20,000 Pesos?

Of course it's hard to switch from a dollar to 500 pesos. Who wouldn't find that difficult? I went to the store a few weeks ago and took with me what I thought were 2-2,000 bills. Little did I know that I had grabbed 2-20,000 bills instead. So, instead of carrying maybe 5 dollars with me, I had 45.

I went through the store, found what I needed, and went to the register. When the cashier said the total, 2,489, I pulled out my 2-20,000 bills and she stared at me with this look of shock. I was really confused. I kept looking at her thinking, what is the big deal? Do I have something on my face? Did I do something wrong? Then she repeated the total to me again and I again tried to give her the money. Once again, she repeated the total. I looked down at the bills and said, "Oh, goodness..."

I was throughly embarassed. Everyone was looking at me in the other check-out lanes and now the cashier and the bagger obviously knew that I was not Chilean. That always causes slow speech and lots of gestures.

I finally got out of the store and I was just glad that I was able to leave.

I wonder if foreigners have had trouble with U.S. bills and I have been less than patient with them before...