Exploring Mendoza

This morning we had a couple of admin tasks to do to kick-start our time in Argentina. First of all we had to get our hands on some cash.

Argentina is in a very complex economic situation due to hyperinflation. In 2023 the inflation rate of the country was over 200% and is still at around 10% inflation per month!

Due to the Argentina peso being effectively worthless, foreign currencies are extremely valuable, particularly since the Argentinian government has placed restrictions on its citizens changing pesos to foreign currency.

Whilst the official exchange rate from GBP to ARS is around 1:1,100, the unofficial 'blue dollar' exchange rate is around 1:1,347. This rate is available on the street and most importantly at Western Union!

We'd therefore placed an order for some cash a few days before and went to collect it today. The only issue being that the largest note you can get you hands on in Argentina is the 1,000 Peso note, which is worth around 74p. So we no joke had to take a rucksack to collect our cash as it was just under 1,000 notes. Paying for anything here is a nightmare as you have to count out so many notes to pay for anything!

A 2,000 Peso note does exist (still not really worth anything) but nobody seems to have ever seen one. And it's not like they can print more money either as that will only make the situation worse!

After collecting our cash we bought a SIM card and dropped our cash off back at the hostel.

We then took a stroll through the city all the way up to the park at the far end.Read more