The Oddness of Seeing Dollar Prices from the 1970s

I like to travel for the new people & places you can meet & discover. And I like to travel in the tropics for the weather & the food--both of which generally agree with me.

But I have to admit that I love traveling in the developing world because the lower costs also very much agree with me. Whether you get 33 baht, 10 pesos, or 8 quetzales for the greenback, those lower costs don´t quite compute like they do in El Salvador, which ditched its own currency in 2001 and adopted the dollar. Nevertheless, it´s truly odd to see prices in dollars & cents that I haven´t seen since I was 12 or 15, or even 20 years old.

How about pastries for 15 to 55 cents? Or an ordinary cup of coffee for 20-60 cents? Bus fares for between 35-75 cents, or a dollar at most. A can of Coke in the supermarket for 30-35 cents. A sandwich for two dollars, breakfast for $3.00. Fresh OJ for 50 cents. A delicious latte for $1.50 or $2.00. Aguardiente (the local firewater) for $2.35 in the supermarket. A short taxi trip for $2.00-5.00, a long taxi trip for $10-15. . .the list goes on.

I have high speed internet for 50 cents an hour! That´s a far cry from the $13 per hour I saw offered in an American airport.

Some prices are more "normal" for me, I guess. Hotels, for example, run the full spectrum of price points. I try to average $20 per night for two star rooms with TV & private bath, and I mostly succeed, but sometimes you have to pay $40-50 for something that´s not much better than Motel 6 at home. On the other hand, sometimes you pay that much for something really nice.

And gasoline, sold by the gallon in Central America, is usually the same or more expensive than in the U.S. Here in El Salvador it´s $3.30-3.50 a gallon.

But ultimately what can´t be beat is the fact that these places--where most of the ordinary people you meet are poorer than the average Westerner--often have some of the most natural beauty in the world. It´s a cliche, I know, because of a famous credit card commercial, but that´s fairly priceless. . .