In the last couple days I’ve discovered the existence of the “Blue Dollar”: a euphemism for the not-so-underground black market for US dollars here in Argentina. Due to government restrictions, the official exchange rate is kept low while a parallel market tracks closer to the true value.
If you have US currency, you can exchange it for pesos at the black market rate, which currently is more than double the official rate.
So what does this mean for me?
My buying power more than doubled overnight.
Things that previously seemed moderately priced or even a tad expensive are now very affordable. Things that were already cheap… Are basically free.
I can now get a decent bottle of Malbec for $1.50 USD. Unreal.
The really interesting thing, for me, didn’t occur until after I began walking away from Western Union with a massive stack of cash in my pack. I started thinking about all the things I could do now that I didn’t need to worry about the cost. A whole new world of opportunity was available to me, guilt-free.
Immediately I felt considerably more excited about the city and my general feelings towards it improved dramatically.
Don’t get me wrong: I already liked the city quite a bit. But where there was once a mindset of thrift and having to hold back in a lot of ways, there is now only opportunity. And that mindset shift is huge.
I thought back to some of my favorite cities and places in the world, and realized that a huge contributing factor (sometimes perhaps the main factor) was simply how affordable they were.
Cheap and great tacos in Mexico, cheap drinks at my favorite college bars, cheap… Everything in Colombia. When you don’t have to worry about what you’re spending, you simply have a better time.
And then I thought a little more.
As long as things are affordable to me, I could feel this way anywhere.
If I was making $500,000/year, I wouldn’t think twice about a $30 cocktail. Just about any restaurant or bar in the world would be so affordable to me that I could just go and have a great time without worrying about the cost at all.
This all just sort of taught me that “cheap” and “expensive” are relative, and more importantly: that things are a lot more enjoyable if you can afford them without any issues.