Argentina
Buenos Aires
February 2023 • For a country with such great resources, traditions, landscapes, and people, it’s tragic that the government can't fix Argentina's 90% inflation rate. I'd need a master's to ever understand the two-tier currency exchange (one is called “blue dollar” and targeted to visitors). Don’t come to Argentina with U.S. notes smaller than 100 or with any folds or marks on them. And don’t bring notes that have a puny Ben Franklin face—only the big-faced Ben will do. Burned a lot of time and adrenaline trying to get money via Western Union transfer from my bank account, eventually walking out of one of their offices with a fat stash of pesos that looked cartoonishly obscene. Buenos Aires is a wonderful city, but right now the difficulty in obtaining money at a reasonable rate cannot be overstated, and it falls especially hard on those who aren't just passing through.
