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- There's a bunch of cash there, I See it.
- [Drew] Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
- Bro, it means nothing!
(laughter)
- He's trying to find $100 in Venezuelan cash.
I think it's going to be an impossible mission.
- I don't think its going to be impossible.
- It has to be possible.
- I don't have Venezuelan currency in my pocket
since I think two years ago.
- Really?
- I haven't been into a bank,
I haven't used a ATM.
- Today I'm on a mission to take a hundred US dollars
and see how much Bolivares we can get with that money
It must be possible.
- In cash? I don't know.
- I don't know where to find it,
I don't know where to find it.
- [Drew] Someone has it, someone.
- Maybe we will go to local markets,
bakeries, small businesses who can manage bills because
as you saw, the breakfast was $36 or
in the exchange 43 million Bolivares,
how could you carry 43 million Bolivares in cash?
- The biggest note right now, I think is 50,000.
- Yeah, I think it is 50,000.
(upbeat music)
- These bills are different colors
they have the exact same pictures
See the face of the man?
And when you turn it around,
they're exactly identical, look.
- In my previous episodes in Venezuela
I've already addressed how the country has gotten itself
into this massive economical crisis that is more than twice
as severe as the US great depression.
One of the outcomes of this crisis has been hyperinflation
which is a very complex issue,
but I'm going to try to give you the basic rundown
so you can understand it.
Hyperinflation is a term used to describe rapid, excessive
and out of control general price increases in an economy
Typically at rates that are exceeding 50% each month
over time.
That means if a loaf of bread cost a dollar today,
the next month, that same loaf of bread
would cost a dollar 50,
the next month to 25 and so on.
- (speaking in Spanish)
He said it doesn't work.
- [Drew] If wages aren't keeping pace with this inflation
which is certainly the case here in Venezuela
as the minimum wage is only 1.4 million Bolivares
or a dollar a month,
than the standard of living for people goes down
because they can't afford to pay for their basic needs.
Hyperinflation happened in Germany, post world war one,
It happened to Zimbabwe in the early 21st century,
And now Lebanon and Venezuela are the most recent countries
that are facing this sad reality.
Back when I filmed this video,
One US dollar was equal to about
1.3 million of Venezuelan Bolivares
And now just a few months later
that same dollar is about two and a half million Bolivares
nearly double.
Their country has unofficially adopted the US dollar
which is used in over 95% of purchases
But sadly, the locals can not pull them out of an ATM,
nor open up a bank account in dollars.
- All of them,
ATM's are like without money since
I think three years ago.
- [Drew] Which means their savings are being cut in half
almost every single month.
- Everyone has dollar bills on them, everyone.
- [Drew] Currently, there is a limited amount of US dollars
floating around in hard cash.
that's what people are seeking out to get their hands on
And that's exactly what inspired me to create this video.
So we're going to the West side of the city,
where are we heading first?
- We're going to go straight to Catia.
And Catia is what?
- A slum. A very hardcore slum.
Even the slums in Caracas,
I mean if you go to the bottom of the slum, for example
you can see the mountain in front of us
If you go to the bottom, I mean, nothing will happen
if you go straight to the top, maybe you are in risk
- Is that where we're going?
- Maybe in the afternoon, we're going to that part
Also in my left side, there is a police department, yeah
- So, be careful with cameras.
- Yeah. Be careful with cameras.
Crazy, no? You should be-
- This is wild.
Can anybody see inside here?
- No.
- Oh great!
- There's no way to see inside.
- That's really nice, then.
Cause I don't feel bad shooting.
Really quickly guys,
I wanted to take a second to thank the sponsor
of this video, which is Sony.
I recently joined the Sony alpha team before I
started shooting my docu-series and it has taken
my production to a whole new level.
What I love most about my Sony A7S3
is the insane auto-focus which never misses a beat
and the low light capability
which makes night time
look like broad day light.
My friends at Sony have been so kind to offer a giveaway
of three brand new ZV-1's which is one of the
best compact cameras on the market for vlogging.
It is super small, so you can stash it anywhere in your bag.
It is very user-friendly and it also takes great pictures.
to win as simply follow @drewbinksy and @sonyalpha
on Instagram and comment below two sentences
on what you will be using this camera for.
And as a bonus, I will be including three postcards
hand signed postcards and 10,000 bank notes
from Venezuela in the box.
Okay. Back to the story.
(Upbeat music)
- We're now heading into, what's it called?
