I got it ....first time around.

I got it first time around. He asked why this was happening and I told him. Most people here for the first time do not know what to expect, but it is not being interupted 35 times while eating a meal. 20 times, 7 times. 50 times or however many.

A good example is when Julio and the family went with me to one of the beaches in Acapulco he got a good dose of what it is like to be a tourist. I had gone to get a massage and he and the family was there at the table trying to enjoy an afternoon at the beach. When I came back he asked me if I could guess how many people asked him to buy something while I was gone. I guessed 35. I was low. It was almost 70 people in an hour. Mexican people are supposed to like this, why?

Must be that different-colored crystal thing.

We have a problem, no doubt, but it isn't the poor folks trying to earn an honest living, it's the corrupt public officials who allow beaches, sidewalks and markets to become way past saturated with vendors, in this case wandering vendors. It's not unlike our taxi problem or why some folks think there should be a cruise ship pier in the bay or Barra de Potosí (or some such similar nonsense).

As to their behavior in the environment in which you placed and observed them, I suspect Julio and family were imitating the social setting into which they found themselves and were imitating the folks around them to avoid cognitive dissonance. It's a common enough observable phenomenon, especially in vacation resort destinations where it is easy to observe the behavior of different "groups" mixing.