A Year in Uruguay

The Invisible Mountain

2010-04-17T09:01:00.002-03:00

The Invisible Mountain
Carolina de Robertis
2009

"There were strange things about this city. Amethysts used as doorstops, leather used for everything, a stone wall between Old City and New. An obsession with the president, a man called Batlle y Ordóñez, who had promised schools, and workers' rights, and hospitals (secular ones, scandalously so, with crucifixes banned from the walls). All the laborers Ignazio worked with-- even the immigrants, of which there were many-- spoke of Batlle the way Italians spoke of the pope. These men were also obsessed with mate: a brew of shredded leaves and hot water, concocted in a hollow gourd, then drunk through a metal straw called a bombilla. They drank it as if their lives depended on it, and maybe their lives did, sucking at the bombillas on their high steel beams, pouring water while awaiting the next crate, passing the gourd from hand to calloused hand. The first time he was offered mate, Ignazio was shocked by the assumption that he should share a cup. He was eighteen, after all, a grown man. He thought of refusing, but he didn't want the others to think him afraid of tea. The gourd felt warm against his palm. The wet green mass inside it gleamed. The drink flooded his mouth, bright and green and bitter, the taste, he thought, of Uruguay."

I would have missed this book, except a blog reader recommended it to me. The Invisible Mountain is a novel about a Uruguayan family. Crossing four generations, the story personalizes many aspects of Uruguay's history: immigration, the growth of Montevideo, economic boom & bust, the dictatorship. At times, it's harsh-- not suitable for kids-- and in places it's strange, but overall it added a dimension to my understanding of the country.

I read a library copy, but it's also available from booksellers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Thanks to Michael for the recommendation.

More Uruguay resources

2010-04-03T10:22:00.003-03:00

Many of the Uruguay blogs I'd been reading have ended as expats moved from the country.

Recently, I've been following Ola Uruguay Real Estate-- not so much for the real estate propaganda, but for the posts on living in Uruguay by Suki and Syd.

Another informative website is Uruguay Now, an up-to-date guide to the country, with an emphasis on Montevideo.

Gaucho music

2009-12-28T14:19:00.003-02:00

Here's a video from an evening of música folclórica in homage to a gaucho poet. The performance was held in the Cabildo de Montevideo.

Parque Rodó

2009-12-21T19:26:00.003-02:00

Here's a belated video from my last trip to Uruguay.

My earlier videos from the park are here and here. To me, the improvement in YouTube's definition is striking.

Uruguay in the news

2009-07-01T19:31:00.003-03:00

Bon Appétit has a travel feature on Punta del Este in their August issue. It features short reviews of several restaurants and as well as some nice pictures in a pdf file. Perhaps a nice romantic getaway for Governor Sanford?

update: The New York Times had a nice article on visiting Montevideo

Uruguayan jazz vocalist on public radio

2009-04-30T23:01:00.004-03:00

Our friend Maria Noel Taranto will be featured on the "Jazz Inspired" radio show on public radio stations across the US and Canada during the first week of May. (A list of stations and times is here.)

If you're interested, you can listen to several of Maria Noel's songs on her La Taranto MySpace page.

There are also short clips from her performances in some of my earlier posts.

Carnaval exhibit in Kalamazoo

2009-02-18T23:42:00.002-02:00

I have an exhibit of photos from Montevideo's carnaval at my college's art gallery for the last two weeks in February. If you're in the area, please stop by.

We'll be having a reception on Saturday February 21 from 4-7.

Light Fine Arts Building
Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo, MI
corner of Academy Street and Thompson Street
campus map
gallery hours Monday-Friday 9-5

Uruguayan microbrew

2008-10-28T09:54:00.003-02:00

One thing I missed when I lived in Montevideo was the complex flavor of craft beers. I didn't have any complaints about Pilsen or Patricia but there wasn't much variety. After I returned to the US, a new microbrewery opened in Montevideo and when I visited this August I was able to taste their product.

Cervecería Artesanal del Uruguay brands its beer Mastra and they brew three varieties: dorada [gold], roja [red], and negra [black]. I enjoyed them. The negra is a thick, hearty traditional stout, as opposed to a dark-colored but relatively light-tasting beer like Pilsen Stout. The roja has a great malty taste; I could see it becoming my favorite. (I didn't have time to try the dorada.)

Is Uruguay ready for craft beers? No problem on the supply side-- these are high quality microbrews. On the demand side, it's questionable. Beer is certainly part of Uruguay's culture and I'm sure there are enough beer-drinkers with adventuresome tastes who would drink strongly flavored cervezas. The problem is the price. A small single-serving bottle (12 oz/355 ml) costs more than a liter of Patricia, which is going to make it hard to survive in the marketplace. It's tough to launch a super-premium product in an economically-stressed market. That said, Argentina has several microbreweries so it's possible this one could succeed in Uruguay by tapping into the tourist trade. I wish them luck.

Suerte.

Uruguay blog

2008-10-20T00:02:00.002-02:00

I've been meaning to recommend A Small State of Mind for some time. It's written by Benjamin Gedan, a Fulbright scholar and journalist studying the Uruguayan media. I've been enjoying it for several months.

He writes on a broad array of Uruguayan topics from chivitos to supermodels to the dictatorship. He's also published articles about Uruguay in the New York Times

Monte de Ombúes

2008-09-30T07:55:00.003-03:00

After staying in Cabo Polonio this July, we visited the nearby Monte de Ombúes.

An ombú is a native tree closely associated with gaucho culture and Uruguay's history. My mental image of an ombú has been a large, solitary tree surrounded by grasslands. (Not that I'd ever seen that; my actual experience with ombu trees was mostly of one particular tree growing in the middle of Boulevard España in Montevideo and a few others growing in city parks.) Ombú trees can have peculiar shapes with multiple trunks, merging branches, and frequent hollows.

The Monte de Ombúes promised something rare-- a forest of these unusual trees. The woods are on the shore of the Laguna de Castillos and the only access is by boat. Regularly scheduled tours depart from the bridge where the highway crosses the arroyo Valizas. Since July is the middle of winter in Uruguay, we were able to have a private tour.

Our boat floated slowly past pastures dotted with butia palms while gulls and egrets flew overhead. It's a great trip for birdwatchers; our guide pointed out ibis, teru-teru, chajá, cormorants, ducks, herons, kingfishers, and even flamingos. After about an hour, we reached the woods-- two groves of ombúes.

The trees themselves were impressive. Since it was winter, they were nearly leafless, focusing our attention on the trunks. Some of the trees were over 30 feet around and many had openings big enough for a person, or even a whole family, to enter. It was almost surreal seeing two trunks emerge separately from the stump and then recombine 10 or 20 feet higher.

This strange growth pattern is part of the ombu controversy: "Is it a tree or a shrub?" Until this visit, I'd always taken the tree side. The shrub argument seemed like it must be based on some obscure botanical definition. (Similar to the argument: "Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?") Based on everything I'd seen earlier, the ombú was a tree-- tall, solid, long-lived, trunk & branches, with leaves that dropped seasonally. How could it not be a tree?

Now I'm less sure. In the forest, we saw fallen ombúes and they weren't like fallen trees. Instead of being made of wood, the inside of an ombú looks like a cross between particle board and paper mache. Definitely not tree-like. New sprouts from the broken stumps furthered my confusion since they looked identical to the pokeweed that grows in my backyard in Michigan. The shrub proponents do have a point.

In any case, it was an interesting place to see. It's definitely a low-key trip-- something for nature-lovers; it would appeal to those Florida vacationers who choose Ding Darling over Miami Beach.

Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales

2008-09-25T09:03:00.005-03:00

While I intended to visit Uruguay's National Museum of Art shortly after I went to the Museo Torres-García, I never made it during the entire year I lived in Montevideo.

Partly because I didn't notice it.

My mental image of an art museum is a grand classical building like the Art Institute of Chicago or the west wing of the National Gallery of Art or else I imagine something impressively modern like the National Gallery's east wing or the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

The Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales is located in Parque Rodó and I'd parked right next to it dozens of times without knowing it. The architecture reminded me of an elementary school. The courtyard was usually full of kids in their school tunicas which reinforced the impression. I didn't realize it was a museum.

During our vacation in Uruguay this year, I made up for my past omission by making the museum a priority.

The museum is small, about the size of my local art museum, and all the exhibits can be seen in about an hour. When we visited in July, they had a visiting exhibit of works by Spanish artist Joan Miró and a large exhibit by a Uruguayan artist in the style of Torres-García, in addition to works from their permanent collection.

Admission: free.
Tuesday-Sunday 12:00-6:00 pm

Museo del Carnaval

2008-08-30T20:46:00.002-03:00

I'd wanted to visit the Museo del Carnaval before we left Montevideo in mid-2007 but its opening date kept getting postponed, so I was happy when we were able to see it on this trip. It has a great location right next to the Mercado del Puerto, making it a very convenient stop for visitors.

Like many of Montevideo's museums, it's small and it doesn't take more than a few minutes to see all of the exhibits. While it certainly isn't the same as hearing a murga or candombe group live, it brought back great memories of carnival. The best part was the hall of colorful murga costumes.

The Museo del Carnaval blog is interesting (in Spanish with lots of photos) and on YouTube there's a comprehensive video showing the creation of the museum.

Open Tuesday-Sunday
Free admission

Cabo Polonio photos

2008-08-12T12:20:00.003-03:00

I uploaded a few photos from our trip to Cabo Polonio. You can see them here.

Bourdain in Uruguay video

2008-07-30T10:14:00.003-03:00

Tony Bourdain's show on Uruguay aired this week. Here's a Travel Channel video showing him eat carne with his brother in the Mercado del Puerto.

Cabo Polonio

2008-07-28T15:56:00.005-03:00

We had a really nice time visiting Cabo Polonio, a beach settlement about 4 hours from Montevideo. In some ways, it´s similar to Punta del Diablo. Cabo Polonio is harder to reach since there´s no road access. You can reach it by 4-wheel drive truck or horseback from Ruta 10.

This is very much the off-season, so we needed reservations to ensure someone would open the hotel. We were the only tourists in the entire town. In the high season (January) every room in every building is filled with artists, hippies, and miscellaneous visitors. Most of the casitas are very small-- merely beach shacks. A few are more substantial. We stayed at La Perla del Cabo, the nicest place in town. (Although it was still very simple-- 2 hours of electricty daily, hot water some days but none while we were there, and for winter a propane heater in the hallway and extra blankets for the beds.)

The town itself was very quiet. All the little souvenir stands, shops and boliches were closed for the season. One almacen offered snacks, fruit, and staples like dulce de leche. The restaurant attached to the hotel opened for us. Their fresh fish was great.

We climbed the lighthouse, which gave great views of the coast. On the rocky point beneath the faro, hundreds of sea lions bathed in the winter sun. We saw a lone penguin, apparently off-course from its annual migration to Brazil from southern Argentina. It´s whale season, but we didn´t happen to see any.

update:A photo album from Cabo Polonio

Back in Uruguay

2008-07-23T10:19:00.003-03:00

It´s been very comfortable returning to Montevideo and we´ve been busy visiting friends, watching soccer, going to shows, and eating great food. Too busy to write any blog posts, until now.

Not much has changed in the city. A few businesses have closed and a few new ones opened. Some of the same graffiti is still on the walls.

One noticeable change: the depreciation of the dollar makes everything more expensive. For example, I bought 2 tickets for the new Batman movie yesterday for 180 pesos, or $10 US. That´s the same price I paid for 2 tickets in Kalamazoo, earlier this month. In economic theory, purchasing power parity predicts this; in equilibrium, prices for traded goods should become equal. In this case, I´d guess it´s probably just coincidence.

Volvemos

2008-07-14T22:38:00.003-03:00

We're returning to Uruguay this week for a short vacation. I'm looking forward to all the good food including: chivitos, parrilla (at La Otra and the Mercado del Puerto), empanadas, churros, masas finas, and a simple pizza and beer. I'm sure we won't get to do everything on the "official" list of visitors' activities but I hope we have a chance to do some of them. We just missed el clasico, but we watched it on TV yesterday. If Copa Airlines gets us to Montevideo on time, we'll see a show at the Teatro Solis. Most of all, I'm looking forward to seeing many of my friends in Uruguay.

We're leaving a North American summer for a South American winter but the forecast shows the low temperatures in Montevideo will be the same as the low temperatures in Kalamazoo. I can't complain about that.

And I'll have some fresh material to add to this blog, as well.

Ushuaia

2008-05-17T23:34:00.004-03:00

In February, 2007 at the height of the southern summer, we flew a few thousand kilometers south from Montevideo to visit Ushuaia, "el fin del mundo" [The End of the World]. This Argentine city is further south than any other in South America. The end of the continent isn't abrupt; instead, the Beagle Channel runs through a series of mountainous islands. (There's a Chilean naval base on one that can claim the continent's southernmost habitation.) Whether in Chile or Argentina, the region is known as Tierra del Fuego.

It's a very interesting place and I'd like to go back again. Unfortunately, our summer is their winter and it must be pretty desolate then.

Between other destinations in Patagonia and carnaval events back in Montevideo, I never posted more than a few photos. I finally had a chance to put together a video slideshow from that trip.

You can see it here:

Blogs

2008-05-12T00:24:00.002-03:00

Here are a few Uruguay blogs I've been following:

elretobao posts interesting photos of Montevideo with short captions in Spanish, frequently accompanied by Uruguayan music.

The next two links are new addresses for authors I posted about earlier:

Cool Uruguay has regular posts and a new forum in English and Spanish.

The Campbell Family blog has interesting but infrequent posts about life with a family in Montevideo.

And finally, a non-Uruguay blog for my friends who are interested in what's going on in Kalamazoo, I have a new blog, Kalamazoo Seasons, looking at nature's cycles in and around Kalmazoo, MI

Buenos Aires

2008-04-27T22:25:00.004-03:00

Although Montevideo isn't far from Buenos Aires, we didn't make the trip across the Rio as often as I expected. We did visit the bigger city a couple of times (and flew in and out a few more.) It's an interesting place.

Here's a video slideshow of some of my photos from Buenos Aires:

Uruguay viejo

2008-04-19T17:20:00.003-03:00

Living in Uruguay, it was easy to see traces of its past: architecture from previous centuries, colonial fortresses, and antique cars still in use. Some are a bit worn, others in states of decay, and others fully renovated. In any state, they were interesting reminders of Uruguay's history.

I made a video slideshow of photos of artifacts from Uruguay's past. You can see it here:

Bourdain without translation (updated)

2008-04-12T16:49:00.003-03:00

In an earlier post, I mentioned chef Anthony Bourdain's visit to Uruguay. Since then, I've heard a few bits and pieces about his trip, including a mishap with an armadillo that I don't fully understand. (I guess I'll need to wait and watch the show.)

