It was a great trip nearly eight weeks long through Chile and Argentina. We flew ca. 10,000 km whithin Chile and Argentina and also travelled a lot by car and by public bus. The cruise Puerto Natales – Puerto Montt has not met our expectations but all other places and activities were gorgeous and we will remember vividly. Especially the second part of the trip with the Altiplano, the Atacama desert and the Quebradas in Argentina impressed us.
Throughout the trip, we were wondering that payments by credit card were not welcome and instead the shops insisted on cash. In Argentina it was even much worse than in Chile. In Argentina, we were approached everywhere on the street to exchange money (cambio, cambio). In many stores you could pay considerably less (up to 10%) if you paid cash. The few banks where you could withdraw with the credit card money have offered bad exchange rates or have charged 30% fees! In Chile, the fee for withdrawing money with the credit card was „only“ 2.5%. However, the shops and also our landlord in Putre insisted on cash payment although this was not agreed. The only bank in Putre charged 5% fee when withdrawing by credit card!!!
