Friday, October 17, 2008

Tourist-of-prey

Chullo: a Peruvian style of hat made from vicuña, alpaca, llama, or sheep's wool protecting it's wearer from the harsh elements of the Andean Mountain Region. The most common consumer of the chullo is the native Peruvian tourist. During our trip last week, we sighted many variations of this camera-bearing carnivore.













While our bus stopped to let us walk around we saw a British woman preying on chullos. She was speaking to the vendor in English and assuming she was being completely understood. A real-life picture of the scene and a record of exactly what was being said can be seen below:












Woman: (holds up a chullo) You wouldn’t happen to have one of a darker color would you?

Vendor: (stares at first, then, confused, picks up a new chullo to show her)

Woman: Oh, you are right this color is quite lovely. Do you have any more like it?

Vendor: (stares)

And the woman didn’t stop talking after this.




There was one other American on the bus who was traveling with her Peruvian husband.
She was talking in Spanish to a tour guide but didn’t have the words she needed in order to communicate well and was struggling for a long period of time with one word in particular. In frustration, she turned to her husband and said in an angry voice, “Honey! Tell me the word I am thinking of!”

You can see a photo of the disgruntled stranger and her husband to the left. Note that she also is a chullo consumer.



Oh yes. Below, are the 3 most deadly chullo consumers of all.

2 comments:

tsbjf said...

Oh man, I totally need a chullo!

luaphacim said...

¿Dónde está la tienda de chullos?

That is Peruvian for "I am a tourist and would like to give you my U.S. dollars."