In my post I included quotes from Bourdain that had been translated twice (into Spanish by Busqueda and back into English by me) losing, no doubt, accuracy each time. To make up for that, here's a quote from a Miami Herald article about Bourdain:

``I was just in Uruguay. It was one of those great discoveries. Montevideo is outrageously cool. I ate meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don't think I saw a single vegetable for 10 days. Everything is cooked over roaring heaps of wood. They are burning down the whole world to feed themselves. I had armadillo. Hadn't had that yet. And some emu/ostrich varietal. But the big surprise was how good the blood sausage was. Maybe the best morcilla I ever had.''

But how good was the steak?

``It was better than I had in Argentina. People say the beef in Argentina is great. I prefer American beef to Argentine beef. But everything I had in Uruguay was unexpectedly great.''

And here's a direct quote from Tony Bourdain's blog without any intermediation:

URUGUAY: The Bourdain brothers journey to Montevideo, Punta del Este and the surrounding countryside in search of traces of their mysterious, Uruguayan great, great grandfather. Conclusions? Among other things--that Uruguay makes Argentina look like a vegan suburb of Berkeley. That they like to cook stuff over flame. LOTS of flame. That Montevideo is probably the Next Big Thing--or should be. And that the "civito" is the Greatest Sandwich in the History of Civilization.

More scenes from Montevideo

2008-03-29T10:43:00.002-03:00

I made another video slideshow of everyday scenes from the streets of Montevideo.

You can see it here:

Semana Criolla

2008-03-21T16:16:00.004-03:00

This week other Latin American countries celebrate Semana Santa and Uruguay enjoys its Semana de Turismo with events throughout the country. In Montevideo, gauchos compete on horseback during Semana Criolla. Riders, called jinetes, ride wild horses. They are amazingly good.

I put together a video slideshow from last year's Semana Criolla competitions. You can watch it here:

Earlier, I posted short videos of Semana Criolla at Parque Prado and at Parque Roosevelt.

Scenes from Montevideo

2008-03-17T00:15:00.004-03:00

Here's another video slideshow of photos from around Montevideo. This one shows scenes from everyday life without the landmarks featured in the previous video

You can watch it here:

Chef Anthony Bourdain visits Uruguay

2008-03-07T23:58:00.009-02:00

Anthony Bourdain, chef, author, and TV star was in Uruguay a few weeks ago to film a segment of his Travel Channel program, "No Reservations". He visited an estancia with friends of mine where they shot a scene for the show. My friends and one of the show's producers emailed me & said it was a great day.

Another friend sent me a couple of interesting Bourdain quotes from the "Galería" magazine of Monetvideo's news weekly,"Busqueda".

I've translated his comments on food in Uruguay as best I could. The English to Spanish to English translation undoubtedly is a weak reflection of his original statements, but I hope you'll get the idea. I've included the Spanish version, below.

Anthony Bourdain: “The first thing I need to talk about is the chivito, because it’s the best sandwich I’ve tasted in my life, including the venerated & thousand times described pastrami sandwich of New York and the mortadella and cheese sandwich from the market of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Really, the chivito is too good to be true; it’s almost impossible to eat because of how tall it is. Moreover, the idea of putting together beef, bacon, ham and cheese in the same bite, without counting all the other things it contains, is incredible. What’s more, in the US you could be arrested for daring to eat something like this. For me, any country that embraces this as its national sandwich is great!"

“De lo primero que tengo que hablar es del chivito, porque es el mejor sandwich que probé en mi vida, incluso es mejor que mi venerado y mil veces descripto sandwich de pastrani de Nueva York, y que el de mortadela y queso del mercado de San Pablo, Brasil. De verdad, el chivito es demasiado bueno para ser cierto, es casi imposible de comer de lo alto que es. Además la idea de juntar carne, panceta, jamón y queso en un mismo bocado, sin contar con todo lo demás que puede contener, es increible. Es más, en Estados Unidos serías arrestado por solo osar comer una cosa como ésta. Para mi cualquier país que abrace a este sandwich como nacional, es genial!"

He continues, “Today at noon we went to the Mercado del Puerto. I swear that in this city I ate more meat than I’ve ever eaten in my life. In the parrillada they served us an enormous brazier with five pounds of meat—with sausages, blood sausage, sweetbreads, lamb, asado—and didn’t stop until I finished it all. In Uruguay, they have the best blood sausage, better than the French and whatever other I have tasted, particularly the sweet. I tip my hat to societies like yours that don’t pay attention to cholesterol and the crazy idea of healthy eating. Even more, when I don’t see anywhere the @#$% fast food chains like Burger King, Starbucks, Chicken McNuggets, or Wendy’s. All that I see speaks well of the country. I like countries that aren’t in love with American fast food."

Y continúa: "Hoy al mediodía fuimos al Mercado del Puerto. Juro que en esta ciudad comí más carne de la que he comido en mi vida. En la parrillada nos sirvieron un brasero enorme como dos quilos de carne -con chorizos, morcillas, mollejas, cordero, asado- y no paré hasta que acabé con todo. En Uruguay también tienen la mejor morcilla, mejor que la francesa y que cualquiera que haya probado, sobre todo la dulce. Me saco el sombrero ante las sociedades como la suya, que no prestan atención al colesterol y a la loca idea de comer sano. Más aún, cuando no veo por ningún lado las malditas cadenas de comida rápida tipo Burger King, Starbucks, Chicken McNuggetsd o Wendy's. Todo lo que veo habla bien del país. Me gustan los paises que no aman al fast food estadounidense."

The Uruguay episode of "No Reservations" is scheduled to air sometime this summer or fall (Northern hemisphere seasons). I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Montevideo images

2008-03-01T13:41:00.005-02:00

In something of a follow-up to my earlier Montevideo videos I made a video slideshow of photos from Montevideo. The focus is on places a visitor is most likely to see-- Mercado del Puerto, Plaza Independencia, Estadio Centenario, Feria Tristan Narvaja and other familiar landmarks.

You can see it here:

Beaches

2008-02-23T11:58:00.004-02:00

In Michigan, January and February mean lots of snow and this year has been no exception. It's been great for cross-country skiing and my daughter enjoyed several days off school because of snowstorms. In Uruguay, January and February are beach time. I must admit that when the temperature dropped below 0° F (-20° C) my thoughts turned south to summer on the Río de la Plata.

Here's a video slideshow of my photos from the beaches of Uruguay. From Montevideo to Punta del Este to Punta del Diablo:

Off the wall

2008-02-16T01:31:00.005-02:00

Montevideo, like most big cities, has its share of graffiti, mainly indecipherable scrawls on dumpsters, houses, and statues. Our Uruguayan friends told us that graffiti became much more prevalent after the economic crisis of 2002.

As an economist, "The economy is the cancer of the world" caught my eye, but even more striking was a conversation, of sorts, painted along the wall of Pocitos beach. An exuberant Christian had painted several city blocks of the wall with a stream of religious statements in bold letters. An atheist had responded to every saying with cursive spraypaint, so walking along the beach, it read "GOD LIVES" "inside your stupid head" and a dozen more couplets.

Other graffiti was spray-painted support for soccer teams (Peñarol and Nacional being the most visible) or rock bands (many US and European groups from various decades). Some of it was political, either party slogans or independent outcry. And some were declarations of love or simple declarations of the writer's existence. There were two genres of artistic graffiti, over-sized NYC-style paintings and smaller, and often more interesting, stencil work.

Here is a video slideshow of my graffiti photos from Montevideo:

Carnaval

2008-02-06T03:10:00.000-02:00

Last year, during carnaval season, one of my readers commented that I would miss it once I left Uruguay. That prediction was certainly accurate; I miss it all.

With nostalgia, I put together a video slideshow of photos from last year's carnaval.

See it here:

Gauchos in Kalamazoo?

2007-10-31T19:09:00.000-02:00

Happy Halloween!

