It's a shame that currency is going digital, because I've always appreciated physical money, or cash: the different designs of the $1 bill, $5 bill, even the quarters series featuring all 50 states garnered some interest. It's not just U.S. currency, neither: in my travels I've found getting foreign currency is an experience in its own: when trading in U.S. dollars for Japanese yen or Chinese yuan or euros, I feel like I'm getting ripped off by the exchange rate and paying unnecessarily for exchanging currency, but at least I get something new that represents the culture of the country or region I'm visiting: like a country's food, music, language, train system, architecture, art museums, airports, and famous landmarks, currency sets a country apart and is part of the appeal of visiting, at least to me.
This weekend MJ and I had the pleasure of attending a destination wedding in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a touristy type of town 4 hours away from Mexico City in the state of Guanajuato, and a UNESCO World Heritage site ( I personally think that designation is a little overrated based on some of the world heritage sites I've visited that turned out to be underwhelming, like the Great Smokey Mountains, Independence Hall, etc.) but I could understand why San Miguel was chosen: it's a small village in the mountains that feels like Europe, with vast arrays of colors and cobblestone steps that remind me of the olden days, and a great church in the middle of the town that reminded me of Florence, Italy. It really did remind M.J. and I of our Italian trip: the weather, for one, but also the scenes walking around the city and some of the hilltop views during sunrise and sunset.
But alas, I wanted to talk about the peso: a weird exchange rate to the U.S. dollar: 17 pesos to a dollar, pretty hard to calculate. Apparently the rate used to be as high as 23 pesos to a dollar during the pandemic, and it's dropped since then and the people seem to know that: they anticipate it dropping further thus they preferred pesos over dollars (personally i think it's a good chance to buy low on dollars, but hey what do I know). Paying for meals and cab rides in pesos, I'm struck by how tenuous our faith is in money: we're relying on the central government to back the dollar, or the peso, or whatever currency a country uses, just on the implicit promise that the government won't fail tomorrow and there be a run on the banks making money useless. It's just a piece of paper, but with a little mutual understanding and magic it can buy so much, make all one's dreams come true, and keep you from staying hungry.
Mexican currency also had some history on them: The highest bill we got was the 500 peso bill, featuring Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera (I watched the 2002 film "Frida" by Julie Taymor starring Selma Hayek on the plane ride back- good movie, learned about the tragedy of Fridays short life) but also the 1000 peso bill has Miguel Hidalgo, the father of Mexican independence who was a priest, and the 20 peso bill stars Benito Juarez, the president who defeated the French making Cinco de Mayo famous. As one fellow wedding guest remarked though, going to San Miguel wasn't cheap: even though it's Mexico, things in San Miguel cost about as much as it did in a normal American city, if not more; call it the luxury tax of being an American tourist. The people of San Miguel didn't want our American dollars necessarily, but they didn't hesitate to accept our converted Mexican pesos. Memorable trip, but I think I'm more of a Europe and Asia travel guy than Mexico- maybe one day we'll go to South America to try to visit every country. Look out Peru sols and Brazilian reals! We're coming for you!
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