Unless you speak fluent Spanish and know how to haggle, if you are an American you will automatically pay more for trinkets, jewelry, etc. Sad but true. I've learned through experience that when I am shopping in the second hand stores, unless I know the owners, I take a Mexican friend with me to negotiate for what I want. Once I've selected the item, I leave the store as if I was disinterestedly browsing and leave my friend up to the haggling.

The same holds true for shopping in the tourist areas. Most of the shop owners here in Ensenada will haggle a bit even with their countrymen, but in the First Avenue (Calle Primera) shops, the prices are high anyway because it is THE tourist place. Thousands of people a week come off of the cruise ships a week during peak season to swarm in and pick up a few knickknacks to take back home, so the shop owners are not hurting for business. Many of the shop owners are only bilingual when it comes to money, as in "such and such dollars." And make no mistake about it, they are math wizards.

When my doctor friend came to visit, one aggressive shop owner tried to charge her quite a bit for a pair of earrings. Being well traveled, she replied, "That seems a bit expensive." The shop owner was bilingual and told her she wouldn't find those earrings anywhere else. Knowingly, my friend said, "Well, I'll look around for something else and come back here later." She found a pair of earrings that she liked even better for a lower price after a bit of haggling.

This is the Mexican way. It is only when you really get to know people that you don't get ripped off, but it is true that in Mexico people see Americans and have dollar signs in their eyes. Why? American behavior. It's our own fault. For generations we've been coming here as tourists waving money around, wearing expensive clothes and shoes, and look like we are dripping with money. Not only that, many tourists wave money around and wantonly give massive tips to people just for information. It's amazing.

We can't blame the Mexicans for their idea of us. Tourists are the representatives of any country, and we've done a bangup job of creating the stereotype that we are from the Land Of Milk and Honey and have money to burn.