Favorites: confitería

2007-10-27T13:03:00.001-02:00

In Montevideo, it's never a long walk to a bakery. Some specialize in breads (panaderías) and others in pastries (confiterías). Las Gaviotas was our favorite bakery for masas finas [pastries]. They also made great cakes and apple strudel and it was the only place in Montevideo where we saw challah bread. Located on Avenida Brasil, two blocks up from the Rambla.

Las Gaviotas website

Favorites: Parrilla

2007-10-20T12:31:00.000-02:00

La Otra was our favorite parrilla. Nothing fancy: whitewashed walls, waiters in black T-shirts, paper placemats on simple wood tables. The focus was all on the carne, which led to my daughter's complaint, "all they serve is meat." Which was pretty much true: no pasta, no sandwiches, no dessert, no coffee.

There were about 8 different cuts of beef, 3 kinds of sausage, and a few other parts from the cow. If you couldn't grill it, they didn't serve it. Vegetables were also cooked on the embers: morrones [red bell pepper], boniatas [sweet potato], and papas al plomo [potatoes baked in foil].

Located on the corner of Tomás Diego and Perez, La Otra was very much our neighborhood parrilla and we ate there frequently. A friend of ours was an even more loyal customer-- he had eaten there every day during an earlier month-long stay in Montevideo. La Otra wasn't always perfect-- they could have "off" days. (El Palenque in the Mercado del Puerto, for example, was more consistent in terms of meat quality.) But, the imperfections were infrequent and on a typical night the food was unbeatable.

Favorites: Pizza

2007-10-19T22:00:00.000-02:00

While I've posted frequently on food in Uruguay, I've neglected some of our favorite places to eat. Pizzeria Trouville was the first restaurant we ate at in Montevideo. It's located in Pocitos on 21 de Setiembre at Francisco Vidal. The atmosphere is nothing special, particularly inside under the harsh florescent lights, but the pizza is great and the servers are friendly and prices are very reasonable. I'd usually order a pizzetta con panceta [bacon pizza] with a chopp of beer. My wife preferred her pizza with morrones [red bell peppers], which was good, too. My daughter often had a sandwich caliente[grilled cheese and ham] or a pancho[hot dog]. I think we ate there more often than at any other restaurant in Monetvideo.

Back in Michigan, the pizza isn't shockingly different but the prices can be. My wife who had become accustomed to paying about 80 cents for her glass of vino blanco was startled to see her white wine in Kalamazoo cost six dollars (which was more than her entire meal at Pizzeria Trouville.)

La Carne

2007-10-13T22:35:00.002-02:00

In Spanish, carne means meat and, in Uruguay, meat means beef. We ate many great meals in Uruguay, particularly carne cooked on the parrilla. At restaurants and at friends' homes, the beef was invariably delicious but when we tried to cook beef ourselves, we had trouble. I'd buy some nice looking steaks at the supermarket and they'd be too tough to eat because, despite how good they looked, they were really stew meat.

Eventually, I learned the names of several common cuts of meat. For a good steak, entrecot was a reliable choice. Picaña was another good steak: more expensive and more tender. Other cuts like colita de cuadril and asado need slower cooking and some cuts, like matambre, need to be boiled until tender.

At lunch one day, I found I wasn't the only one confused by beef names. By chance, I was seated next to a table of tourists from Spain who asked the waiter, "What is the colita de cuadril". Even before he responded, I knew his answer would be, "Es un tipo de carne." ["It's a type of meat."]

Here are some online resources that can help. Asado Argentina has a good post on Cuts of Beef for the Parrilla and the Cooking Diva includes photos and a video from her visit to a butcher shop in Buenos Aires. For excruciating detail, compare the Uruguay National Meat Institute's Meat Handbook (in English) to their Spanish version,Catálogo de Cortes.

update: Frigorifico Tacuarembó has a much easier to use illustration showing beef cuts in Spanish and English

Discover Montevideo

2007-09-29T09:42:00.000-03:00

Descubrí Montevideo, a tourist guide published by the city, includes this list titled,
"You can't leave without..."

Walking along the Rambla
Watching the sunset from the coastline
Seeing Montevideo's bay and port from Capurro
Going to see a murga at the Teatro de Verano
Stopping by the traditional fishing stalls at Punta Carretas
Eating at a fish stall at the recreational port of Buceo.
Dining at the parrilla (barbecue) restaurants at the Mercado del Puerto.
Accompanying the grilled meats with a glass of Roldós Medio y Medio
Drinking an "uvita" at the bar Fun Fun
Dancing a tango or milonga
Visiting the Cerro fortress
Going to the Tristan Narvaja street market
Visiting the legendary Centenario stadium
Drinking grappa miel with lemon
Visiting the panoramic platform at the Telecommunications tower
Drinking a mate with a Montevidean
Eating the traditional Chajá and Massini pastries
Running into a parading string of drums playing candombe
Strolling around the Ciudad Vieja and the Sarandí pedestrian mall
Experiencing the night life (la movida) in the Ciudad Vieja
Seeing the National Theater company (la Comedia Nacional) perform at the Teatro Solís.
Buying garrapiñada (candied peanuts) on 18 de Julio avenue.
Eating roasted peanuts on the Sarandí pier (la Escollera Sarandí)

Asado

2007-08-27T10:27:00.001-03:00

Asado is Uruguay's most typical food from the parrilla. Ribs are cut crossways to make a steak-like piece of beef with little nubbins of bone. Asado is more flavorful but less tender than steak. It's generally one of the cheaper beef cuts on a menu. I like it a lot but some people find it too fatty.

Asado is also the general name for barbecue, so if a Uruguayan invites you to an asado you can expect to spend several hours enjoying various cuts of grilled meat.

Uruguay from a distance

2007-08-26T11:43:00.000-03:00

It's been good seeing friends and colleagues in Kalamazoo but I think I'm still experiencing a bit of reverse culture shock. Yesterday at a party, I went around the patio greeting everyone and shaking hands. I wasn't giving besitos so I felt like I'd adapted to American norms. Only afterwards did I realize that even shaking hands with everyone is odd behavior in the U.S. -- a wave and a general "hi" would have been customary. I miss my friends and social life in Uruguay.

Here are a couple of new blogs by ex-pats living in Montevideo that I'm reading:

The Seven C's is written by my friend Emily about life in Montevideo with her family of 7.

Living in Montevideo is by an American who just moved to Montevideo from the Dominican Republic with his family. Ken and I have corresponded over the Internet for about a year but we haven't had a chance to meet in person.

Declaración de la Independencia Nacional

2007-08-25T10:05:00.000-03:00

On August 25, 1825 Uruguay signed its declaration of independence from Brazil on a high rock (la Piedra Alta) overlooking the Santa Lucía Chico river at Florida. Years earlier Artigas had a led a successful independence fight from Spain but afterwards Portugal annexed the territory to Brazil. The 1825 struggle eventually led to Uruguay's independence.

Colonia

2007-08-07T11:49:00.000-03:00

Here's a short video from our visit to Colonia last month.

Canoas

2007-08-05T12:05:00.000-03:00

Last January, during the South American summer, a friend made canoas for us on his parrilla in Marindia. Yesterday, I made them in Kalamazoo on a Weber grill during our North American summer. They're very simple, morrones [red bell peppers] filled with provolone cheese cooked on the grill until the pepper is soft and the cheese is melted. They're delicious.

Garnished with onions, green olives, tomatoes, and basil they become provolone de la casa as served at La Otra.

Iguazu Falls

2007-07-29T11:34:00.000-03:00

When I posted earlier on Cataratas de Iguazú, I didn't have time for the video but it's ready now.