- Mercado de Chacao.
- Mercado de Chacao, in Caracas
- [Drew] My first taste of Lavita.
(Spanish upbeat guitar)
- Pizza sauce.
Sugar, I don't know how many sugar, but.
Lamps.
- It's all one dollar?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sauce, sardines, salt, plantain leaves.
- [Drew] Is this a plantain?
- Yeah, pLantain are huge here.
Wow, this market is popping! Woo!
- And, always in the end, Salsa.
Salsa is the music we hear.
(Salsa music plays)
- If people ask me, can I say I'm American
or is it a bad thing?
Should I say I'm Canadian or something?
- Canadian is okay.
(Speaking in spanish)
- [Drew] Yeah, yeah yeah.
We proceeded to ask a few vendors
if they have any Bolivares
or if they could exchange even the smallest amount
of dollars and it wasn't looking good.
I started to realize that this was not
going to be an easy challenge.
(Speaking in Spanish)
- I asked him, he said, let's see, I'll check.
(Speaking in Spanish)
- No.
- Nothing, zero?
- No, bro.
- Next!
(Speaking in spanish)
(Speaking in spanish)
- [Drew] They don't have?
- No, they say I don't have.
- If I was here just one year ago
when a dollar equaled 30,000 Bolivares
it would have been much easier
but now with a dollar over 1 million
the local currency is becoming obsolete.
(speaking in spanish)
- [Drew] Anybody here? Ask him.
(speaking in spanish)
- [Drew] No?
- No, he said that its almost impossible
to find Bolivares.
Also the prices are in dollars everywhere.
- That's kinda new.
- [Drew] Oh, you haven't seen that before?
- Well this is Bolivares
- 3 million, they just avoid three zeros.
- [Drew] Really?
Yeah. This is 3 and a half million.
- [Drew] So the prices are in Bolivares
but you have to pay in dollars?
- Yeah. You could pay in Bolivares with debit card
because there is no credit cards in Venezuela also.
- [Drew] Our final hope was a vendor selling cheese.
- this is one of the best cheeses of Venezuela
You could try it.
- It looks like the one that we had in uh,
- Similar, but its not the same.
- Wow!
That is really good man.
- [Drew] We paid in dollars and he said he could give us
only part of our change in Bolivares.
Count it.
- He gave me 100,000.
100,000 Bolivares is like 10 cents of dollar
Less than 10 cents like 8 cents.
- So we have a long way to go to hit a 100 dollars?
(laughter)
- We have a lot of work to do.
- 10 cents, bro!
It costs more money to make the money than
the actual cost of the money
- this is less than one ticket of the bus.
- I'm going to say in English, then you translate
- Yeah.
- I'm doing a story where I'm trying to
take a 100 bucks and see if we can in the whole day
and get it, And this is not much to the gold
(speaking in spanish)
- He thinks that we will make it.
- This is literally like nothing.
- They said that in this side of the city
it would be super difficult to get some cash
So let's head to Catia and
start looking in businesses there.
- Lets head to Catia man
I think we've had enough of this market.
- Yeah.
- [Drew] We headed deeper in to Catia
to seek out a bakery because we figured
that a small food shop would have a higher chance
of having Bolivares in their cashier.
After a very anxious walk
across the district, we found our bakery.
(jazz music)
- We're in the bakery, So this piece of bread
is almost a million.
- Yeah. Almost a million, That is almost $1
- [Drew] Just for this piece of bread?
- just from one piece of bread, yeah.
- so lets ask him if he has it all in Bolivares.
(speaking in spanish)
- Yeah, they invited me to pass.
- Can I go with you?
- Yeah yeah yeah, you can.
- Oh, we're going in the back of the shop I guess?
- Oh God.
Whoa.
- Vamos!
- Alright. Somehow we're going upstairs
in the shop in the back.
Oh my God.
- Hola, Gracias.
Well, we're in the office now?
- Yeah, we're in the office
we're going to ask if they have enough money.
- I want to see if you guys have bolivares
we're wanting to exchange.
(speaking in spanish)
(speaking in spanish)
(speaking in spanish)
- He said, he's going to take out
all the money that he has
So we're going to count how much it is
- [Drew] this is insane.
- Look at this.
- [Drew] There's more?
- Yeah.
- [Drew] Oh my God.
(spanish music plays)
- This is $1 because it's 10,000 bills.
