This is getting quite specialised: the Argentina forum holds the answers. There was a discussion going on there about this very topic.

You're asking for reassurance it's difficult to give. But of course Western Union employees are safe: maybe grumpy and unhelpful, maybe they'll refuse to speak English, but they are unlikely to risk cheating you and they are unlikely to pull a gun on you .

Cuevas are a fact of life in the city: it seems a bit cloak and dagger, but they oil commerce, do high volumes of business and are tolerated by the authorities. It's not in their operators' interests to create problems over (relatively) small transactions with foreigners.

Walking the streets of most world cities with large amounts of cash in your pocket is never wise. But there you are: at the end of the day you've got to decide if you are happy taking on a measure of inconvenience, putting yourself in a situation you might not feel fully comfortable or secure. Many simply don't bother playing the black-market game for any or all of those reasons.


Currency Controls