Monedas and tramites

If you ever come to Buenos Aires and will be using the public transportation system here, please hold on to your monedas, or coins, because while they are in great demand, they are not that readily available.

So on Tuesday, I needed to ride the buses to work as usual but I was out of coins. I thought, “oh no problem, I will just go to any store down the street, buy something, and ask for the change back in coins.” Simple, right? Well, after 5 stores and no luck, I began to doubt the cordiality of Argentines. It was not until I went to a kiosco (like a tiny 7-11 but individually owned) did I realize that the kiosco only has 2 coins in total and was only to give me one as part of my change. The vender told me to go to Banco Francis (it’s almost like Citibank in the States) to change my bills into coins. I had to wait in line for half an hour (with everyone glancing at me once in a while –I have no idea why), and guess how many coins I was able to exchange after all that hassle?! A brilliant amount of five pesos! That’s 2 days’ worth of buses. Legally, the bank should be able to exchange however many coins you needed but the problem is, they don’t have enough.

It is just one example of the many problems here with the city in general. But waiting in line for half an hour just for 5 pesos seems to be nothing to Argentines because they have to deal with trámites everydays. Trámites are like transactions/steps and for things like paying for electricity or doing anything with the government, Argentines have to wait in a huge line only to get a receptionist who tells them they need to go to window 5, then a huge line at window 5 only to have a representative telling them need to go submit a certain form to desk 8. They get to desk 8, they fill out the form (if they are unlucky, there might be no more forms and need to go to another window to ask for more) only to realize they need documents A, B, and C. Well, that’s swell because they might have never been notified of such requirement and need to come back tomorrow, only to start the whole process again.

That’s trámites for you, and it’s part of Argentine life. My half an hour at a bank does not even count as a part of the process but it’s already wearing me out.