We arrived in El Calafate after a longish trip by bus from Chile. It wasn't really that long in terms of distance but with a border crossing involved, everyone had to pile off and on the bus twice to go through the ritual of document checking. The Argentine police also boarded the bus twice, once at the border and once at a checkpoint near the end of the trip to check for something or other.
El Calafate is a town of contrasts. The suburbs looked pretty ordinary - nary a tree was to be seen. One minute we were driving through the steppe and the next it was still the steppe, just with houses. However the main street was the lovely contrast, with a line of nice shady trees and interesting touristy shops and restaurants.
Now the real gripe. Having neglected to do our research, we soon discovered that there was a good reason why the first rule for tourists visiting Argentina is to bring bundles of US dollars. Argentinian ATMs are easily the worlds worst. Most had a withdrawal limit of 2000 pesos (that's just $74AUD) with a withdrawal fee of 200 pesos ($7). Basically this means there's a 10% tax on everything you buy with cash!
This wouldn't be such a problem if a huge number of businesses didn't take credit cards. Some of those that do were advertising sale items with 30-35% off if you paid cash which gives you an idea of the scarcity of physical currency.
Of more immediate concern for us was paying for our accommodations for the next week. After strongly considering money transfers from Australia, thankfully we eventually found the one bank in town with a 5500 peso withdrawal limit (thought the withdrawal fee was still outrageous) and hit it with multiple cards.
Apart from the liquidity challenge, everything else in El Calafate, particularly accommodations and dining have both been first class. The restaurant next to our hotel served amazing lamb, and it accepted mastercard which meant we could afford dessert.
El Calafate is a town of contrasts. The suburbs looked pretty ordinary - nary a tree was to be seen. One minute we were driving through the steppe and the next it was still the steppe, just with houses. However the main street was the lovely contrast, with a line of nice shady trees and interesting touristy shops and restaurants.
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| West of town where the steppe meets the mountains |
Now the real gripe. Having neglected to do our research, we soon discovered that there was a good reason why the first rule for tourists visiting Argentina is to bring bundles of US dollars. Argentinian ATMs are easily the worlds worst. Most had a withdrawal limit of 2000 pesos (that's just $74AUD) with a withdrawal fee of 200 pesos ($7). Basically this means there's a 10% tax on everything you buy with cash!
This wouldn't be such a problem if a huge number of businesses didn't take credit cards. Some of those that do were advertising sale items with 30-35% off if you paid cash which gives you an idea of the scarcity of physical currency.
Of more immediate concern for us was paying for our accommodations for the next week. After strongly considering money transfers from Australia, thankfully we eventually found the one bank in town with a 5500 peso withdrawal limit (thought the withdrawal fee was still outrageous) and hit it with multiple cards.
Apart from the liquidity challenge, everything else in El Calafate, particularly accommodations and dining have both been first class. The restaurant next to our hotel served amazing lamb, and it accepted mastercard which meant we could afford dessert.
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| Argentina is not a good country for vegetarians. The dish in the foreground is "Patagonian Lamb for 2" |
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