A Year in Uruguay

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.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

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

Labels: travel US to Uruguay

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.

Labels: music, travel US to Uruguay

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

Labels: carnival, travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

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.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay

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.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay

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:

Labels: seasons, travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay, video, waterfront

Happy Halloween!

Labels: travel US to Uruguay

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.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

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.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay

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.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

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.

Labels: government, travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

While the trip here didn´t cause jet lag, I seem to be experiencing something similar but on a different scale-- a disconnect between the weather and the calendar. It´s late Winter here in Montevideo. It´s not terribly cold-- usually in the 40s-- although it can be windy along the waterfront. A windbreaker, a warm hat and a fleece are plenty.

It feels like the end of Winter; there are even some early leaf buds appearing on certain trees. (Although not the Sycamores, or Plane trees, that line many neighborhood streets. I´m sure they´ll be late. In Michigan our Sycamore is always last to leaf out.) Night comes early, very much like Winter in the north.

Anyway, it´s not particularly harsh and it feels like warmer weather is coming, and I have no problem accepting that. What seems inappropriate are the dates. When I´m reminded that it´s the end of August or early September, it feels wrong.

I don´t know if there´s a term for this North to South displacement.

Labels: nature, seasons, travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

An interesting thing about flying South is the absence of jet lag. While the flight to Uruguay is substantially longer than a transatlantic flight, there's no change in time zones. Well, no big change: Montevideo is one time zone east of Eastern Daylight time.

The overnight flight is tiring, but it's not like landing in Europe or Asia and being out-of-synch for a few days. No jet lag.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

We were somewhere mid-continent as dawn broke.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

Here we are checking our luggage at the Kalamazoo airport-- 6 bags plus assorted carry-ons. United Airlines allows 100 pounds of baggage per person. Thankfully we were well under that limit.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

Geography Quiz

Which cities are farthest apart?
Chicago-London
London-Moscow
Los Angeles-Tokyo
Chicago-Montevideo




Answers from http://www.mapcrow.info/

Chicago-London 3947.54 miles
London-Moscow 1552.42 miles
Los Angeles-Tokyo 5471.32 miles
Chicago-Montevideo 5658.58 miles

South America is much bigger than many people realize. And Montevideo isn't particularly far South; it's another 1500 miles South to Tierra Del Fuego. But, Montevideo is over 3000 miles south of Caracas, Venezuela

We leave this afternoon for our 22 hour flight to Montevideo. From Kalamazoo, it's four flights: Kalamazoo-Chicago, Chicago-D.C., D.C.-Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires-Montevideo.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay, Uruguay

My classes are finished and my grades are done, but our travel arrangements to South America haven't been finalized. We'll leave for Uruguay sometime in August. I'll be posting comments and observations about my trip here, so bookmark this site if you're interested.

We'll be based in Montevideo for the academic year 2006-7. I expect to do some travel in neighboring countries as well. We'll be back in Michigan for the start of school, Fall 2007.

Labels: travel US to Uruguay