Fully agree, what I'm trying to avoid is returning to Chile with Argentine pesos.

That said, note that when I buy Argentine pesos in Santiago, the best exchange rate I can get is approximately 20% off the blue rate. Plenty of Argentines come to Chile to visit and are desperate to unload their money, so you'd think that the money changers here (Chile) would be willing to sell Argentine pesos at close to the blue rate. But not so.

Yesterday the buy rate for Argentine pesos in Santiago was AR$1 = CLP$42. At the current exchange rate of US$1.00 = CLP$590, this is equivalent to US$1.00 = AR$14, which is slightly below the current blue rate of 14.2 (according to the La Nación website).

If I take the midpoint between the AR$ buy (14) and sell (11.6, see my post yesterday) rates in Santiago I get an exchange rate of US$1.00 = AR$12.8. This suggests to me that Chilean money changers are valuing the Argentine peso higher than the Argentine people, assuming that the blue rate as reported by La Nación represents the consensus Argentine perception of the market value of their own currency.

Hmmm...opportunity for arbitrage?