Mazatlan 2009: Currency Exchange

Interesting discovery regarding money exchange, which I suppose most folks know. Prior to coming to Mazatlan, I stopped at the Travelex booth at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to get some pesos for our trip. I hate to show up in a foreign country without some of the local currency. I changed some money and received 12.84 pesos/dollar. Of course, I didn't get enough, so in Mazatlan, I stopped at one of the ubiquitous bank ATMs and withdrew some money. (It's one of the great advantages of having a debit card.) I was surprised to learn that the exchange rate was 14.08 pesos/dollar. Lesson learned. At least for Mexico. Show up with enough to get to the hotel and settled in, then hit an ATM. Chances are you'll get a better rate of exchange.