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Exploring Uruguay

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Brian

Flying Out of Uruguay

August 15, 2009 by Brian

I’m heading back to the States for the weekend to pick up some of our stuff we have in storage…  Why not have it shipped?  Because, it’s cheaper to get on a plane and bring it back (by a couple of thousand dollars).

When you are getting ready to fly out of Uruguay there is something you should know. You have to pay an airport exit fee. Why? I don’t know… But, they won’t let your through security until you’ve got your bar-coded receipt.

It’s U$S 31 or $744 pesos (as of today’s exchange rate Friday Aug. 14, 09). I tried to whip out my good ole MasterCard, but the lady wouldn’t accept it… Maybe she didn’t like me, but whatever the case may be… all she wanted from me was my boarding pass and my cash… I’m sure glad I had pesos on me.

As I sit here at the airport, I am enjoying one of my favorite pastimes. People watching. One thing about Uruguay is, the mullet has definitely not fallen out of style, both for men and women (it’s kind of scary)… 

Either have tie-dye outfits, from head to toe tie-dye outfits that is. In addition, it’s around 20-22C degrees today (68-72F)… By looking at everyone in the airport here, you would think it’s 20 below.  People here tend to overdress for cold weather… or even warm weather.  Tons of clothing, hats gloves and scarves… and when they take those off… they have 4 layers of sweaters on below.  None of that bothers me, it’s just observations.

If you are one of the people I’m getting ready to describe, and you take offense to this… good…  I really think there should be a law passed here (and everywhere) about men not being allowed to wear skin-tight low cut V-neck T-shirts…  AND…  There’s just something wrong with men carrying a purse… I don’t care if it’s called a “man-purse”…  There’s just something not right about that…  So if I’m describing you, you’re doing wrong.

Filed Under: Culture, Travel Tagged With: airport, exit fee, fly, flying, uruguay

Baby Update! We’re having…

August 14, 2009 by Brian

A girl!

We had our ultrasound yesterday afternoon at Hospital Britanico and the ultrasound technician said that she’s 99.99% sure it’s a girl!

Her name is Kaylee Joy – her middle name is for my Grandma Joyce who I’ve always been very close to. I think it’s going to be so much fun to have two little girls so close in age.

Our due date is either Feb. 5, 6 or 7… We’ve been told different dates at our last few appointments. Regardless, we are stoked. Hopefully Kaylee isn’t quite the size that Zoë was (10lbs 1oz) when she is born…

But if she is, we’ll love her just the same.

Filed Under: Baby, Family, Health Care Tagged With: Baby, hospital britanico, ultrasound

McDonalds is McDonalds is McDonalds… Yes, Even in Uruguay

August 13, 2009 by Brian

I haven’t eaten McDonalds, or fast food for that matter, much in the last several years. And, ever since Brian saw Super Size Me (great movie), he’s also had an aversion to the Golden Arches.

Well, it seems that there is a McDonalds on every block in Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguayos eat it up even though it’s not considered a “cheap” meal here. It’s really quite difficult to walk anywhere in Montevideo without passing one (we actually live across the street from one and there’s another one about 5 blocks away).

Having experienced Uruguay’s wonderful grass-fed beef, we were curious if the hamburgers at McDonalds would be any different from in the States. Well, the curiosity finally caught up to us because we gave in and had lunch at McDonalds outside of Punta Carretas Shopping.

Picture of Brian sitting in the huge chairs outside of McDonalds at Punta Carretas Shopping

We ordered the Quarter Pounder combos and were served the Big Mac combos (we decided not to say anything). Let me say, we both felt the same way about those burgers that we did about McDonalds hamburgers in the US. Yuck.

If there’s one thing I can say for McDonalds, it’s that they’re consistent. I knew there was a reason we didn’t eat there! Oh well; another lesson learned.

But, there are some positive differences between McDonalds in Uruguay and McDonalds in the US. The McDonalds in Uruguay are clean, they’re nice (we’re talking café-style pleather couch seating) and they have good coffee.

McCafe is huge here. Several locals have told us that the coffee at McCafe is the best you’ll find in Montevideo. Starbucks hasn’t reached Uruguay yet, so there isn’t much competition, but we tried McCafe one night and were pleasantly surprised. They have good desserts and serve Hot Chocolate in a fun way. They bring out a glass of hot milk and a chocolate bar. You dissolve the chocolate in the hot milk and you get a tasty hot chocolate treat.

So, if you’re planning to visit Uruguay, we recommend staying away from the food at McDonalds, but think it’s worth checking out McCafe if you enjoy coffee and dessert.

