Travelling 101; #9: Change

Another one to baffle first time travellers is the inability of shop owners to provide change to customers.
Now, I'm not talking about paying for a pack of chewing gum with a 100 dollar note, i'm talking purchasing products totalling 4 spondulux and handing over a 10 spondulux note. The look of pure fear that passes over a shopkeep's face is a delight. They will first ask you if you have nothing smaller, you reply "no". They will then look even more worried and start to fluster, perhaps rooting in a drawer underneath the counter. They will then check their pockets, shout into the backroom where granny is watching the TV and perhaps shout at a friend on the street. Eventually after a massive combined effort and perhaps a 10 minute wait (when all you wanted was a bottle of water) you will receive your correct change. Actually sometimes you will not be allowed purchase a product due to lack of correct funds. In Ecuador I once tried to buy a bar of chocolate in a supermarket (no less) with a 10 dollar note. She had no change and wasn't budging, so I left the supermarket sans chocolate.

On a mildly related note mathematical ability is quite lacking in most of latin america. You buy an apple for 2.5 thingemebobs and a pear for 1.5 thingemebobs and the shopkeep will normally get the calculator out. Any more than 2 items and it is for certain. You then hand over a 10 thingemebob note and the calculator is once more called for to work out the correct change.

One boat ticket vendor in Brazil was also a shooting star in the maths realm. Although all the man sold on a day to day basis was a single boat ticket to the value of 170 reals he would still have to break out the calculator for more than one ticket. I mean honestly could he not have learned his 170 times tables?? Worse still is when the people in front of me ordered 4 tickets. He typed in 170 + 170 = + 170 = + 170 =... I nearly rammed the calculator down his throat. Maybe his multiply key was broken...

And GOD help you if you decide to aid a shopkeeper by providing them with an amount which will ensure a single note of change. If the bill comes to 6 whatchamacallits and you hand them a 10 whatchamacallit note and a 1 whatchamacallit coin they will look at you like you have 42 heads and have just eaten their new born grandchild. I once had a girl in Colombia almost in tears by doing such a nasty thing. Once her lip started to quiver I had to tell her it was OK and to just give me 5000 pesos.