Proposed Sugar and Other Reflections

The best parts of visiting another country are the opportunities we get to see what life is like for other people. Not only is it fun, but it's important that we observe and reflect on the similarities and differences to our own homes. I've thought about this a lot during my travels. The similarities and differences are the things that make us human. In part they inform our collective cultures, which in turn help to define who we are. It is an undeniable privilege to be able to experience this first-hand.

If we're lucky, we gain perspective on our own homes, and how grateful we should be for what we have.

Like robust septic systems. For the entire time in Patagonia, on both sides of the border, every toilet was adorned with a sign admonishing the (naively foreign) user to avoid tossing toilet paper or anything else in the toilet. Use the bin, please.

There's been way too much toilet commentary in the blog of this trip, but it's best not to try and imagine the combination of the last toilet commentary with this toilet commentary. Oh well. It's good to be home.

Also the exchange rates. The rate in Chile gives around 800 Chilean Pesos to the dollar. I carried 276,000 pesos with me. This exchange rate presents two problems. First, try and divide a price tag by 800 on the fly. That shirt is 27.000,00 pesos (remember, they swap the comma and decimal in large numbers in other countries). Quick! Buy or pass? Who knows if that's a reasonable price. 

Actually it got a lot easier when I stopped dividing by 800 and started multiplying by 1.2 and omitting everything after the decimal. But still. Definitely a challenge.

And then there's Argentina, for which there are two exchange rates. The official exchange rate is around 190 Pesos to the dollar. But there's also a "blue dollar" exchange rate around 340 pesos to the dollar. So what's the deal?

Even searching Google I have a very poor understanding of this. As far as I can tell, Argentina's peso has become very volatile, with its value fluctuating significantly over the past few decades. The government controls the exchange rate, somewhat pegging it to the dollar. People don't trust the banks or the government, and since the dollar is significantly more stable than the peso, a black market has appeared for US cash. It's not strictly legal, but it's ubiquitous and out in the open. You can't avoid it.

So how it works is this. If you exchange dollars at an official institution like a bank, either from cash or ATM, you get the official rate. Before the trip, I exchanged some dollars in the US and got a rate of 160 (after commission). 

But in country, the blue dollar rate (named for the blue security stripe on modern Benjamins) is everywhere. Money changers from Western Union to the corner shop will sell you pesos at the 340 rate. They're often out on the streets of BA (the air is so good) shouting "CAMBIO CAMBIO!" (Embarrassingly, the whole time we thought they were people begging for pocket change...just keep walking). You also get the blue dollar in stores when you pay in USD. In one shop I bought 4 postcard stamps with a $50 and got some 17,000 ARG in change: the blue rate. The other way to get the blue dollar is to be a foreigner paying in credit or debit. I made quite a few credit transactions in Argentina, all of which under the assumption I was getting 190. You can imagine my surprise when I did the accounting back in the US and found that every single transaction was around 340! Even on the last day of the trip, Ellie and I were trying to figure out this confusing system.

Even hotels give foreigners a massive 30-40% discount for paying in cash or credit with a passport.

This is great for tourists (except the confusion and dubious legality), but I struggle to believe that the local economy actually benefits from giving foreigners a 40% discount while the locals pay full rate.

I've already talked about the infrastructure in Chile vs. Argentina. After the poorly marked (but well-surfaced) roads in Patagonia, it was a surprise that BA was so European. Slightly run down from it's glory days in a previous era, yet a very respectable national hub. 

Argentina actually had several other curiosities as well. One such curiosity was the blue signs all over Patagonia and especially around BA: Los Malvinas son Argentinas. That is, "The Malvinas are Argentina's." 41 years after a failed attempt to militarily reclaim the adjacent Malvinas (or Falklands, depending who you talk to) from the UK, it's clear Argentina still strongly believes that the island chain belongs to them. As I said in an earlier post, no se habla de Bruno. Except this time I'm not kidding. Don't talk about the Malvinas. 

 

It's clear as well that Argentina is proud of it's young democracy. On the last day of my trip, the book festival had a theme of democracy, celebrating 40 years since the transition from military dictatorship. I was sad I couldn't join the people in the streets for la noche de las librerias to see what it was all about. Still, inspired to learn, I've since watched the Oscar-nominated Amazon Original Argentina, 1985, about the prosecution of the military Juntas - the largest war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg. It's absolutely worth a watch. The key takeaway? A change of government is always tenuous, and something we should never take for granted. Nor should we ever forget the extraordinary cost of democracy.

There are a lot of things I'll miss about Argentina and Chile. I would absolutely love to go back. The people we met on our journey were so friendly. Even when we couldn't understand them. Even the police at the security checkpoint. Even the tour guides and the concierges. Even the guy that actually did try to beg me for cash. Everyone was really nice.

 

Whether the mountains or the plains or the sea, the rheas or the guanacos, the wind that is never at your back or the rain that changes by the minute, Patagonia is a wild, mysterious, and beautiful land that cannot fail to inspire. And Buenos Aires, too, a surprising city full of culture, history, and vibrant life.

 

So, sooner or later when I run out of alfajores or get bored of chicken... when I miss the smoked merken pepper on every dining table in Chile... and the helados manjar... when I dream about the yerba mate I never got to try (notwithstanding all the people drinking it out of curiously bowl-shaped, aluminum-lined wooden mugs with oversized metal sieve-straws)... And (tomorrow) when I'm thinking of a calafate sour.... then I'll look forward to setting my sights south once again.

And in the meantime, if you get to head to that part of the world, do be sure to leave your propina sugarida - your "suggested tip" (or proposed sugar, as I call it) - not because it's expected or required, but because it's a great place with wonderful people deserving of our gratitude and admiration.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed hearing about our travels as much as I enjoyed writing about them. I am forever grateful to those who are willing to slog through my writing to see what adventures I'm up to.

And for the next adventure........