| The first city after coming from Santiago is Mendoza, east of the Andes mountains. I was convinced by someone in Santiago to stay here two nights instead of just one, so I can explore so parts of the Andes. On the second day, I went out for a half day hike and rappel trip. For those who don't know what rappelling is, think of those action movies where guys are jumping down cliffs jump by jump with a route for support (except they also gave us a harness). Overall a good experience, bit I'd take the mountains around Quito, Cusco, or San Pedro de Atacama any day. The to-eat food here is barbecued baby goat... It was expensive and only okay in my opinion. Empanadas in Argentina are also much smaller than in Chile. In Chile, one or two is enough, but in Argentina they're about the size of perogis. Culturally and in their cooking, there's a string Italian influence in Argentina; many people here are ethnically Italian. They taste better here too. I can go on about how much better food has been in Argentina so far, but with Chile it doesn't really have any competition. Argentina is a relatively expensive country, not unlike Chile. For foreigners, the secret is you need to exchange cash (preferably 50s or 100s) on the black market. It sounds shady, but it's pretty well known among locals, and the police let it happen. The black market currency exchange is mutually beneficial for locals and foreigners. Foreigners traveling through Argentina are best off buying pesos from there black market, because the official exchange rate is a ripoff by design (presumably as a way to bring wealth into the country). To put this into numbers, the official rate is about 9 pesos to the dollar, while the so-called blue rate is about 12 pesos. That's a HUGE difference. These change daily, so check dolarblue.net to get the current exchanges. So why do they buy dollars? To sell them to locals. Local Argentines want dollars for two reasons. The first is when they want to travel, the government only lets them exchange for a certain amount of dollars, and its not enough to travel through the US. The second is personal investment, as the Argentine peso fluctuates wildly, while the dollar remains relatively constant in value. Having dollars insures their savings are safe. |
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September 2015
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