#118 - most expensive call ever

i´m not writing this on my travel blog because my mom would read it, be scared and then my dad would give me a lecture. so here it is.

we are in san pedro and i was done at the internet cafe, Q8 for an hour. pretty good deal when Q7=$1. next door was a telephone calling place so i thought, hey i´ll give my grandma on maui a call. the price was listed as USA Q1.50, good deal again. so i call her and we´re chatting and i´m enjoying the conversation but only have on me about Q45 so i stop at 15 minutes knowing that i still want to have some money left over. i go to pay and the girl say "ciento treinta y cinco" (Q135) which totally floors me because i expected something like Q25 or so. i said "QUE?!" and so she repeats then types it out on a calculator then this other guy comes over. i said this is wrong. i am not sure what i said in spanish and what in english but pretty much argued with them. then they showed me in their book that hawaii was not a part of the los estados unidos (USA) and that 808 is hawaii (duh). i said hawaii is a state of the USA and i´m from there. i´m american, blah blah blah. it says on the wall that it´s Q1.50, etc. i was so pissed and didn´t know what to do. i said all i have is Q45, do you want that? they said no, we need the whole amount. i´m like, where´s your boss? "guatemala city" that´s not going to help. they barely speak english and i barely speak spanish. i wanted to scream but i didn´t want to be arrested. finally they said go and return with the money más tardes (later).

so i go back and tell arna and of course i´m pissed and she gets pissed and eventually she goes to call her mom to see what to do. when she comes back she´s pissed and practically crying. it´s like hours later and she went back and started yelling at the girl saying it´s not right and some other things. she paid the Q135 and the girl said not to come back or she´d call the cops. so all night i thought they were after us. would they not let us out of the country for a bill a little less than $20? it´s not that it was too much money, i did have a little more in the hotel but it was the whole idea of it. i didn´t want to pay because they advertised it as Q1.50 and didn´t say shit about hawaii not being USA. i´m sick of people not knowing that hawaii is the 50th state!!!

at least my grandma was happy that i called.