One thing I never do In Mexico is spend time talking to vendors. And they're everywhere. On the sidewalks. In the markets. In the malls. On the beaches.
And the reason I don't is that I have enough stuff to last me a lifetime. Knick knacks, souvenirs, cups, gadgets. All junk that gathers dust until I throw it away.
And timeshares, the thing most everyone sells here, are the worst investment in the world. Buy one and you end up paying a monthly maintenance fee and so on for years. On a property you can only use one week of the year.
But yesterday I broke my rule, kind of by accident. I'm leaning up against an empty kiosk working on my iPhone, sending a photo to someone at home. And up walks the owner of the kiosk.
Because I'm on his turf, I'm nice and he offers to sell me a tour. No. Then it's a zip line experience. No. A swim with dolphins. No. Dinner on a pirate ship. No. A cruise on a jungle river. No. Then he pops the timeshare question. Again I tell him no.
And I explain why I think they're one of the worst investments in the universe. So he finally drops the sales talk and we segue into a different conversation. In fact we spent another hour talking about drug and alcohol treatment.
I learn that he's involved with others in putting together a treatment program. It's in old hotel in a town 45 miles to the North of Puerto Vallarta. It will be the first one in this area.
He has a lot of interest in our 24 years of experience with TLC. He wonders if there's some way we can work together. We exchange cards and agree to continue the dialogue.
Isn't it strange how people run into each other?
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