Everyone who visits Argentina,
sooner or later will learn that the peso has many exchange rates and the
official one is rarely used if ever. The economic situation of the country and
the seemingly pointless economic policies of La Presidenta (Cristina Kirchner) have sent
the peso down a very slippery road and everyone who can and is able is trying
to exchange whatever money they have into dollars. Although in theory there is
only a certain amount of dollars any Argentine can buy/exchange in a single year, there
is a flourishing black market that is not even the least bit hidden and given
the amount of tourists coming to the country, it is not a miracle that payments
are often demanded in dollars, not pesos.
We came to know about the
ubiquity of this opportunity on our first day on the main street of Bariloche, the capital of the Patagonian Lake District (strangely reminiscent of Switzerland but much better).
Many shops post the daily “blue” exchange rate quite visibly next to the
entrance, but basically almost every shopkeeper is happy to exchange dollars
for tourists. At the time of our visit the official rate was around 6 pesos per
dollar, the “blue rate” was 8-10 pesos per dollar, depending on the
denomination of your dollar notes. Yes, that counts, and anyone wanting to take
advantage of the arbitrage should bring 100 dollar notes and
brand new ones at that. Torn notes are refused. Also, forget about 50 and 20
dollar notes, they are worthless or extremely hard to exchange on an agreeable
rate. Needless to say, but most of my money was in 20 dollar notes...
