El Dólar Blue

Hola todos,

Here's a quick Argentine cultural lesson for you regarding the US dollar here in BA. It has two values. Yep- two. In almost any other country, the dollar is worth one value- whatever the market has set it at. Some days it goes up in value, and some days it goes down. Regardless, you always want to check the day's exchange rate online so that you can practice your rapid mental math skills when buying things or withdrawing cash.
Here in Argentina, all of that occurs too- except that it isn't supposed to. The government here in Argentina more or less fixes the exchange rate for the US dollar and Argentine peso. Every single day, I can wake up knowing that the USD is worth just over 8 ARS (Argentine pesos). That number does not fluctuate much, if at all. Cash or credit, the exchange value stays the same. So that means that I shouldn't worry about what the value is when I exchange my dollars for pesos, or how much my international (read: fee free) credit card is being charged at a store.
However, the market will do what the market will do. There is something called El Dólar Blue (do I really need to translate that for you?) which is the unofficial fluctuating dollar value. This number fluctuates much more than most currencies, but it also gives you a much higher ARS to USD exchange rate. When we arrived, the rate was around 13.5, about 6 weeks ago it peaked at 15.8, and it is currently 12.9. This means that, at the peak rate, I could have received nearly twice as many pesos from an exchange place than I would have received at a bank. Which is awesome! My dollar has more power here than the Argentine government lets on, which means that products here are fairly cheap compared to standard US prices. Unfortunately, this method of exchange isn't officially recognized, but the TV news and newspapers all report the day's blue dollar rate along with all other currency in its economics section.
The downsides: the fluctuation and credit cards. The fluctuation stinks if you wait too long or go too early. The rate doesn't change much within a single day, but week to week you could be jumping for joy and changing tons of money or scrimping your pesos until the rate goes back up so you can exchange dinero again. And credit cards, unfortunately, use the official rate. This means that if today I use my credit card, I will pay 1.5 times as many dollars (but in pesos) than if I had just used the pesos I had exchanged at the better 13-ish rate.
Ultimately, I'm glad we have the Dólar Blue because it helps my money go further and makes living here in BA less expensive as a US American. And looking back on this post, I realize how incredibly long it was. I'm so sorry. At least you learned something!

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora

An Adventure to Nowhere

Hola todos,

It has been forever since I last published a post! Between school and traveling nearly every weekend, time is flying by faster than I could have ever imagined. I promise to try and be better about posting more Argentina fun facts or information about my adventures, and I hope the following post makes up for the recent drought.
This past week, I had the extraordinary opportunity to travel to the middle of nowhere in Patagonia. Other than the clothing brand, Patagonia refers to a geographical region in southern South America that encompasses, more or less, the bottom triangle of the continent, including Chilean and Argentine territories (the orange-ish region on the map below).

A group of 21 Pepperdine University students, including myself, got together with about 10 students from the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) and flew about two and a half hours from Buenos Aires to the Comodoro Rivadavia airport, from which we took a four hour bus ride to Puerto Desado. Below is a map of our travels: we flew from the blue dot in the upper right corner to the white circle at the bottom, and then drove to the end of the red pin.

Puerto Deseado is a small beach town that never receives tourists, but has some amazing sights and animal-watching to offer. Here are some things we did in Puerto Deseado:

Saw dolphins and penguins

We saw some beautiful sights of the ocean

And scaled the face of a cliff to get even better photos

A fellow student and I also appeared on the Puerto Deseado radio show. The town almost never receives visitors, much less foreigners, so our group was quite a hit. If you would like to hear me stumble through a radio interview in Spanish, click here!

We next traveled to Cabo Blanco, a two hour drive from Puerto Deseado. The only thing in Cabo Blanco is a lighthouse, a rugby field, a stone house, and a metal shed. Oh, and perfectly picturesque beaches with stunning sunrises and sunsets and clear, unpolluted waters.

We painted the shed, reconstructed the rugby field fence, and slept on the beach one night (strongly NOT recommended unless you have a tent or a million socks...) and I saw more stars in the sky than I even imagined could exist.

Jaramillo is a small town of 400 Argentines and was our next stop between Cabo Blanco and the Comodoro Rivadavia airport on the day of our return. Here, we sanded and stained an old railway car and ate a lamb asado (cookout).

Finally, we drove back to the Comodoro Rivadavia airport, only to arrive as our plane was taxi-ing on the runway. As it was 10 pm, the next flight to Buenos Aires was at 5 am the next day, so we pulled out our homework and sleeping bags and spent the night on the airport floor.

 Somehow, the 5 am flight had 21 open seats, so our entire group was able to make it back to BA by 7:30 am- many of us arrived to campus just in time for our 8:45 am classes. (Mind you, we hadn't showered for 4 days.)

Summary:
In case this post was too long for you and you skipped to the bottom, just know that the 5ish days that I spent in a little-known area of Patagonia with 20 classmates and about 10 Argentine students was one of my most memorable experiences in Argentina thus far. If you ever want to take some time to backpack through a foreign country or region, don't go to Europe. Everybody goes to Europe. Come to Patagonia and see some of the most breath-taking views of nature! And make sure to drop by Puerto Deseado and Jaramillo and tell the locals that Pepperdine says hi.

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora