The first country on the trip, the reason mainly being the affordable flight prices.
A country ravaged by hyper inflation in recent years, exceeding 200% in some months, it’s probably one of the most expensive countries around here.
The prices are generally comparable to Europe, so it is probably not the worst idea to only use it as a transfer hub for the rest of my trip.
It’s always fun to enter a new country and find your bearings. How’s the economic situation, where do you best get your food, do they have a STRASSENVERKEHRSORDUNG or can you just cross the street at a red light? So many questions!
One of the most confusing things to figure out was everything regarding money and payments. Although most places accept card payments, there’s usually a substantial surcharge on top of your bill – almost always around 10%.
So it’s either accept that or figure out how to get cash.
The easiest way would have been to bring Euros with me and exchange it in one of the MANY locations in the Bueno Aires central district, as you cannot miss the dozens of people shouting “CAMBIO! CAMBIO!” (“CHANGE! CHANGE!”) all day, every day.
They then direct you to one of the many exchange offices, where you can exchange your bills for the one of three different conversion rates. Sounds complicated? Because it is. And as I didn’t bring any money with me, cambio-ing my money was not an option for me.
The maximum amount you can withdraw from an ATM is $30.000,- (~ €30,-) but the fee for that ist around $13.000,- (~ €13,-) – also not an option.
Long story short – I know now what Western Union does, how it works and how to use it. I made an account, transfered €200,- from my credit card to my Western Union account for pickup at a local office and received a “make it rain” amount of cash.
And their STRASSENVERKEHRSORDNUNG is not up to European standards, pfffff..
