Podcast: Play in new window | Download (42.5MB)

Argentina is the best place for McDonald’s so far! In this video we try some of their double Angus burgers. Mmmm!

We’ve been in Buenos Aires for a month now and somehow we’ve only eaten at McDonald’s a couple times. Which is strange, because they’re ALL OVER THE PLACE down here! If you were to walk into the middle of the street in front of our building, you could literally see four different McDonald’s restaurants within sight on Corrientes Avenue. I could point you to at least 3 more within 4 blocks of the same area. ¡McLoco!

Too bad we’re on a budget, because McDonald’s is pretty spendy here. Our McAngus McCombo McMeals, if you super size ’em, run about $10 USD. One meal for the two of us would be 1/5th of our daily budget. (Which is why we’ve been living off the cheaper steak and wine, boo-hoo-hoo!)

US
Canada
Mexico
Costa rica
Venezuela
Ecuador
Peru
Bolivia
Argentina
Chile
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Puerto Rico, US Territory
Russia
Australia
Netherlands *
England *
Cuba –
Colombia †
Uruguay ‡

* Just in the airport
– Countries I have visited in which there are no McDonald’s
† Countries I have visited and have NOT eaten at a McDonald’s
‡ Countries I have visited and have NOT eaten at a McDonald’s, but ones which I plan to revisit within the next WEEK(!!) and remedy that situation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (41.5MB)

Well, we didn’t get to go to McDonald’s in Bolivia. Not for lack of trying, but rather for lack of… existence. Instead, the next installment of our McDonald’s sampling series comes to you from Chile.

While on a really long bus ride in Chile, I decide to make a list of all the countries in which I’ve eaten at McDonald’s. Here it is:

US
Canada
Mexico
Costa rica
Venezuela
Ecuador
Peru
Bolivia
Argentina
Chile
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Puerto Rico, US Territory
Russia
Australia
Netherlands *
England *
Cuba –
Colombia †
Uruguay ‡

* Just in the airport
– Countries I have visited in which there are no McDonald’s
† Countries I have visited and have NOT eaten at a McDonald’s
‡ Countries I have visited and have NOT eaten at a McDonald’s, but ones which I plan to revisit within the next month and remedy that situation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (42.7MB)

I mentioned briefly in the last post that I went to McDonald’s in Ecuador.  I wanted to make a video about eating there, but when I left Quito, I didn’t realize that would be my last shot at a Mickey-D’s in the country.  (There’s no McDonald’s in Cuenca, just a KFC and a Burger King.)  Anyway, I wasn’t about to risk that happening again in Peru.  Before we left the capital city, I made sure to have cameras rolling for my order.

It was fun putting this video together; I may try to do it again with the other countries we visit, too.

The first time I visited Ecuador was at the end of 1998. I’ve been back twice since then; once at the tail end of 2009 and again at the end of 2010.  Not being very familiar with the country makes it pretty difficult to spot the changes over that timeframe (I noticed a few), but it’s fairly easy to pick out the differences between Ecuador and the United States.

Here are some of the little things I noticed:

Economy and Prices

One of the ways to gauge how inexpensive it will be to travel through a foreign country is to look at the exchange rate.  Generally speaking, if one of your dollars buys a whole bunch of their currency, you can expect that your stay won’t cost you very much.  That used to be true in Ecuador.  When I first arrived in 1998, one US dollar bought about 6,000 sucres.  By the time we left Ecuador, three months later, that same dollar gave us 13,000 sucres.  Their economy was tanking.

(more…)