Vendors in Cusco

 Something that has stuck out to me while we’ve been traveling in Cusco is the way in which those people that sell tourist goods or products interact with tourists. In other places where I have traveled, especially considering that I’ve been a teenage girl for most of these experiences, I’ve felt that vendors will come into my personal space, or not leave me alone when I say no to what they are selling. Here I have had a very different experience, with most of the people selling things being very soft spoken, not getting up at times, and not really continuing to press the issue after you’ve said no. A part of this might be that a good amount of vendors are women, and that they have to be soft spoken or less aggressive because they are trying to avoid a situation in which any tourist becomes mad at them. 

I’m not sure if this is intended or not, but I feel like the less aggressive manner in which attention is drawn to the vendor’s goods makes me more inclined to take a look. I think this would be the case with a lot of tourists, as it is easy to avoid places that seem unpleasant when there are so many equal alternatives. The best places seem to have almost nobody coming up to you, or just someone sitting outside of the store mentioning what is inside of it. 

The one situation where I saw a really pushy vendor was late at night both on the way to a bar and back where there were people waiting outside of bars, coming up to you and saying pretty loudly that you had to come. There was also one guy selling some kind of vape thing which came up to us probably three times in the course of the night. Even if I don’t like this kind of interaction as much, I can understand why that is the attitude these vendors have later at night, especially when they have to deal with drunk, loud people, or with big groups that are waking past.