Being a little skeptical of this, I fired off a quick e-mail to my travel agent in Buenos Aries and asked for a little more information. As usual, Sylvia Zapiola at Patagonia-Argentina.com was most helpful. She confirmed what the bank representative told me, and she offered a little more information. The official exchange rate the day we corresponded was one dollar of U.S. currency equivalent to five and a half Argentinian pesos. She also pointed out that the U.S. dollar was worth seven to eight pesos if spent directly in a restaurant or store in Argentina. Best of all, it was legal to do so. She further said it was difficult to change the pesos back to U.S. dollars at the end of the trip. Her advice was to exchange a few hundred U.S. dollars at the airport to keep on hand in case there was a problem using U.S. dollars somewhere. I have heeded her advice so far, so I decided to follow it on this matter as well.
Why am I going into all of this? It’s simple. Forewarned is forearmed, as far as I am concerned, and I do not like surprises when I travel. Check back with me in late June when I post the details and report on my adventures to find out how this all played out.