200 bills here
So 200 bills
per 10,000,
per 10,000
That means 2 million Bolivares
So $2
- This big stack of money is 2 US dollars.
- Yeah.
- Holy crap, man.
- Here, the green ones are $4 because it's 20,000.
(laughs)
- It's incredible
(laughter)
- you understood?
- No, I didn't get that one.
- This is socialism
- Oh, socialism
- Here is $10.
- I just made a mess of Bolivares everywhere.
- So we're going to recount everything.
Just to avoid confusion
We have, these ones are $2
and we have one, two, three, four, five.
We have $10 here.
Then we have, these ones are $4.
So we have one, two, three,
so $12
plus 10,
$22 in here.
And these ones is the biggest bill
50,000, 200 bills per 50,000 is 10 million.
So we have $10 here.
So one,
two,
three,
four,
so $40
plus 22,
we have $62 here and I'm not going to count this
- [Drew] Forget that.
Is it okay if we give you dollars for all of these Bolivares
(speaking in spanish)
(laughter)
- Better?
- Very good!
- I'll give him dollars right now
- Twenty, fourty,
- [Drew] Seventy right?
- Yeah seventy, I mean its sixty-two
He's supposed to give you a change,
but you know that in Venezuela there is no change
- There's no change, so I'll just give him 70 for that
(speaking in spanish)
- [Drew] Oh, we won't take that twenty?
- No, he won't take that because its, yeah.
(speaking in spanish)
- This is the story of Venezuela, no?
- Perfecto.
- Yes?
- Okay, gracias amigo!
- Now we have the luxury of
putting all this money in the bag.
- Yes!
- [Drew] Okay, here we go.
- I feel like, in a mafia.
- [Drew] (laughs) Oh my God.
- Imagine how many dollars would be this?
Even if its all one dollars
- [Drew] Dude I can't even close the bag!
So this entire bag is full right now
- Sixty two dollars
We couldn't make $100 but
- We'll see later
- Yeah. We're going to keep finding in other places
To see if we can get the at the $38
- Okay, muchas gracias
- Lets go.
- [Drew] This bakery ended up being a huge success
and a wonderful experience to hang out with the guys
in the back room.
Some of those 10,000 bank notes that I got
are going to be used in the giveaway
So make sure to participate.
But our mission today is not yet complete.
We still need to exchange about $38
So we headed to a local supermarket to get the job done.
- [Drew] All right, lets move.
- Yeah
- You hold this now.
- [Drew] Well...hopefully.
The guy in the black shirt behind us
is a policeman but he's an undercover.
And we recruited him to come with us
and to make sure that we're safe
in case there's any problems but
it is not easy too shoot out here
It's pretty intense.
(dramatic music plays)
(speaking in spanish)
- Hi. How are you? Hola.
I want to see if you have any dollars I can exchange
for Bolivares
(speaking in spanish)
- You have? For maybe twenty dollars?
(speaking in spanish)
- Okay.
- We can go?
- Yeah.
- These people are so nice,
they just let us pass like
- Again, he invite us to the office
- They keep letting us in the back room.
- Yeah, Yeah, yeah
it seems like crazy
- Where are we going?
- I don't know, Let's see.
- This is so crazy, bro, woah
Again, fans of Christiano Ronaldo.
- Wow I feel taller in here
- Yeah.
- Check it out, go look
(speaking in spanish)
- I think this is not gonna work.
- [Drew] Why?
- Because these are old bills.
- They're old bills?
- before they took away the five zeros.
For example, look at this one
- Dude!
- This is the one that we were talking about.
- This, it's a hundred.
- The first one with Bolivares that kind of the same
- What? This is crazy
Wow. One? Oh my god
What is this worth?
- One multiplied by 1.1, two, three, four,
five, zero
One Bolivares is now that and then divided
I don't know, between 1 million Bolivares
- Yeah, the calculator doesn't even uh...
It's like zero point
zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero
one dollar
Since this coin, we have deleted eight zeros.
- Wait, so this is less than one Bolivares
- Whoa!
- This is how many zeros one Bolivares is
- This is one 10th of this
- Wait, is this 500 Bolivares or five hundredth of one.
- No, I don't even know, bro
(laughs)
- This is dollars, bro, 5 cents
- this nickel is worth like more than all of this
- Yeah yeah yeah yeah
See this bill that this guy has here
It's an antique, I mean
this worth a lot of money, this bill, you know?
