The money here in Argentina is really interesting and really confusing! They use the Argentean peso and also US dollar are accepted currency only they have totally different values!! Prices are generally written in pesos so a big Mac is $58 (I know this how.....) but you can also pay in US which depending on the mood of the vendor has been anything from 3.8 to 6 for an exchange rate! They love the US because it is undeclared and don't trust the banks because in 2001 the banks were frozen and they couldn't get their money out. They also have a huge counterfeit problem and there are hawkers on the street that will exchange your money, but you also might lose the lot to fake dollars! We don't know what rate they offer but apparently it is pretty good. So to buy a simple item, you first convert pesos to US dollars once you know the vendors rate, then you convert that to NZ dollars so you can work out if you are getting ripped. Then you decide if you want it and if you don't, often the rate changes down and you do the whole calculation again- well I don't obviously, Maths not my strong point. The human calculator does it in his head while they are still opening the drawer to get a calculator out!
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