Güiro, Guiro - percussion instrument

Güiro or guiro - percussion instrument from Latin America: Kids love producing sounds with this instrument.
The güiro is a Latin-American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound. The güiro is commonly used in Latin-American music and plays a key role in the typical rhythm section of important genres like cumbia and salsa. Playing the güiro usually requires both long and short sounds, made by scraping up and down in long or short strokes.
Whenever I travel to a new country, I search for a musical instrument to add to my vast collection. Unfortunately, I have never been to Latin America. I have bought this guiro in a music shop in Singapore.