Argentina's indigenous colour

WE walked briskly through several streets of shops and crossed the grand, multi-laned La Avenida 9 de Julio - one of Buenos Aires's most historically significant boulevards named in honour of Argentina's Independence Day - before we hit a stretch of Jacaranda trees in full bloom.

But we couldn't stop for an Instagram moment - not when we were on a mission to change money. We had just 10 minutes before the money changer closed on Palermo, the city's poshest shopping street. "It's not so near your hotel, but they're a reliable place to change money," recommended our travel agent from the company Say Hueque, cautioning us against changing notes with the touts in the central district's Calle Florida. They openly shout out "Cambio! Cambio!" at you, but tourists have blogged about fake Argentinian pesos, or getting robbed down the road after they've done your exchange.

We thought we were going to a regular money exchange - you know, like the glass-and-grilled boxes in our shopping malls and office buildings - even though we were told this was the "black market" exchange. "Surely they just mean a money exchange on the street rather than the bank right?" Or so we thought.