Is this not the sorriest rose you ever saw? I was so bugged last week when I bought 3 from a guy on the street and this was the good one. There were people on corners of every major intersection selling flowers, mostly red roses, wrapped really nicely with some greenery. They even had little stretchy webs over the blossoms to keep them nice. (Sunday was a day to celebrate women and that's why the flowers. ) We were having guests for dinner on Sunday, and thought a flower might be nice, so I rolled down the window when the man selling them came by. I asked how much they were. He tossed one in on the seat and tells me it's $5. Apparently it wasn't his first day selling on a street corner. He knew how it was done. Five reais was a little high, but it did have cellophane around it and the stretchy thing. I started rummaging in my purse. I could not find a $R5. A $R10 surfaced and I think he practically grabbed it. He told me if I had 2 more reais I could have 3 for $R12 and he tosses two more roses on the seat. I wasn't sure I wanted to do that but you really don't have time to consider purchases or barter when you are at a stop light with a car or two behind you....especially when people use the horn so readily. When I got them home and unwrapped them, two went straight to the garbage can. The third one was almost holding it's head up, so I gave it a chance. By lunch time the next day, this is how it looked. I have bought things from street vendors 4 times and been disappointed every time. I don't like getting "taken." I have learned my lesson. I'm officially through buying things in the street....unless something really good comes by.
