Hi friends!
Tomorrow I will be on a 24 hour bus from Santa Marta, Colombia to Caracas, Venezuela. I will be crossing the land border near Maicao.
There is a lot of talk on this forum about black-market USD and euro exchange to the BF. What about Colombian Pesos (COP)???
Can I exchange a small or large amount of COP into BF at the land border?? Is it easy?? What about COP into BF at the airport (domestic terminal, going onto Los Roques)?
Thanks all and happy travels!!!
Sarah
First of all let me admit that I have zero experience exchanging Colombian Pesos (COP) to Bolivar Fuerte (VEF is a more common term than BF), but let me make a guess...
It's actually a business in Colombia to take money out of an ATM, exchange it to dollars, then take the USDs out of the country to deposit into a USD account. If you time it right you can easily make an instant 15% to 20%. (I did very well doing this last winter.)
Thus, because USDs are so cheap in Colombia (gotta get rid of that drug money somehow) I can't imagine that you wouldn't do way better converting your COP to USD, then+ into VEF. (USD to VEF exchange rates on the black market are, as you mentioned, +very lucrative right now.)
Throw in the fact that Venezuela and Colombia are on very poor terms politically so I imagine the Venezuelans will screw you on the COP exchange rate.
Again, this is only a guess. I'll be interested to hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about...
In any case, good luck and safe travels.
Cheers,
Terry
I'd be interested to know Sarah what bus you're taking.
Also if it stops across from the hotel sharif in Maricaibo before continuing on to Caracas
Fyi I changed some u$s dollars at the border in question back in 05 on the black market for about the same exchange as the other black markets
Didn't have many pesos left to change but they were changing those also