Disembark at
Puerto Madryn, Argentina/Carlos Pueblo
It was day
12 of the cruise when we disembark at Puerto Madryn,
Argentina, a
sea exit of the Patagonia region of South America on
the Atlantic
Ocean. As usual, I only walked on the downtown area
of the city,
I thought that was more than twice on every block. I
checked
again with banks to withdraw some local currency in vain.
Later, I had
learned that my bank account in the U.S. was frozen
and issued a
warning for the repeat attempt of withdrawal from
Europe to
South America and Bermuda until my call to the bank.
While I
circled around the pretty sea front park, I found a currency
dealer to
get a $100 changed. It is called cambiar which I learned on
Florida
Avenue in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She took me inside of a taxi
and verified
the bill by twisting and looking into the sun and gave a
stack of
pesos. I ran into the English speaking taxi driver on the other
side of a
street corner, he told me that he used to reside in Los Angeles,
California
and decided to return to his home town to work.
I didn’t do
anything other than walking down to streets and it was plenty
of exercises.
I like Argentina very much and I know that I shall come back
for the
third time to visit, north to Brazil border and south to the Antarctic.
The current
incumbent, President Macri, reversed his predecessor, the
Madame President
Kirchner, for the policy of currency exchange. He
abolished the
two Systems, the official rate and the market rate, when
he took office
in 2015. He also improved the visa situation with the
United
States, no visa necessary any more. However, the black market,
the cambiar,
is still around, especially on Florida Avenue, B.A. Argentina
is still
struggling in the national finance even though the nation is very
rich in natural
resources.
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