It's 20 Bolivares
but you know, printed in 1995
In those times with this bill,
you don't even imagine how much you could buy
in the in the streets
My mom used to give me like one Bolivares or half
Bolivares daily for the school or whatever
So 20 maybe like monthly payment
for me as a kid in the nineties
- This is worth nothing.
Literally not even like a penny,
like it's worth literally nothing
- nothing, nothing,
- Like, nothing.
- I mean maybe the paper
I have to sit and write an essay
just to you, to understand.
- Let me ask him
- Yes?
Can you try to explain to me why this money is worthless?
Like what's the reason?
(speaking in spanish)
(speaking in spanish)
- He said that its because of monetary reconversion
They did it twice,
In the first one, they took three zeros
in the second one, they took five zeros.
And because of the hyperinflation and also the valuation
of the coin, you cannot
buy anything with that, like anything at all so
So what they do in first place, they print higher bills
For example, in the beginning was just like two 5
10, 20, 50, and 100 for example
after this money was worthless
They start printing like 5,000, 10,000, 20,000
And then they just got five zeros
and they started the process again, 2, 5, 10
- In the eighties or when the economy was good
how much US dollars would this be?
- Whoa!
- That's my question.
(speaking in spanish)
- In the eighties, he said
the price of the dollar was two Bolivares
So only with five Bolivares, you could get $2
- So This is maybe millions of dollars
- millions of dollars in eighties, yeah
- Millions?
Our intention coming in here was to try to
get 30 us dollars worth.
But this is $0 worth.
He's just giving it to us as a gift to bring home
like, just cause we like it so
to advance the story we haven't really advanced the story.
- What you're getting into your bucket right now
is five different times printed bills, crazy.
(speaking in spanish)
- [Drew] Dude. That was insane.
Holy crap.
Can we talk about what just happened?
The first place we went
he only gave me this much remember?
he gave me like
- 10 cents.
- This was the first one I got it's worth nothing right?
- Nothing, 10 cents
- Then we went to the bakery place
who gave us, open it up
We got all of this, look at this
- [Drew] Okay. And it's full
It goes all the way down there okay
And that was only 60 bucks, 62.
- Sixty two dollars
- And we tried to get more so we went to the other shop
the supermarket
and the guy gave us just like
- Nothing, just for collection because its worth nothing
- So we only spent like 62, maybe $63, We only exchanged
I think we should just give up, I don't think we can
I think it's impossible.
- yeah
- Do you think it's possible to exchange 30 more dollars?
- Bro, It will be very, very difficult
to try to find another place
- It would be so difficult.
- We tried like three, four places, different, woah
- absolutely insane guys
this video really blew my mind to make, I mean
I hope the country gets better
I hope this is not going to be the future of Venezuela.
Let's hope
- I hope not too
And I hope you spend that money before tomorrow because
it will be worth like half
- Yeah So the real question is now
what do we do with this bag?
I don't know.
- We have to spend the like today.
- Let's go spend it today, man
- [Drew] Before I actually say goodbye until next week.
I just want to say that
while this video was fun and exciting to make,
I am aware that Venezuela is suffering
from an economical crisis
And just being here has given me empathy
for the people who are living through it.
It's devastating how a country with so much beauty
and so many hidden treasures is essentially
being gutted away from its potential.
Over the past two weeks
I've really come to love this country and its people.
And I will continue sharing stories
so you guys can get a glimpse of real life
real smiles and real situations on the streets
of Venezuela through the eyes of a tourist.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart
for watching and I'll see you next Sunday.
- [Drew] What just happened? He invited us for some food?
- Yes.
- [Drew] Gracias
- One of the best things in Venezuela is that
you wont try bad coffee
All coffee is pretty, pretty good.
So you have to here a cappuccino.
(speaking in spanish)
- It's called ham bread
and basically its one bread
inside it has ham, bacon, olives and raisins
its Beautiful. Beautiful.
- [Drew] And this is a coffee right here.
- Coffee. Really good coffee.
- [Drew] So we have money, coffee and bread, great
- Look how soft this is.
- [Drew] How is it bro.
- Yeah its so soft
Sweet. Delicious.
- [Drew] How is it good?
(speaking in spanish)
- The bread is really good.
How did they make the bread so good?
Like what's the secret?
(speaking in spanish)
(laughter)
They won't give you the secret.
(speaking in spanish)
(laughter)
- he said that you set up a bakery
You ask that you kill my business.
(laughter)
That's so funny.
- I'm Drew Binsky.
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