Roaming South America

Formosa, Argentina

December 7, 2024

Formosa, Argentina, a city of about 235,000 in the urban area, sits on the river border with Paraguay, a few hours south of Asunción, Paraguay (capital of Paraguay). I visited Formosa about a year and-a-half ago and wrote that I liked this small city, I also wrote that it is quiet. And that still stands. And, now they are doing more reclamation work alongside the river which will extend the park space.

The town center plaza is more than 2 blocks square, which makes it quite large, especially for a small city. It's a very nice park with fountains and play areas for children, lots of benches and trees to relax under. The city center is not just one central business district, but is extended and includes many houses mixed in with the low-rise buildings. My second day here was wet - it rained on and off all day long. But I had no choice but to go to the bus terminal to get a ticket for the trip to Asunción on Sunday. So I also walked around the town in areas I hadn't seen during my previous visit, and of course by the time I got back to my room I was just about soaked all the way through. Oh well, it wasn't cold at all, with temps around 27°C (about 81° F). Yesterday it was downright hot and worse - very humid, at one point my phone showed the temp was 41°C (about 106°F), with humidity of almost 60%. Right now it is summer here and the summer weather is like that - hot, humid, and occasionally rainy.

Being from the US I remember seeing many articles about the bad economy in Argentina, and they are correct, the economy is crap here. But it is also just about incomprehensible. For example: I have been renting an apartments for my stays in the various cities and they have cost the equivelant of US$20 or less per night. Yet, when I go to a restaurant, whether in the city center or in a suburban neighborhood, and the price of a single meal starts around US$15. You can see the costs are way out of line, the disparity is shocking. I've spoken to several locals in different towns about this and they don't understand how it can be like that and just have to accept it. Inflation and exchange rates are playing havoc with the economy, is it helping? I don't know. It seems to me that I am taking cash out of ATMs an awful lot. That's another issue - the ATMs in AR have a limit of only 40,000 pesos (around US$40). I tried getting 50,000 but the machines refuse, but they will give 40,000. Which sucks when you want to pay cash for several nights in an hotel and have cash for restaurants. The machines, if you're lucky, will give one or two 10,000-peso bills, maybe five 2000-pesos bills, and the rest in 1000-pesos bills. Usually, I end up receiving 25 1000-peso bills, and doing that two times. I end up with a pocket full of cash. Oh, and AR has no coins. They have only paper money, the 10-peso bill are like pennies in the US, useless, laughed at. The 50-peso bills are almost as bad. Today's exchange rate is US$1.00 = 1012 pesos. So a 10-peso bill is a hair less than US$0.01, 50-pesos is a hair under US$0.05.

Sunday, tomorrow, I'm heading for Asunción, Paraguay, and I'll be glad to leave Argentina. The people are certainly friendly, much more so than Chilenos. Chilenos (the people in Chile) are generally rude and put-offish. I didn't much like them, though the food was better than in Argentina. Argentine food is, I my opinion, the worst in South America. So little variety and nothing particularly tasty. In all my years in Colombia I never thought of Colombian food as great, but it is better than the food in Argentina. Of the countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Chile, and Argentina, the food in Perú is the best, followed by Ecuador. Anyway, now I'm heading into Paraguay where I will pursue residency status. Wish me luck! Thanks!