Watch the video here:

Back in the USA

2007-07-22T07:11:00.001-03:00

I've spent a few days traveling in Florida and noticing how different things are. Everything seems bright, glossy, and new: houses, restaurants, streets, sidewalks. Cars-- besides being bright, glossy, and new-- are big. The people are big, too.

Perhaps it's a bit of reverse culture shock.

The resort towns in Florida are much wealthier than any of the balnearios I saw in Uruguay. I'm in Naples right now and it seems extremely rich. Some of the private homes along the ocean are as big as hotels.

I still hear lots of Spanish: in the stores, in restaurants, on the radio. I drove through a Hispanic neighborhood outside Naples yesterday. The houses were small and every driveway held 3, 4, or 5 vehicles, with pick-up trucks and contractor's vans outnumbering sedans. Strikingly different from Montevideo. My surface analysis: it's hard to live in the US without a car; cars are cheap relative to housing in South Florida; and jobs are so abundant here that anti-immigrant politics are being driven by culture, not economics.

Not surprisingly, it's really hot and humid here. (Although, unlike Uruguay, everything is air conditioned.) I'm finally comfortable with idea that it's both winter and summer at the same time, in different places. Intellectually, I'd known that since grade school, but emotionally it's starting to feel okay.

Restaurant food is different as well. To start, it's expensive relative to Montevideo. The service is different: you don't need to close your menu to indicate that you're ready to order and the waiters always visit you mid-meal to see if you need anything, which felt a little odd at first. There are many more dining options; I've had Cuban, Peruvian, and Thai food as well as Southern-style barbecue.

Despedida

2007-07-16T12:09:00.000-03:00

My year in Uruguay is nearly over; tomorrow I fly back to the US. I'm going to miss the many friends I've made in Montevideo-- Uruguayans, ex-pats, and travelers. It's been a great time! Thank you all for being so hospitable.

Thanks also to my blog readers. I've enjoyed your emails and comments. I don't plan to end this blog yet since I still have photos and videos of Uruguay that I'd like to share. I'm going to travel for a couple of weeks before returning to Kalamazoo so my posts are likely to be sporadic for a while.

hasta luego.

Safari

2007-07-15T10:14:00.000-03:00

Since we didn't have a visa for Brazil, we had a free day in Iguazu so we went to the tourist office and said we'd like to see more of the selva. We were in luck, they told us, since a 4x4 tour was leaving in an hour. We grabbed some sandwiches and climbed into a rugged truck and headed out of town. Minutes after turning onto the red dirt road we were at the edge of the jungle and we passed little farms cut from the surrounding forest. As we drove, the guide explained the afternoon's events and my wife expressed her surprise. We thought we'd be taking a drive through the woods looking for toucans, coatis, or monkeys but the plan was somewhat more adventuresome.

We started by strapping on climbing harnesses, followed by a short walk through the jungle to a cliff. There, we hooked onto a climbing rope and rappelled down the cliff.

This was a new experience for all of us, and the prospect was a little scary. The actual rappel was pretty easy & we all enjoyed it afterwards. Next was a walk through the woods, crossing above a small waterfall, and eventually reaching a panoramic view across the Rió Paraná to Paraguay.

Then we climbed several storeys into a huge old tree using a rustic staircase. There we clipped our harnesses to a zip-line, grabbed its handles and took off through the canopy. We accelerated over the treetops, using the brakes only when we reached the landing-- halfway down another forest giant. Then up more stairs to another cable, another "flight" and then a third. Very cool!

See a short video:

Coati

2007-07-14T09:23:00.001-03:00

Coatís, along with toucans, are the symbol of Iguazú. While we didn't see any toucans, we did see over a dozen coatís. Most of the other animals in the selva avoid people, but coatís have learned to associate tourists with food. Since they're active during the day and unafraid of people, they're easy to see. We enjoyed watching a family cross a little waterfall on a vine.

Coatís are relatives of the raccoon.

Cataratas de Iguazu

2007-07-13T18:16:00.000-03:00

The Cataratas de Iguazú competes with Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls for the title of "world's largest waterfall". Actually all three have legitimate claims: Niagara has the most water, Victoria is the highest, and Iguazú is the widest.

Iguazú is in Northern Argentina bordering Brasil and very close to Paraguay. It's a 2 hour flight from Buenos Aires or a 20-some hour bus ride.

The falls are impressive! They're much harder to photograph than Niagara because there are so many individual falls that it's impossible to get them all in the same frame. Brasil and Argentina each have national parks around the falls, creating a large natural area. The selva is sub-tropical forest full of palm trees, philodendrons, vines-- very different from Uruguay's rangeland. Walking through the jungle to see the falls is much more interesting than crossing Niagara's asphalt.

The weather wasn't the greatest this week-- cloudy and cool-- but it beats their summer heat of 45 degrees C. We got soaking wet on the "grand adventure" boatride under the falls & that was really cold. But, the rain held off until we were on our way to the airport for the trip back to Montevideo. (And we missed Buenos Aires' first snow in 89 years by a couple of hours.)

We didn't visit the Brazilian side because the visa cost was $144 per person. I heard the views were great, but the price seemed awfully steep for one afternoon. I later heard that it's easy to cross illegally into Brazil by taxi or city bus. (But not with a tour company since they face a penalty of 4000 reales if you're caught.) In any case, we didn't have time to try being illegal aliens and we found plenty to entertain us on the Argentinian side.

More travel

2007-07-08T20:00:00.000-03:00

I'm off on one last trip before returning to Kalamazoo, so I won't be blogging for a few days. Details later this week

Alfajores

2007-07-07T17:51:00.000-03:00

Alfajores are a very popular snack in Montevideo. Basically they are a layer of dulce de leche sandwiched between two cookies and then covered with either chocolate, merengue, or grated coconut. A friend swears by the bakery version but my daughter is perfectly happy with the packaged ones from the supermarket. Another friend's daughter thinks importing alfajores to the United States would be a great business opportunity.

Here's a recipe for alfajores.

Parque Lecocq

2007-07-06T22:02:00.000-03:00

Parque Lecocq is Montevideo's other zoo. It's much bigger than Zoologico Villa Dolores and has fewer types of animals, so the enclosures are very spacious and there's a lot of open space between exhibits.

They have a good collection of native Uruguayan species, including a large number of ñandues and carpinchos. The Paseo del Monte is a worthwhile guided tour through natural forest with cages for wildcats, coatis, mao pelado (a kind of raccoon), and coendú (a porcupine).

Animals from other continents include lions, zebras, and monkeys. The park also has large areas for picnicking and a snack stand selling churros and popcorn.

It's about 20 kilometers west of Montevideo just before Ruta 1 crosses the Rio Santa Lucia into the Departamento de San Jose. There's no sign from the highway but if you exit Ruta 1 at Santiago Vazquez there are signs directing you to turn right, then take the 1st left to the zoo.

Admission: 40 pesos per car (although no one was collecting it this afternoon).

Colonia

2007-07-05T20:51:00.000-03:00

We last visited Colonia in January and it was so hot we could hardly move. Today, the weather was much more pleasant. We went to five of the small museums (25 pesos buys a ticket good for all the museums; no photos allowed) and enjoyed lunch at a small restaurant called the Viejo Barrio with a charismatic waiter who wore 6 different wacky hats during our meal.

I liked the adaptive re-use of this 1930 Ford.

It's been converted into a tiny dining room.

For Sale

2007-07-04T17:50:00.001-03:00

Our sabbatical year in Montevideo is coming to an end and it's time for us to look for a buyer for our car. It's a 1992 Nissan Sunny with about 60,000 miles on it. (Odometer is currently just over 100,000 kilometers). Four door, gasoline engine, light blue (or celeste, as they say here). Manual transmission. We never got around to installing a radio.

