Barter

[Martin Hash]

My wife, Gwynne, and I travel a lot, hence our house is a museum of useless bric-n-brac, mostly trinkets I’ve bought because Gwynne doesn’t have the discerning taste I do, and she always asks, “where are you going to put that?” The rule is I have to quickly say a place or we can’t have it.
“On the fridge,” I blurt out.
“The refrigerator is already covered,” Gwynne will admonish me and we end up not getting the trinket.
Another rule is that Gwynne has to do the buying. She says I don’t barter.
“You just buy it for whatever the first thing they say,” she explains. “You bought that hat and shirt without even asking the price.”
“But what if they run out?” I defend myself.
“Of Panama hats and oven mittens?” She asks incredulously. “Just let me do the bartering.”

Recently, Gwynne & I were visiting Columbia. I wanted some shot glasses as gifts for the kids, so I pointed them out to her.
“Wait here,” she commanded. “And don’t touch anything or speak to anyone... In fact, you go outside and wait.”
Gwynne pointed me out the door into the city plaza.

Columbian Belt s.JPG

After a while, Gwynne came out of the shop with a bag.
“I got a great deal,” she said proudly, then she got s good look at me.
“What’s that ?” Gwynne demanded.
I’d put a belt around my waist on the outside of my shirt so I wouldn’t have to hold it.
“He asked if I wanted a belt; I said yes,” I explained.
“Did you barter?” she asked suspiciously.
“It seemed like a good price already,” I replied.
Gwynne squinted at me.
“It’s a good thing I took all the money out of your wallet except lunch money,” she said. “How much to you have left?”
I smiled weakly.
“I’m not going to have lunch,” I suggested.
“Of course you’re going to have lunch. Here’s $10 if we get separated. I’ll go get something to eat. Don’t you dare move.”

There were lots of tables set up on the plaza of things for sale. In particular, I’d been eyeing these little figurines of birds carved out of nuts. Gwynne thought they were kind of ugly, and I’m not arguing, but it seemed unlikely we’d ever have a chance of buying birds carved from nuts again so I bought 3. Gwynne walked back from bartering for a lunch empanada for me. She saw me holding the nut birds.
“Where did you get those?” Gwynne asked when she saw them.
“That nice man over there was selling them,” I replied. “He had a sign that said they were 3 for a $10, so I figured I didn’t have a choice.”
Gwynne looked where I pointed.
“That sign also says they are 2 for $5,” she said, exasperated.
“But I wanted 3.”

Nut Birds s.JPG

[C-Mag]

I hear the bartering is very good in Venezuela this time of year.

[Speaker to Animals]

Reminds me a bit of Jeb!'s turtles.

Stuff like that is cool because they serve as tangible reminders of various trips and adventures.