I’m picking up a short term mission team in Guatemala City tonight. They arrive late, so we spend the night and then visit a couple sites in the capital then drive the 4 hours to Tactic tomorrow. Les isn’t here, so I have to do all the paying for the 19 of us in the group, so I need lots of cash. Rita wrote me a cheque for Q5000 ($750) to cover room and board and diesel.
So, I went to cash the cheque this morning and there was a huge line-up. I asked the guard if this was the line-up for people to cash cheques and he just said “wait a little while blondie, wait right here.” He formed a new line in front of the door where five more men lined up behind me over the next 5 minutes. The other line easily had 75 men in it. The door opened and I was at the front of the line. Erick was at the till getting cash too, he told me that they wouldn’t give me more than Q3000. My cheque was for Q5000.
At the till, I handed the cheque over and the cashier asked me if Q20 notes were OK. Sure, why not? I had to pause and secure the wad in my pocket before going outside.
This is the stack of bills. 250 $3 bills. Nice.
I hope there was money for everyone.
Sirdar
You’d look pretty impressive flashing that cash around. I would imagine you would look like a high roller if you went to the casino down there.
April
How fun, you must have felt like your were the champion at Monopoly!
Zaak
It was kind of cool having a wad of crisp cash, but counting out those twenties in restaurants and gas stations got quite tiresome – especially because cash gets counted by the buyer and the seller here. Sometimes twice.
Debby
you always did like Monopoly….what an awful banking set up though….And to walk around with that wad of bills…Rich “Blondie”….glad it turned out ok.
Danny B
ELVIS ON CASH???!!! Guatemala is such a cool place!!!
How come we get Laurier and Diefenbaker on our “monopoly” money here in Canada.
Someone needs to start a petition so that we can have Bjork on the back of our twoonies instead of the boring old queen.
Zaak
I guess I let Guatemala’s little secret out of the bag… Elvis has been hiding out here for nearly 30 years. You should hear his rendition of Blue Suede Shoes in Spanish (Zapatos Azul del Ante)
I liked monopoly better when I had stacks of $500 and $100 bills