Backpacking South America

“I don’t want to walk home today, it’s over 2 miles. I wish we had enough coins to take the bus. I mean, it’s only AR $2.40 for both us (that’s about $0.65 US), but we never seem to have enough coins. It shouldn’t be this difficult to ride the bus.” This routine day after day has definitely been the bane of our existence as well as a game we are learning to master.

The colectivos (buses) in Buenos Aires, only take coins. As we mentioned in our First Impressions post , it’s a racket. Everybody uses the colectivos to get around, to go to school, to go to work or run errands. They are always full, all the time. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually gotten a seat.

People rely on coins to catch the bus to take them where they need to go. In fact, they hoard their coins so they can ride the colectivos, and the government doesn’t seem to create enough of them to meet the demand.  As a result, the colectivos get all the coins, while merchants and people alike refuse to part with their coins.

Unlike other students/tourists, we rely on the colectivos to go to school every day.  A roundtrip is $5.00 in monedas total – so moneda is like gold to us…and everyone else. In fact, I picked up a 10 centavo coin (equivalent of 10 cents) the other day on the colectivo. God only knows how many times it was stepped on…but we were short 10 centavos this morning. Good thing I picked that coin up, otherwise it would have been 20. 10 centavos is easy to find…we just ask Liliana. She has a stash.

So, on a daily basis, we work hard to game the system by playing “Capture the Monedas.” Monedas is what they call change.

The object of this game is to get as much moneda as possible.

First, some background. Argentina coins come in 5, 10, 25, and 50 centavos and 1 peso. They then have 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 peso notes.

The Rules Are:

1. Buy want you need or will likely need in the next few days.
2. Purchase the combination of items that will result in the most coins having to be returned.
3. Calculate your net flow of monedas at the end of the day.

Determining a Win:

- Any day that you go to bed with an equal or greater amount than you started; and
- Have enough for the colectivo fare in the morning.
- If you accomplish both, you’re a CHAMP.

It’s Strategy and Mental Math

At first, we would always ask Argentinias, “how do you get moneda?” And the funny thing was (apparently there is no irony in this), they all looked at you and laughed and said, “Ah, sí.” Okay, that didn’t answer my question. How? Luck.

Again, strategy. We’ve come to master the skill. To have a lot of moneda is relative; it’s more like, having enough. Liliana tells us to “lie.” When making a purchase, if the cashier asks if you have any moneda – Lie. Act like a dumb tourist, say “sorry, I have no centavos.” They wish to round it off to the nearest peso, because they too, want centavos.

For some reason it seems more important that the store keeps their moneda. Unfortunately, it’s true. So, before we make a purchase, we contemplate how we will receive the most centavos from this purchase. Often times, we split the purchase into two separate transactions. The key is: Don’t let them see your hand. Always have the upper hand. Every opportunity you have to get more centavos, take it. You never know when you will need them.

Example of a Good Buy

I am not really hungry, but I might be soon. Let’s see what I can buy that will give me enough change to get home. If I buy this item for $1.25, that’s only 75 centavos in change. However, if I also buy another item for 1 peso, then its $2.25 and if I pay with 2 $2 peso notes ($4 pesos total), they have to give me $1.75 pesos in monedas.  As noted in the earlier example, if you get too close to the even dollar, they will happily forfeit some change to keep a lot of change…

Example of a Good Buy Gone Bad

On a recent trip trip to the store, we found crackers for $2.15 – a gold mine in the waiting.  We go to checkout, pay with 2 two peso notes.  The cashier asks, “Centavos?” We say, “No.” She gave us the crackers and 2 pesos back.  While we should celebrate that we got a 7.5% discount, we were frustrated because the only reason we bought the crackers in the first place was to get change.  It is a strange concept that stores would rather forfeit money in order to keep thier monedas.