We've driven it throughout the country without any problems except when we bought bad gasoline (which caused it to sputter and stall alarmingly, but had no lasting effects.)

update: Sold it.

Salto de Penitente

2007-07-03T22:39:00.000-03:00

Salto de Penitente is a 60 meter cascade in the rocky hills east of Minas. The falls are about 20 kilometers off of Ruta 8 on a good dirt road. The drive is quite scenic and the falls are nice. There's a restaurant overlooking the falls and a short trail down to the base. They offer horseback riding and camping (although perhaps not in the winter). There's a "panoramic" short-cut returning to the highway with great views on a rougher, but still passable dirt road. It made a very pleasant afternoon.

Admission: 10 pesos.

Ciudad Vieja

2007-07-02T22:01:00.000-03:00

The Ciudad Vieja [Old City] is the site of the original Spanish fort, port, and colony of Montevideo. Surrounded by the Rio on three sides, it's full of interesting old buildings, mostly unrestored. The Mercado del Puerto and the Peatonal Sarandi are probably its best-known tourist areas. The Ciudad Vieja contains a mix of government offices, major banks, bars and restaurants, vacant buildings, art galleries, and cheap housing for immigrants.

Some earlier posts about the Ciudad Vieja:
Plaza Matriz
Plaza Zabala
Palacio Taranco
Almacén del Hacha
Museo Torres Garcia
Casa de Rivera
Primuseum
Gift giving
Port of Montevideo

Universidad de Montevideo

2007-07-01T18:49:00.000-03:00

The Universidad de Montevideo is a highly-respected private university located on a quiet street in the Parque Batlle neighborhood. It's been my wife's academic home in Uruguay and she's been very happy there. Like the other private universities in Uruguay it's relatively new, since for decades only the Universidad de la Republica could grant degrees.

At the Ambassador's

2007-06-30T20:01:00.001-03:00

Last August when we were packing to come to Montevideo, my wife said, "be sure to bring a suit for when we're invited to tea with the Ambassador." I didn't think it would happen, but today we-- along with a few hundred other Americans living in Uruguay-- did visit the Ambassador at his official residence near Parque Batlle. I didn't drink tea or wear my suit, but I enjoyed fresh pineapple juice and bagels followed by a frothy beer. The occasion was an early Fourth of July celebration highlighted by the Marine color guard presenting the flag.

School's out

2007-06-29T22:37:00.001-03:00

Today was the last day of school before Winter vacation in Uruguay. The kids can now enjoy two weeks free of classes and homework. (University students, on the other hand are preparing for their exams.)

Mobile advertising

2007-06-28T19:06:00.000-03:00

Rolling billboards are common in Montevideo. We see them a lot on the Rambla-- either parked along the side or moving down the road. My favorites are the bike-powered billboards, which make a lot of sense given the price of gasoline in Uruguay.

Mollejas

2007-06-27T17:36:00.001-03:00

Mollejas, typically cooked on the parrilla, are popular in Montevideo. In English, they're called sweetbreads [the thymus gland]. I'd never had them before coming to Uruguay but I've eaten them several times in the last year. Unlike some organ meats, mollejas have a very mild flavor. They can be a little fatty, so they are frequently served with lemon.

Here's a recipe.

Montevideo scenes

2007-06-26T21:49:00.000-03:00

Here's another entry in my series of videos of daily life in Montevideo. These scenes were recorded in the waterfront neighborhoods of Buceo, Pocitos and Parque Rodó.

Earlier videos in this series include Part I, Part II, and Part III.

See today's video:

Plaza de la Armada

2007-06-25T21:52:00.000-03:00

The Plaza de la Armada is quiet park on a bluff in Punta Gorda administered by the Uruguayan navy. It's one of the few elevated places along the Rio and it has fantastic views.

Winter blooms

2007-06-24T18:03:00.001-03:00

These are some of the most impressive winter plants in Montevideo. In the summer they are bush-sized succulents. In June, they have bright torch-shaped flowers. I'm not sure what they're called but I like them.

Remate

2007-06-23T08:47:00.001-03:00

A few days ago some friends and I went to Castells & Castells Casa de Remates [Galicia 1069], a big auction house in Montevideo near the old train station. They went to bid on a marble dining room table and I went to watch. It was interesting to see all the different things for sale and to watch the bidders.

I've never seriously studied auction theory but concepts like the winner's curse are intriguing.

See a short video of the auction:

El Campo

2007-06-22T15:24:00.000-03:00

It's a rainy day in Montevideo so I decided to put together a little video from Uruguay's countryside. The clips are from my visits to two working estancias: Estancia Las Cecilias and Estancia Los Morteros. Like my Montevideo series, this video isn't of a particular event but rather a general look at the campo.

My earlier rural videos include: weighing sheep, making sausage, and rodeo.

Here's today's video:

Shortest day

2007-06-21T19:03:00.000-03:00

Today marks the beginning of winter in Montevideo (and the rest of the southern hemisphere). The weather was pretty mild (low 50s) compared to Michigan winters. After yesterday's fog and rain, today's sun was very welcome.

Palermo

2007-06-20T23:28:00.000-03:00

The Palermo neighborhood (along with Barrio Sur) is the traditional home to candombe drum troupes. It's along the Rio between Parque Rodo and downtown Montevideo. It's one of the few places in Montevideo where I've seen wall murals.

The llamadas of carnival parade through Palermo.

Artigas

2007-06-19T22:33:00.000-03:00

Today was a national holiday in Uruguay celebrating the birthday of José Gervasio Artigas. Artigas was born in Montevideo on June 19, 1764 and he led the 1811 fight for independence from Spain. His victory against Spanish troops in the battle of Las Piedras was an important first step towards nationhood for Uruguay. The path wasn't straightforward, since Portugal and then Brazil ruled the territory after Spain withdrew. At the time Uruguay became independent, Artigas was living in Paraguay, where he died in 1850. Despite never being president of Uruguay, Artigas is Uruguay's national hero.

Artigas is commemorated in Montevideo's Plaza Independencia. Statues of Artigas are common in buildings and plazas throughout Uruguay. [The statue in the photo is in Paysandu.]

School was out today and government offices were closed.

Piña

2007-06-18T22:45:00.000-03:00

Piña means pineapple in most Spanish speaking countries, but in Uruguay pineapple is anana and piña refers to pine cones. Convenience stores in the US don't typically sell pine cones but many neighborhood shops in Montevideo do. Pine cones are used for cooking-- not as an ingredient, but as fuel for the parrilla. Wood is the primary fuel but the fast-burning piñas are added when the cook wants a particularly hot fire.

Empanadas

2007-06-17T19:57:00.000-03:00

Empanadas are a popular snack throughout Latin America and different countries interpret the empanada in various ways. In Uruguay, the classic empanadas seem to be ham & cheese or carne (ground beef) but our local purveyor lists 23 different fillings from chicken curry to dulce de leche. The pastries are coded by punching holes in the dough so you can identify the filling before biting into it.

Thanks to the blog reader who recommended La Chacha (Marti 3379); it's become our regular source for empanadas.

Poinsettias in June

2007-06-16T16:38:00.001-03:00

To me, December is the month of poinsettias and I enjoy visiting Kalamazoo's big greenhouses full of poinsettias before Christmas. In Montevideo, they are blooming now.

While poinsettias aren't native to Uruguay, they grow well here. Many of them are the size of small trees-- substantially bigger than Michigan's hothouse plants. They make an impressive display.

