! This is a robbery¨. Horrible choice of words. She went on to explain that she´d only make 5 cords from the deal (25 cents) and that she is NOT a thief. Her anger mixed with embarassment told me that she was being honest. I was totally wrong on this one. I know that 10 cords would be a fair price, but was it worth it to take a stand for 50 cents? Ah....I apologized profusely and this bothered me for some time.
Perhaps I´m not explaining myself well here. Point being, I am willing to pay more....but it´s very hard to find the balance between just gringo price and me being totally ripped off. But even me being totally ripped off is usually not that much money and a person with much less means may be better able to provide for their family. This brings me to questions about the value of money, or the value of anything for that matter. Ultimately, I should pay for it what I think it´s worth. Maybe that´s the most honest route....but how do I do this? Integrating into a different cultural and economic context allows me to pay a lower price for just about everything here, but in paying this price am I perpetuating the unfairness I spoke of in the ´We drink their coffee´ blog? Even if I pay for everything what I would in the States, do I even agree with these values?
This is definitely a dilemna. I´m very happy to redistribute wealth down here, but I want the transaction to be honest. It feels like finding this ´honesty´is probably way more complex than I imagine.
I leave for Medellin today at 4pm. Overnight bus. Ay dios!
(p.s. Having big time camera problems, sorry no pictures)
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Mateo-
ReplyDeleteI was in Casco Viejo last year when I was in Panama. I really loved it as well! It has so much history, architecture and culture.
Safe travels!
Julia
Matador, I totally know what you're talking about! Like you, I'm okay with paying a slightly higher price than the locals because, in general, living/traveling in Central America is not an expensive endeavor by US standards. However, when living in Nicaragua, the topic of the dependency culture seem to come up again and again.
ReplyDeleteFrom listening to people who have lived in Nica for a long time (both ex-pats and locals, esp those in non-profits), I learned that there has been a long history of volunteer and social justice work in that country since the 70s....but that some people think that is exactly the problem. I would hear the tale that North Americans had been handing out aid for so long that the industry Nicaraguans were best at was figuring out how to get their needs provided for by charities. Obviously this is a major over-generalization, but it ties in to how I feel about the gringo price. At what point does redistributing the wealth in reasonable, positive ways shift into being taken of advantage of and feeding into the dependency culture?
I got the most guidance from the white ex-pats I spoke with because they straddled both worlds. When a taxi driver picks them up, he sees their skin color and quotes a price. When they haggle back in locally-accented Spanish, showing obvious knowledge of the local price, the driver concedes to a new price. For me, if that second offer seems a reasonable distance between the first, overly-inflated price and the local price, I go for it. For me, that's where the fair fare is. But it takes getting to know a place and meeting other people who have dealt with being pegged as a walking wallet. I hope you'll come back to this topic after you've settled in more to your Fellowship.
Also, this is a crazy long response! As is the one I added to "We drink their coffee"....I'm sorry about that. Yet, your blog speaks to topics that are so important to me. Since I can't be following that path right now, I thank you *so much* for at least letting me exercise my brain a bit here. See the ripple effect your good works have!
Yo Buns,
ReplyDeleteHave no fear I still frequent the blog! I've been selfishly keeping my comments to myself,so sorry. Man I wish I could share your experience even though the accomadations aren't first class I would love rough it with the nicaracuans. It makes me feel so alive reading all the your posts from all over. The whole family reads your blog, It's more addicting than twinkies. The fam is good.We recently joined the YMCA and started sculpting our bodies.Oh, and I figured out how to instantly become a better soccer player,join an over 30 league it's done wonders for my game.
ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy oy oy oy!
Matt - I just want you to know that D7930 is following you via your blog. I just added you to my Facebook page. We're all proud of you and I can assure your that you have already prompted many conversations. Be safe.
ReplyDeleteAh, jodonsito. Te cuento que cuando tenia 22 a~os (when i was a young gun) estuve por aya en san cristobal. Cuando le compraba artesanias a los pobres indigenas, yo siempre pagaba el precio que me indicaban y no les negociaba.
ReplyDeleteVeia que los pinches espa~oles turistas que andaban por aya negociaban hasta la madre con los pobres indios. Yo los veia, y me preguntaba, QUE ES UN PINCHE PESO MAS O MENOS DE LO QUE ESTAN PIDIENDO ESTOS POBRES INDIOS??!!?!?!