A Year in Uruguay

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.

Labels: music, rural, Uruguay, video

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.

Labels: Montevideo places, Uruguay, video

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.

Labels: food and drink, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: Argentina, nature, Patagonia, video

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:

Labels: Colonia, interior, Montevideo places, rural, Uruguay, video

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















You can see it here:

Labels: Montevideo places, Uruguay, video

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.

Labels: rural, sports, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: Montevideo places, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: Montevideo places, Uruguay, video

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

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:

Labels: art, customs, informal sector, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: candombe, carnival, murga, Uruguay, video

Labels: Colonia, interior, Uruguay, video

Labels: Argentina, Brazil, nature, video

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:

Labels: Argentina, nature, sports, video

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:

Labels: Montevideo places, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: business, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: interior, rural, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: Montevideo places, Uruguay, video

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:

Labels: food and drink, interior, rural, Tacuarembó, Uruguay, video