At last! We have a reliable wifi connection for at least the next 3 or 4 days, and I was just reunited with my laptop's power cord (boring story), which means I can catch up on my 14-blog-post backlog (seriously-- I have a list). So I apologize for the flood of entries after such a drought, but I am going to try and post two or three times a day until I catch up.
25 February 2014
I am getting to know the money here in Chile. In many ways it is easier than US currency; the bills get slightly larger as the value increases, and each denomination is a different color for quick and easy recognition. A recent change in coin design means there are old and new styles of the same amount floating around, but that's not so bad. Actually, my inner numismatic (coin collecting) geek enjoys that part.
The tricky part in our experience is that everyone, everywhere, seems to prefer small bills, but the ATM doles out 20.000 peso bills whenever possible (approx. $40 US). As a result, all the tourists end up with a pocket full of bills equivalent to fifties.
I paid the subway tollbooth lady in Santiago with $20.000 (Chile also uses "$") for a ride that cost maybe $350. She was not pleased with me, but I had arrived only hours before and that was literally all I had, or had ever had, in Chilean pesos. Once my shrugging and mumbling convinced her that was all the gringa was capable of offering, she more or less rolled her eyes and gave me my change in quarters.
Good news! Now I have change!
Lesson learned: sometimes bills don't break; they shatter into dozens of tiny shards.
andres bello is looking particularly beautiful in that 20000 bill, so pretty i thought he was some french lady.
ReplyDeleteIsn't he lovely? Too bad no store is ever happy to see him.
DeleteThat's cute! It's too bad they have that discrepancy between retail practices and ATMs. That seems odd to me. I do like colorful money, but I imagine the different sizes might be slightly annoying. Although useful for the blind.
ReplyDeleteI imagine you misplaced a decimal or two, since I don't follow how you can get change by paying - Oh I see, it's the European digit group separator, serving like a comma does for us. I thought it was European, anyway. Apparently it's mixed all over the world?
Yes, when it comes to currency they use a period like we would use a comma. That said, I have found it more helpful to just think of it as a money system with 3 decimal places, since then it's roughly a 2:1 USD:CHP ratio.
DeleteAlso, it's funny you should mention the blind, since I have seen quite a few blind people walking around in Viña, many more than I see in Minneapolis. There may be some kind of service center in town, but maybe not.