Filed Under: Food and Drink Tagged With: McCafe, McDonalds, montevideo, uruguay

Food Additives in Uruguay: Read the Labels

August 12, 2009 by Brian

Some would call me a fanatic when it comes to reading food labels. So, when we started living in Uruguay, one of the first things I did was read the labels of everything at the grocery store that we would normally buy. I was in for quite a surprise (some good; some bad)!

Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sucralose, fluoride, partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans fat) and more… I try to be conscious of what our family puts into our bodies, and these are things we try to avoid whenever possible (well, except for the sugar; we try to minimize it but sometimes you just need dessert!).

If you don’t know a lot about food additives, I’ll give you a brief overview of some of the key ones, but I highly suggest doing a little research on your own.

High fructose corn syrup… it’s made from corn, so it must be healthy, right? Well, that’s what the ads the Corn Refiners Association in the US has put out are saying, but if you do a little research, you’ll find quite the opposite. High fructose corn syrup is made by changing the glucose molecules in corn starch to fructose. It’s a very cheap, man-made sweetener that has replaced sugar in most processed foods and beverages in the US. It has almost an indefinite shelf life and serves as a great food preservative, which has also made it appealing to food manufacturers. Unfortunately, the health concerns aren’t widely publicized thanks to the US corn industry.

Our bodies don’t know how to handle this man made compound, so it’s stored as fat rather than broken down as energy. And, because our bodies don’t know how to process it, our brains don’t get the signal that we’re full. So we just keep eating and eating, or drinking and drinking those cokes. That’s why you see people in the US drinking multiple Super Big Gulps full of Coke each day. Their bodies just don’t understand how many calories they’re consuming. Add to that concerns over genetically modified corn and recent studies that have shown mercury contamination in high fructose corn syrup, and it’s enough to make me run for the hills.

Artificial sweeteners… A lot of people have turned to diet foods and drinks containing artifice sweeteners because of the reduced calorie content. Recent studies have shown that people who consume artificial sweeteners actually gain more weight than those consuming sugar. This could be because these artificial sweeteners mess with your body’s ability to monitor your calorie intake, so you end up overeating. Why risk consuming these carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds when they aren’t even helping you lose weight? I’m only scratching the surface here, but do a little research and you’ll probably want to put down that Diet Coke.

Hydrogenated/ partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans fats)…
Trans fats are made when you heat oil and pass hydrogen through it. The fatty acids in the oil acquire some of the hydrogen, making it denser. If you fully hydrogenate the oil, you get a solid. But if you stop part way through the process, you get a semi-solid “partially hydrogenated oil” with a consistency similar to butter… only it’s much cheaper to produce and extends the storage life of the foods it’s used in.

Due to its low cost and “buttery” consistency, food companies often use it as a substitute for oil or butter. If you read nutrition labels, you’ll find it in many foods like doughnuts, cookies, pastries, crackers and more. Some restaurants fry food in it as well. What makes it bad? Trans fat is known to increase blood levels of “bad” cholesterol, while lowering levels of “good” cholesterol. It can cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems, and was found to increase the risk of heart disease. Again, this is just scratching the surface of an in-depth subject.

Fluoride… This is one topic where there is always serious debate. We’ve been taught that fluoride is necessary for dental health, so we should use fluoride toothpaste, drink the fluoridated water in our communities, etc. I’m still studying fluoride, but I have concluded based on my research that it is toxic and I don’t want it in my family’s food or water supply.

A great website I’ve found on the topic of fluoride is http://www.fluoridedebate.com. Just this one passage alone from the site should make you want to do more research before consuming fluoride: “The chemicals used to fluoridate 90% of water fluoridated in the US are not pharmaceutical grade. Instead, they come from the wet scrubbing systems of the superphosphate fertilizer industry. These chemicals are either hexafluorosilicic acid or its sodium salt. They are contaminated with toxic metals and trace amounts of radioactive isotopes. In other words, the public water supply is being used as a vehicle for hazardous waste management! By law, this waste cannot be dumped into the sea but the EPA allows it to be diluted down with our public drinking water.”

So, now that I’ve given you a little bit of background on some of the key food additives to be aware of (no matter which country you live in), I’ll share a few of the discoveries we made when reading the food labels in Uruguay:

Fruit Juice
In the US, it’s quite easy to find 100%, not from concentrate fruit juice with no additives, even at a normal supermarket. In Uruguay, we have to make our own (which is fine since produce here is so good and inexpensive). Whether it’s sugar, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners like aspartame, you’re guaranteed to find at least one of these additives in almost every carton of juice you buy (juice is sold in cartons here).

