Comparisons

In visiting different latin american countries, it´s difficult not to avoid the temptation to make comparisons. So I´m going to fully give in to the temptation, and indulge, knowing full well that what I say is bound to meet with some disagreement.
In the Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango, about the same size as Merida, when I walked into a small store, I was frequently the only one in the store. The sales person would dawdle over the item, pretending to busily wipe the dust off the bottle of water I was buying, etc., and thereby win time in which to ask me where I was from, how long I was staying there, what I thought of their (beautiful) country, etc. The purchase was an excuse to enter into a social engagement. I think the Guatemaltecos do this because they are genuinely friendly and genuinely curious.

In Merida, I am at the northernmost end of the Andes. First of all, the city here is quite crowded. Therefore, there are other customers at the counter anxious to complete their purchase. The salesperson doesn´t have the time to dawdle. If they are curious about me, they hide it pretty well.

One of my teachers described this "Andean attitude" as the kind of "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" kind of point of view. I get the impression a cop could walk up to a dozen people at the scene of an accident and ask what happened and the uniform response would be "I don´t know anything."

Countries such as mexico, costa rica, and guatemala have a deep vested interest in pursuing tourism and providing tourist friendly services. Not so in Venezuela. They have oil. That´s all they need. They also have Isla Margarita, which is a beautiful island off the coast. It has an international airport and caters to foreign tourists. This seems to be where the overwhelming majority of tourism support is based. In an article in the local paper last weekend, they talked about the fact that there are only business or government visitors to caracas, the capital, hardly any tourists.

The lack of tourism and tourist support also has its positive side. The people´s indifference, etc., is quite genuine, the real article. The sales clerks, etc., as in most places in the US, simply don´t know how to speak slowly and clearly for the benefit of the foreign listener. Some local attraction is not hyped up for the benefit of foreign tourists, etc.

I find it another fascinating quirk of cultural curiosity that you can travel all over latin america and in every town and village and hamlet there is at least one soccer field. In the evening, when the temperature has dropped a little, many players are out there doing their thing in front of an impressive number of spectators, usually older men commenting on the merits of various players, the coach´s decisions, etc. There are 2 countries (at least), that are exceptions to this. They are Cuba and Venezuela. For these countries, baseball, of all things, is king. Never mind the fact that baseball is BORING! certainly in comparison to soccer.

When I open the newspaper here, the first page of the sports section is baseball news. When I walk to school past a shaded schoolyard configured for soccer, the boys are out there playing baseball. Of all the countries in the western hemisphere, it´s hard to conceive of 2 who are more opposed to the u.s. government. And here they are, dedicated and devoted to the great american pasttime. Just think of the concessions Washington could extract from them by offering them the opportunity to play major league baseball!!!