While preparing for our trip to El Salvador, we learned that the country uses the US dollar as their currency. This made things a bit easier for us since we wouldn’t have to convert prices when buying things.
Our first touristy stop of the trip was to a very interesting church in San Salvador. I paid the entry fee with a $20 bill and was a bit confused at first when I got my change.
I received a $10 bill and a handful of gold coins. I initially thought that the coins were local currency which were still being used. After a closer look, I saw a familiar coin that I hadn’t seen in quite some time.
Remember those dollar coins that many of us used to order from the US Mint (with free shipping) around 10 years back? It appears that a ton of them ended up in El Salvador!
While at dinner last night, we ran into another American for probably the first time during our trip. While chatting with him throughout our meal, I told the tale of ordering dollar coins from the US Mint to earn free miles and points.
Ahhh, the good old days!
Christian & Stogieguy7- We were supposed to go to Ecuador over Spring Break in 2020… Covid happened.
I wonder if Ecuador is similar. When I was in Cambodia in 2019 I observed that when you paid with dollars (they use dollars and local currency as legal tender) you always got back change in their currency.
Ecuador is very similar; in fact the last time I was there – they were using the Sacajawea dollar coin far more than the paper dollar bill.