I have only found one brand of apple juice (and only their apple juice), Conaprole, that doesn’t have any of these additives. But, it is from concentrate and when you pour it out of the carton, it just doesn’t feel “natural.” The color is off (I think it must be colored even though the package doesn’t say it) and it doesn’t taste the same as the apple juice we used to buy in the US.

So, one idea we got from a restaurant we ate at one time was to put some shredded apple in a blender with some water. Put it in a cup with a straw and Zoë loves it. We also cook down pears when they start to get over ripe into a pear sauce. Add a little cinnamon and it’s the perfect treat. We also like to buy a few kilos of oranges each week at the feria to make fresh squeezed orange juice.

Soda
Living in San Diego, we always enjoyed the fact that we had access to “Mexican Coke” at several of the taco shops. If you’re not aware, the US is one of the few countries in the world that use high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener in soda (rather than sugar; although you can get “all natural” sodas sweetened with sugar or cane juice).

Whenever we’d go pick up a burrito down the street at Rudy’s Taco Shop in San Diego, we’d also get a couple of “Mexican Cokes.” So, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the sodas in Uruguay are also sweetened with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. It tastes better and it’s one of the few times you’ll hear me say that sugar is the healthy alternative ☺

Another thing to note with soda is that there isn’t the variety of choices in Uruguay that there are in the US. You have the basics: Coca-Cola (people don’t call it Coke here), Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke in the US), Coca-Cola Zero, 7-Up, Sprite, Orange Fanta and occa
sionally you’ll find a restaurant that serves Pepsi. There’s not much to choose from, and I’d say out of these choices, the majority of the time, I see people with Coca-Cola Light (and yes, it has artificial sweeteners in it so I haven’t tried it).

Salt
Another one that surprised me was table salt. First, we can’t find sea salt in Uruguay, which is what we used in the States (although we did hear that one couple found it at some obscure shop, but it did have additives so it’s not what we’re used to using). We like sea salt because it’s natural and you can buy it unprocessed with no food additives. Plus, it just makes food taste better.

Second, the table salt you do find  in Uruguay has iodine in it (same as the US) as well as fluoride in it. I don’t mind the iodine so much, but I wasn’t happy about the fluoride. I did finally find one brand of salt without fluoride at the Disco Natural (supermarket) at Punta Carretas Shopping… Urusal. It’s a small plastic bag with a picture of a whale on it. So, that’s what we’ll be using until Brian picks some sea salt up in the States this weekend.

Gatorade
After realizing that soda is sweetened with sugar, I was eager to read the label on Gatorade hoping I’d find that it is also sweetened with sugar. Unfortunately, the ingredients of Gatorade are the same as in the US… it’s still made with high fructose corn syrup ☹

Ketchup
Ketchup in Uruguay is also made with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Except Heinz, which is imported from the US and is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that until I had already bought it. I’ll have to pick up another brand next time.

Cookies and Crackers
Read the packages carefully. You’ll find not only sugar, but also high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated/ partially hydrogenated oils in many products. This isn’t much different than in the US, but it’s something to be aware of nonetheless.

Basically, the moral of the story is: make everything you can from scratch. Fresh ingredients are so inexpensive in Uruguay compared to the US; there’s really no excuse to buy packaged, processed foods filled with harmful additives.

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Shopping Tagged With: artificial sweeteners, fluoride, food additives, high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, uruguay

Buenos Aires, Argentina – It’s like New York… but Bigger

August 11, 2009 by Brian

We knew when we moved to Montevideo that we’d eventually have to take a trip to Buenos Aires to get our passports stamped. Not to mention, we just wanted to check it out.

As we cruised across the Rio De La Plata from Montevideo on the Buquebus (ferry liner) we really had no idea of what to expect of Buenos Aires. We had heard it was “dangerous” and to be “very careful.”

On the other hand, we also heard that Buenos Aires had wonderful shopping, had every type of restaurant you could think of and that it was a wonderful city.

As with traveling anywhere in the world, if you let yourself become a victim, you will be one. We had no problems in Buenos Aires.

Our first stop to plan our trip to Buenos Aires was Buquebus Turismo by Punta Carretas Shopping (not the one inside, but the one on the other side of the street from the front gates).

We were able to book our tickets for the Buquebus, reserve a hotel and get a transfer from the Buquebus Station in Buenos Aires to and from our hotel in one package (the location inside Punta Carretas Shopping only sells ferry tickets).