Cuidacoche

2007-06-15T15:54:00.001-03:00

Cuidacoches are very common in Montevideo. I think it's the combination of low levels of employment and high levels of petty theft. Cuidacoches watch the cars parked on a particular block in exchange for a small tip (5-10 pesos, 20-40 cents) from the car owners. They frequently help drivers pull into or out of parking spots. The same cuidacoche works the same street every day, like a regular job. Some of them sleep on the streets, as well.

Calamares en su Tinta

2007-06-14T18:29:00.000-03:00

Beef gets most of the attention in Uruguay, but the seafood is also good. Last night I had calamares en su tinta at the Club de Pesca. I'd eaten squid many times but never cooked in its ink. It was tasty. If you're interested, you might try this recipe.

Price discrimination 2

2007-06-13T12:25:00.000-03:00

A few months ago I posted on the difference between prescription drug prices in Uruguay and the United States. Here's a different example:

I wear a lot of casual clothes from Columbia Sportswear. They're durable, relaxed, and good for camping and traveling. In the US, I can buy a pair of Columbia pants for about $30 at Kohls. In Montevideo, there's a Columbia store right around the corner from my apartment. Same rugged outdoor clothing, but the prices are different. Instead of $30-$40, the pants cost $90 or $100.

Why such a big difference? Part of it is taxes. In Michigan the price doesn't include sales tax, so I could add a couple of dollars to adjust for that. Uruguay's IVA is higher, so it probably accounts for $20 of the price differential, but that still leaves a 100% difference. Why?

Production costs won't explain the difference-- the clothes are imports to both countries. We could look at differences in demand. But here the story becomes less simple, why charge a substantially higher price in a poorer country?

I'd suggest it has to do with an absence of competition. In the US, Patagonia dominates the high-end outdoor clothing market but they have little presence in Uruguay. That lets Columbia re-position itself locally to become the luxury outdoor brand. Rather than compete against LL Bean and Woolrich in the middle-price market segment like they do in the US, they hope to command a premium price in Uruguay. Will it work? I'm not sure. I don't see a lot of traffic in their boutique, but their pricing would allow them to profit on low volume.

Would I pay $100? No, I'm not that loyal a customer. But if I were staying here longer, they might be a pedido.

Niebla

2007-06-12T16:21:00.001-03:00

Montevideo has had a lot of fog over the last week. Both the port and airport have been closed. Our friends were stuck in the Buenos Aires airport for over 24 hours before they could fly back to the U.S. This weekend was sunny and warm but today the fog is back. I'm not sure if this is normal winter weather or if we are just having an unusual spell.

The panoramic view from my apartment has ben replaced with all white. Right now, I can barely see across the street to the beach. In Spanish, it's "un día de niebla."

Punta Gorda

2007-06-11T23:03:00.000-03:00

The Punta Gorda barrio is very similar to neighboring Carrasco with single family homes on landscaped lots. I particularly like the point itself where traffic diverts off the Rambla for a few blocks, allowing for a quiet walk along the Rio, past grand mansions. The architecture is more interesting than my neighborhood, Pocitos, where a wall of apartments define the waterfront.

Hipódromo

2007-06-10T20:04:00.001-03:00

The Hipódromo de Maroñas is Montevideo's racetrack. The track is on the city's gritty northwest side, but the facilities are luxurious. We enjoyed a lunch of beef loin in Tannat sauce, in their fine dining restaurant looking over the track. (They also have a buffet restaurant and food stands.) The track is very family-friendly with free admission for kids under 12 and childcare for young ones. (Minors aren't allowed to bet.)

Today's races started at 2:15 in the afternoon. We left after the 8th race, as the sun set, but there were a half dozen races yet to be run.

You can see a few more photos or
watch a short video:

Patio Andaluz

2007-06-09T19:38:00.000-03:00

Patio Andaluz, in Parque Rodó, reminds me, on a smaller scale, of public parks in southern Spain. An allée of tall palms leads to the patio which overlooks the Río. It was built in 1930 and restored in 1995.

Montevideo's Museo del Azulejo features similar tiles.

La Corte

2007-06-08T20:18:00.001-03:00

La Corte is a popular restaurant on the Peatonal Sarandí at Plaza Matriz. It came to my attention when President Bush ate there during his visit to Uruguay. In general, the kinds of restaurants where presidents eat are too luxurious for my budget, but I thought it would be interesting to see.

La Corte turned out to be very affordable; nearly all the main dishes cost less than 200 pesos ($8). Like many Montevideo restaurants they offer daily specials, a complete meal-- main dish, side, glass of wine, and dessert-- for about $6. The menu was very typically Uruguayan: meat from the parrilla, milanesas, pasta, simple salads, desserts made with dulce de leche, etc. It's very representative of the local cuisine.

Fall

2007-06-07T20:10:00.000-03:00

By the calendar, it's nearly winter in Uruguay but to the trees it's fall. There isn't a lot of color-- many of the deciduous trees simply fade to brown and there are a lot of evergreens, but there's an occasional maple or ginkgo with yellow leaves or a reddish oak or a purple gum. People burn small piles of leaves on the curb. The weather makes it feel like Halloween should be coming but that's a spring holiday in Montevideo.

San José

2007-06-06T16:03:00.001-03:00

San José de Mayo is the capital of the departamento of San José. It's a town of nearly 40,000 residents about an hour's drive west of Montevideo. It has an interesting cathedral and a short pedestrian mall near its main plaza.

San José links [in Spanish]
Government homepage
San José news

Oranges

2007-06-05T23:13:00.000-03:00

Most of the countryside that I'd seen in Uruguay was cattle land, except for some vegetable farms and vineyards close to Montevideo, so I was somewhat surprised to see orange groves near Salto. Apparently the area is known for growing citrus, particularly oranges. The trees were full of healthy-looking fruit.

Scenes from Montevideo

2007-06-04T15:06:00.000-03:00

Here's my latest video in what seems to be something of a series. Like Part I and Part II, this video isn't about a specific thing but instead it presents scenes from everyday life in Uruguay's capital city.

Here's today's video:

Zooilógico del Futuro

2007-06-03T09:26:00.000-03:00

Zooilógico del Futuro is a group of scuptures by Martín Arreguí installed on each side of Ruta 3 in the departamento de Flores. The pieces show Uruguay's native fauna-- ñandú, carpincho, puma, zorro-- and the threats they face. The setting is an interesting choice-- a traffic circle in the middle of miles and miles of open country.

La Represa Salto Grande

2007-06-02T08:13:00.000-03:00

The Represa Salto Grande is a dam on the Rio Uruguay just north of Salto. Construction of the dam, a joint Argentine-Uruguayan project, started in 1974 and was completed in 1979.

We didn't have time to take the guided tour to see the hydroelectric generators inside the dam, but we drove across it into Argentina. (Both Uruguay's and Argentina's Customs facilities are on the Argentine side of the river now, so it's possible to cross the bridge without going through Immigration.) Argentinian protesters, who have closed the southernmost bridge between the countries for nearly two years, only occasionally block the bridge at Salto.

The huge reservoir behind the dam in known as Lago Salto Grande.

Frigorífico

2007-06-01T17:30:00.001-03:00

Wednesday morning at 4 am I left Montevideo in order to visit a frigorífico in Paso de los Toros. We arrived at the meat packing plant just after sunrise, around eight in the morning. We changed into white pants, white tunics, white rubber boots, and blue hardhats before entering the plant. In the entryway, everyone scrubbed their boots and washed their hands before going into the packing room.

The plant was much smaller than the typical Uruguayan frigorífico and it was designed for processing liebre (hare) and later expanded to sheep. The day we were there they were packing lamb for sale in Africa.

