Money, Credit Cards and Bureaucracy

From Sweden and also from Brazil I have gotten very used to paying everything I consume with credit card. Here in Argentina, you can pay a lot by card, but it seems they really prefer to have cash payment. The prefer it that much they will in most places give a 10% discount if you pay cash. However, by cash they are very flexible though, they will gladly except a number of currencies in one and the same payment. So, that's what happened when me and my friend were shopping for leather jackets. After having discussed the price for our three jackets some time (which of course was very long, since at least two of the involved were Brazilians) and agreed on what we thought was a good price we were informed this price would not at all be valid if we were to pay by credit card. As we did not have that amount of pesos required, a new negotiation starts, on what this would be in differnt available currencies. After still some more time we finally paid in a mix of Argentinian pesos, US-dollars, Euros and Brazilian reais. The last missing amount I had to go and get from an ATM. Afterwards I was quite sceptic to whether it was such a good affair in the end, as I feared that the discount we negotiated so hardly for, might have gotten lost in the different exchange rates and finally in the fee for an extra cash withdrawal from the ATM, but my friend was still very positive and optimistic about it.

Another thing that I find a little annoying are those landing cards that some countries in this part of the world insist that you should fill in before entering the country. It just seems so completely useless. You basically just fill in the same information that is already in the passport plus which flight you come with, how long you will stay and where you will stay. I am sure no one really reads what you write on this paper. And I feel absolutely sure that no ones bothers to connect the information on these little paper slips with the electronically read infromation from your passport and also sure that no one ever checks whether the information you give about where you will stay in the country is correct or not. Nowadays most countries have electronically readable passports which means more and more information is allready stored on the entry of the country and if it is really that important I am sure it would be faster and more efficient for everyone if the immigration officers would just ask and add the information directly in the computor on entry. Because I really find it hard to believe they will collect all the little paper slips and enter the information later, most likely those slips will just be stored somewhere for a while and then thrown away.

The strange thing is also that they wont tell you what this slip is for and what you are supposed to do with the part that you get to keep. I have been told that in Brazil it is important that you keep it and leave it on exiting the country, but when I arrived in March i didn't get one and no one asked for it when I re-entered in June. That time I got a slip that I have keept but now, on leaving again in September no one asked for it and even though I had it I did not hand it over as it was not asked for. In Peru however I had to present the slip on checking in at the hote and also at buying some tickets. Just a good fortune I kept it handy. Now, on entering Argentina you had to fill in three papers, one they kept, on I suppose I will have to leave on leaving tomorrow, but the third, that was for the customs, no one asked for, so that one I still have. I am kind of glad they did not ask for that one, because it was very difficult to fill in. One question was whether you carry items purchased outside of Argentina. I mean, as I had never been to Argentina before, it means everything I had was purchased outside of Argentina, but I am not sure they would want me to declare that anyway...

Thoughts from my hotelroom

It is funny how fast one can get used to things. After having travelled on my own for a while and being very happy with that and having a good time, I was quite sceptic about getting company by a friend from Brasilia that came to Buenos Aires to meet me. It took about a day and a half getting to terms with having company, but now, when my friend have left, it feels very empty all of a sudden. It feels boring to be on my own and I don't feel like going out and do anything. Ok, part of the explanation for that can be that it is very cold and windy tonight and I send all my warm clothes with my friend to Brasilia so therefore I really don't feel like going out. Normally, going out in the evenings alone was always the most boring part of travelling alone, but now it feels even worse, but if the sun is shining tomorrow I am sure it will feel better.

Another thing that is strange, ironic and typical is this thing about not being able to shop when one really wants to shop. If I am not supposed to buy anything and especially if I don't really have the money to shop, then I always find a lot of things that I want, but if I really plan to buy something I won't find anything. Like in Cusco. The first day I passed through the markets and saw a lot of things that I liked, but the last day when I still had too many soles that I wanted to get rid of I didn't find a thing that I liked. Yesterday when many shops were closed due to holiday I saw a lot of nice things in the shop windows here in Buenos Aires, but this afternoon when I went out for shopping I found nothing. I did however bought a red leather jacket in the morning. Happy! And I have the whole day tomorrow.

One of the reasons it is difficult to shop here is that it is so completely wrong season for me. All the shops are full of light spring and summer clothes, which feels very strange for me going back to the Swedish autumn and winter in a week. Actually it feels strange even if I consider how it feels here right now. Having spent the last six months in constant sunshine and over 30 degrees, it feels strange to think it is spring, going to summer, when it is 15 degrees, cloudy or even rainy.

I really hope the weather will be better when I come to Rio on Thursday. I so look forward to a couple of days on the beach. If it will be cold and rainy I don't know what I will do, maybe I then go back to Brasilia one day earlier to get all things ready and have more time to say goodbye to people...

Global Shopping

When I was in Ethiopia last year I bought a dress that I haven’t used once since. One of the reasons I haven’t used it is that I haven’t found any shoes that goes with it. It is a somewhat special dress and requires special shoes. I have had a quite clear idea of what kind of shoes I would like, but just haven’t found any, even though I have been looking for them, more or less actively, ever since. So, last weekend when I ended up in one of the shopping malls here in Brasília I all of a sudden saw two pairs that might fit on display in a shop. I went in to try them on. With my poor skills in Portuguese I did only manage to get the shop assistant to understand that I wanted to see one of the pairs, not both and the ones she took out were not great on my feet. And as they were not very cheap I did not want to buy any without being sure that they would fit to the dress.

But since then I have been coming back to those shoes in my mind. As I have the dress with me here, I took it with me today and went back to the same shop. The other pair matched the dress perfectly! Almost on the verge of being an over-match, but having looked for so long I could not not buy them once I found them. They did not have them in the size I asked for but strangely the smaller size fitted, so I bought them. I find it very amusing that I now have an Ethiopian dress and Brazilian shoes that look as they were made for each other.

On the other hand I would be surprised if you could not find shoes here to go with anything. There are a LOT of shoe stores here and there are shoes in every colour and shape. I might have to send a suite case full of shoes home.