Playing Telephone

Doesn’t it look like these two guys are playing telephone, the science trick/game where you attach two tin cans via a string and your voice carries down the string and to the person on the other can? They’re not. They’re actually talking on cell phones, albeit not theirs, thus the strings (which attach the phones to the desk and prevent theft). In Colombia it seems that personal cell phone ownership is not as high as in many countries we’ve visited. That doesn’t mean that they’re not ubiquitous, however. On every street corner, you’ll find a man or woman offering the use of one of their many cell phones for a set fee. Here, as revealed by the pink sign behind the woman at the desk, you can make a call for 100 pesos a minute (the equivalent of $0.05), as these men are doing. It’s the newest reincarnation of the pay phone.

4 Replies to “Playing Telephone”

  1. What a great business, and I love that it is a woman running the “shop”. The more I travel the more I believe that the entrepreneurial spirit is much stronger outside of the States. I know that as we have been looking for sustainably minded entrepreneurs there has been no shortage of material since we made it to Southeast Asia. Check out our post on the artisanal gold miners in Laos here: http://www.greenaroundtheglobe.com/2010/03/27/panning-for-gold-in-laos/

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