We chose the ferry that went directly from Montevideo to Buenos Aires in three hours opposed to taking a two-hour bus trip to Colonia and a one-hour ferry ride to Buenos Aires. The total for the three of us: U$S 320.

On the morning of our departure, we took a cab from our apartment to Ciudad Vieja (Old City) where the Buquebus terminal is located. Going through customs was extremely easy.

There was an Argentinean official and an Uruguayan official sitting next to each other at a counter. We handed our passports over with our Buquebus tickets… BAM BAM BAM BAM… Our passports were stamped by both countries’ customs officials, we walked through the “Duty Free” area and we got on to board the Buquebus ferry.

The Buquebus ride over to Buenos Aires was nice. There were plenty of little ones for Zoë to play with. She seems to make friends everywhere we go. There was a galley, where you could buy food and drinks… A little overpriced for what it was, but I’ve had a lot worse… They sold alcohol too.

For the kids who were a little bit older, there was a PS2 set up so they could play video games. On the way to Buenos Aires, there were a half a dozen 10-14 year old kids playing Futbol… On the way back, there was one lone kid who had the whole system to himself…

When we arrived at the Buquebus port in Buenos Aires, we had to pass our stuff through an x-ray machine, which went so fast there is no way possible they could have seen anything inside of it.

We then headed to the left to the Buquebus counter, handed our voucher for the transfer to our hotel to the attendant who had us escorted to a bus and away we went with front door service to our hotel.

At the Buquebus Turismo office, we had 30+ hotels to choose from. We ended up randomly picking “The Liberty Hotel.”  LOL…  That night, we felt like Kramer in that episode of Seinfield where the bright red light keeps flashing outside of his window… That was the same position of the ‘Hotel’ sign to our room.

It was pretty funny looking back on it, but getting to sleep was a different story. The noise outside didn’t help (we were on a busy street). The next time we go, we’ll be choosing a different hotel.

Once we checked into our hotel… We decided to go get food. What type?  Thai… We found a place through Google and went. My iPod Touch came in super handy, there were free connections to the Internet everywhere we walked.

Empire Thai was fantastic. The owner Kevin is originally from New Jersey, but has owned his restaurant for about eight years. We had breaded and fried prawns to start, which were phenomenal.

Then Chrystal and I both had Chicken Panang Curry. We both like spicy food and ordered ours spicy at a 7 on a scale of 1-10… Next time, we’ll be ordering a 6. We ordered Zoë the chicken Pad Thai, which was really good too.

If you are in Buenos Aires and you want extremely good Thai food in a cool place, check out Empire Thai. By the way, if you are a vodka drinker, Empire Thai has one of the largest selections of Vodka I’ve ever seen in a bar… and I’ve been to more bars than most. Our food was in the U$S8-10 a plate range.

We spent about 24 hours in Buenos Aires. We walked all over the city. There is a lot of beautiful architecture, although it’s a little hard to appreciate with the hoards of people on the streets. There are tons upon tons of places to shop and restaurants to eat at. One thing we found was that children’s toys were less expensive in Buenos Aires than in Montevideo. The city doesn’t sleep… It’s a very busy city, and a very big city. It’s like New York, but bigger.

Filed Under: Family, Food and Drink, Travel Tagged With: argentina, buenos aires, buquebus, empire, liberty hotel, thai

And the Road Trip Continues: Punta Ballena, Piriapolis and Atlantida

August 10, 2009 by Brian

After breakfast, we set out for our first stop of the day, Punta Ballena. We had heard that it was the Punta Del Este of 15 years ago, but more affordable now, so we wanted to check it out as a potential location for our next home in Uruguay.

We stopped at a viewpoint in Punta Ballena and took some pictures of the beautiful scenery.

This was clearly a tourist stop because there were some vendors set up selling trinkets.

There was also museum nearby. But Zoë fell asleep so we didn’t get to check it out this trip. Instead of waking her to check out the rest of Punta Ballena, we decided to head out to Piriapolis.

I guess a motorcycle convention was in Piriapolis for the weekend because there were motorcycles everywhere.  We really liked the feel of Piriapolis. It has more of the small beach town feel we’re looking for.

Although we didn’t get to spend a lot of time there today, we’ll definitely be taking another trip out there within the next couple months to explore it further.

