When I say great, I mean HUGE...the numbers, not the notes. It took a few days to wrap our minds around the exchange and how prices are displayed. At this point, for a very rough exchange $1 Canadian is equal to about 3000 Co$ (pesos, but they use a dollar sign, quite frequently.) They can also be known as COP.
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| Next to the # is a tiny "mil", meaning 1,000 |
When you look at menus, you'll see prices like: $30,000 (a mid priced entree) or $9,000 (local beer). It can be quite overwhelming, especially when they tell you the total verbally...in Spanish. The actual currency notes are less challenging, as they sort of drop the final three zeros, so my North American brain can wrap itself around it. What's crazy, at least to me, is that they are unapologetic about the huge numbers. I'd be tempted to write 1m or 25m on a menu, price tag etc. Generally, this isn't the practice in Columbia, and they go whole hog.
The coins are a bit crazier. The largest coin I've seen is $1,000 and the smallest $50. There seems to be a range of sized for the $100 peso coins, which makes it that much more difficult, as relying on size goes right out the window.
It's the size of the numbers that is strange and takes some time to adapt. We had a receipt today for $247,000...crazy! And our hotel was over 1million COP for the week. Heart stopping, at first glance, at least.
Eventually, you'll get the hang of it, but be prepared to just trust the change you're given for the first day or so.
Up next: Medellin...but, maybe I said that before.
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