as
always we arrive at a hostel without a reservation and the taxi meter reads
COP36,000 (US$20) and I’m trying to pay him an initial 20,000 Colombian Pesos
to keep him waiting while Christine checks to see if the hostel has a room for
us. It’s close to midnight and the streets are dark. The taxi driver is looking
at my various COP20,000 notes and shouting in Spanish. I can tell he’s mad but
don’t know why. All my notes seem to have a pencil-sized hole in them. The
Hostel receptionist holds my notes up to a light and explains to me that they
are all counterfeit. Someone fobbed them off on me some time ago I suppose. A
huge amount of the Colombian currency is fake and people tear them or deface
them in some way to stop them circulating further.
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