I'd never been to a slaughterhouse so I didn't know what to expect. The part of the plant we were in was like a big busy butchershop-- very clean, very bright-- meat being cut, packaged, vacuum sealed, and boxed

See a short video:

Paso de los Toros

2007-05-31T18:22:00.000-03:00

Paso de los Toros is a small town located near the center of Uruguay on the Río Negro in the departamento of Tacuarembó. The locally popular grapefruit soda, Paso de los Toros, originated there. A larger-than-life bull statue on Ruta 5 marks the entrance to the town.

The local Texaco, like many gas stations in Uruguay's interior carried a wide variety of goods, including boots and 20 inch knives for the gauchos. I liked this display at the back of the station with motor additives and horse saddles on the same shelves.

2007-05-30T16:46:00.000-03:00

I posted about churros during Uruguay's summer. They make an even better snack for a cool fall afternoon.

Here's a short video showing churros being made:

Salto

2007-05-29T09:18:00.000-03:00

Salto is a pleasant city of 100,000 inhabitants on the bank of the Rio Uruguay, about 500 kilometers from Montevideo. It's the capital of the departamento of Salto. A bridge built on top of a dam connects Salto to Concordia, Argentina.

We didn't spend much time there but we enjoyed a short walk in a park along the river. Recent flooding left part of their riverside drive underwater. Salto has several nice parks and plazas, including Plaza Artigas (where this photo was taken.)

Some Salto links [all in Spanish]:
City of Salto website
Universidad de la Repúblic, Regional Norte
El Pueblo de Salto newspaper

Posada del Siglo XIX

2007-05-28T11:24:00.000-03:00

The Posada del Siglo XIX is a resort near the city of Salto (in the departmento of Salto) about 5 hours from Montevideo. We enjoyed our weekend there but it seemed very pricey. To be fair, a spa in the US would have been much more expensive. (And our friends told us their weeknight rates were substantially cheaper.)

Siglo XIX is one of several hotels in the termas de Daymán featuring geothermal hot pools. Some termas also sell daypasses. The water is naturally hot and the pools are manmade. One guidebook said the water source was found accidentally while drilling for oil. At Siglo XIX, there are several outdoor pools and a large covered pool and various hot tubs and spas plus a kids area with water slides. In the morning it was cold enough to form frost on the grass and the steam rising from the pools was very atmospheric. The pools themselves were very relaxing.

See a short video:

Travel

2007-05-26T20:08:00.000-03:00

Our friends had been so enthusiastic about their visit to Salto that we decided to go to the same spa. Details when we´re back in Montevideo.

Ñandú

2007-05-25T08:58:00.000-03:00

The ñandú [South American ostrich] may be my favorite animal in Uruguay. I've seen them many times driving through the countryside and it's always a treat. Last weekend at the Estancia los Morteros I stood quietly beside a fence and a pair of them came within 50 feet of me. Very cool!

Related posts:
Ñandú is good to eat;
Their eggs are huge.
In Patagonia we saw their smaller relatives, the choique

Good Samaritans

2007-05-24T08:58:00.000-03:00

We had some minor car trouble on our way home from Lavalleja and I'd like to thank Cesar Sosa and his family for their assistance. They graciously stopped to help us and then drove behind us in case we had more problems. At Minas, they made sure we got to a service station and aided in the consultation with the attendant. Muy amable!

It seems we had some bad gasoline and putting in an additive/cleaner and filling the tank took care of the problem. Our car has been running fine ever since.

Cesar and his wife are realtors specializing in country properties. If you're interested you can visit their website.

Making Chorizo

2007-05-23T10:24:00.000-03:00

Once a year at the Estancia Los Morteros they make their own chorizo. Usually it's a mid-Winter activity (June or July) but the pigs had been troublesome this year so they decided to move the process to the weekend we visited. It was interesting to see and a good reminder that meat doesn't ultimately come from the supermarket.

None of the pig was wasted; most of it became chorizo, but the legs were salted to make ham and we ate delicious spareribs for dinner. A couple of big pots simmered on the fire for head cheese. The skins cured on the shed roof and the dogs ate the scraps. The chorizo, cooked slowly over embers, was great.

If you don't follow the dictum, "people who love sausage and respect the law should never watch either being made," you may like this video:

Estancia Los Morteros

2007-05-22T12:27:00.000-03:00

We had a great weekend with friends at their estancia in Lavalleja. It's in a beautiful part of the country, several miles from the nearest paved road. The land was planted in eucalyptus six years ago and now looks like a forest. Livestock graze under the trees. A dozen dogs and horses help manage the cows and sheep. A few pigs, chicken and ducks round out the animal life.

We got to watch chorizo being made-- from pig to parrilla. We ate tangerines straight from the tree to accompany fresh pork and cordero. The kids had a great time catching frogs in the pond and minnows in the creek and they were unhappy when they found the critters couldn't return to Montevideo as pets. The star-filled night sky was impressive.

We were all a bit sad when we had to return to the city. Now we have several loads of muddy clothes to wash.

See a photo album from the estancia

Travel plans

2007-05-19T07:38:00.000-03:00

We've been invited to a friend's estancia for the long weekend (Monday is a Uruguayan holiday commemorating the Battle of Las Piedras of May 18, 1811). The estancia has no electricity, no hot water, no access to a paved road, and (I'm assuming) no Internet access so I'll be offline for the next few days. Details early next week.

Flying

2007-05-19T07:34:00.001-03:00

A few days ago I saw someone flying above the apartments in my neighborhood. At first glance I thought it was a hang glider but it wasn't. In some ways it looked more like kiteboarding equipment, but instead of skimming the water, it was 10 stories high. The aircraft had a motor with a propeller just behind the pilot. I'm not sure what this is called, maybe "powered parachuting" or "powered paragliding."I

Pilsen Stout

2007-05-18T22:17:00.000-03:00

Another dark beer has appeared in Montevideo's grocery stores: Pilsen Stout. Today was the first day I'd seen it. It's good. It tastes more like the Patricia Salus Porter, released earlier this autumn, than, say, Guinness Stout. Like the Patricia Porter, it's a limited edition.

The De todo un poco blog says Pilsen Stout had been available for a short time last year in Uruguay.

Prado

2007-05-17T20:09:00.000-03:00

The Prado neighborhood was once one of Montevideo's most fashionable, but in recent decades it seems to have fallen out of favor. (Eclipsed pehaps by the rise of Carrasco and other waterfront barrios.) Prado still has a feeling of elegance & there are some impressive mansions there. Tabaré Vázquez, Uruguay's president lives in Prado. For us, its main draw has been the Parque Prado for Semana Criolla, Expo Rural, and other events.

Visas

2007-05-16T22:47:00.000-03:00

It's easy for US citizens to visit Uruguay-- tourist visas are free and they're valid for 90 days from arrival. We've visited Buenos Aires and Patagonia and each time we returned to Montevideo we got new visas valid for another 90 days.

Since it had been nearly 3 months from our last trip to Argentina, it was time to visit the immigration office (in the Ciudad Vieja on Misiones street.) We tried to go yesterday afternoon, but the office closed at 2:30, so we went this morning. The process was pretty quick and painless. (It cost about $12 U.S.) The renewal is good for another 90 days and we'll be returning to Kalamazoo before it expires.

Everyday Montevideo

2007-05-15T21:44:00.002-03:00

I had enough fun making last week's video about Montevideo that I decided to create another one. This isn't focused on any particular event, but it's a sampling of regular life in Uruguay's capital. If you've spent more than a couple days in the city, you'll likely be familiar with some of these places.

Watch today's video:

The old version (with Argentinian music) is available here.