A story that would be funny if it weren't true: "No Hay Monedas" (Oh, all right, I'm British and it's about crazy Argentinians, it's hilarious!)
Although the situation is not as bad as this in Colombia, I can kind of see it happening here, or at least with me! I'm used to the luxury of an Oyster travel card, never needing to worry about keeping change with me (even my local corner shop took cards so I didn't have to worry about notes either). Here though one MUST have a pocket full of change/small notes or one won't be able to pay for the bus home... This has resulted in a similar obsession with me as in Argentina. I will happily pay for a more expensive lunch to persuade the waiter to break a 50,000, I will stubbornly ignore all of the 1000s and 2000s in my purse in favour of a 5000 or 10,000, etc... I'm sure the local shopkeepers hate me, but the bus drivers have never complained!
And the guy that wrote that article was someone I met in a hostel in BsAs.. Shopkeepers used to routinely give out sweets as change! Made the whole adventure very surreal plus I never paid for the metro as they had to leave the gates open if they didn't have any coins:)
ReplyDeleteOoh... A Bogotá where they give me change in the form of bocadillo would not be a bad one... :D (I consider yesterday a great success healthwise because I only ate three)
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