The only Piriapolis pictures we got were of a fountain at one of the small parks on our drive out to Punta Del Este the night before:

Our next scheduled stop was Atlantida, but we decided to drive though several of the smaller, more unknown beach towns on the way. There were some really neat little towns tucked along the coast. It was really cool to see that even though these communities were very small, they still had markets, restaurants, etc.

We also noticed that peat moss roofs are quite popular in these small towns… Brian kept commenting about how it reminded him of Ireland.

We stopped off and had lunch in one of these small little beach towns at a quaint family restaurant called La Caracola. The owners (I believe it was a husband and wife team) were very friendly and welcoming.

And, the food was excellent. Brian had the Milanesa with puré de papas
(mashed potatoes) and both Johnny and I ordered the Chivitos al Pan.

The portions were huge so in addition to eating her own serving of puré
de papas, Zoë shared with all of us. We definitely recommend stopping
here if you’re taking a road trip down the coast.

After we had lunch, we headed to Atlantida. Atlantida had even more of a sleepy beach town feel… it felt more residential than Piriapolis did. I’m sure during the summer it picks up quite a bit more.

We found a small park with a large fountain so that Zoë could run around. She had spent a lot of time in the car that weekend and was getting pretty antsy. She had a blast running around, picking up leaves and giving them to us as presents.

The beaches in Atlantida were nice as well, but we didn’t get a chance to enjoy them this time around. Here are a couple pictures of the beach in Atlantida we shot the day before when it was raining.

One thing we noticed on our drive down the coast is how untouched the beaches are. You still see vegetation growing on the dunes in many areas (it isn’t pulled out to make the beaches more tourist friendly). The sand even comes back onto the road in many places, making navigation interesting.

We’ll definitely be taking another trip to Piriapolis and some of these other beach towns in the next few months.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Atlantida, beach, beaches, piriapolis, Punta Ballena, road trip, uruguay

Where to Buy Gold In Montevideo Uruguay

August 7, 2009 by Brian


Our blog post, “Gold is My Answer,” was very popular.  Since that post, I have had multiple inquiries asking,  “Where do you buy gold in Montevideo Uruguay?”  So, due to popular request, here you go.

I only know of two companies that you can buy gold from in Montevideo Uruguay; Indumex and Gales both are Cambios.
Indumex and Gales both have locations throughout Uruguay where you can buy gold.

Here is a list of Indumex locations in Uruguay:

Montevideo
Casa Central
Rincon 473
# 9151615
Monday thru Friday 10am to 6pm

Tres Cruces Nivel Shopping Center
Acevedo Diaz 1785
Loc T11 and 53
# 4084060
Everyday 6am to 12am and 9am to 10pm respectively

Portones Shopping Center
Avenida Italia 5775 loc 101
# 6017832
Everyday 10am to 10pm

Punta del Este
Punta Shopping Anexo
Avenida Roosevelt y Parada 6
Loc 228A and 213
# 042-492077 and 042-496406
Winter – Apr. through Nov.
Sun. through Thu. 9:30am to 10pm
Fri. and Sat. 9:30am to 11pm
Summer – Dec. thru Mar.
Everyday from 9am to 1am

Gorlero
Gorlero and Calle 28
# 042-444172
Closed in Winter
Oct. and Nov. 10am to 6pm
Dec. thru Mar. 10am to 12am

Salto
Salto Shopping
Avenida Batlle and Ordonez 2265
# 073-37400
Everyday from 10am to 9pm

Rivera
Rivera
Avenida Sarandi 496
# 062-24585
Monday thru Saturday 8am to 6pm

Colonia
Colonia Shopping
Avenida Roosevelt, esq Casanello
Loc 03
# 052-29560
Everyday from 9am to 9pm

Here is a list of Gales locations in Uruguay:

Montevideo
World Trade Center
Luis A. de Herrera 1248
Local 20
# 628-3231

Pocitos
21 de Setiembre y Ellauri
# 711-6680

Centro
18 de Julio y Río Negro
# 902-0229

Ciudad Vieja
Rincón 483
# 915-3310

Punta del Este
Gorlero y calle 29
(042) 44-3475

ChuyBrasil 553
# (0474) 2100

I hope this helps everyone who wants or needs to buy gold in Montevideo or anywhere in Uruguay.

Filed Under: Financial Tagged With: Buy Gold, colonia, Indumex a Cambio, montevideo, Punta Del Este, Rivera, Salto, uruguay

Road Trip to Punta Del Este: Hotel and Restaurant Reviews Included!

August 7, 2009 by Brian

After we rented a car in Montevideo, we drove up the coast and headed out to Punta Del Este. We decided to find a hotel in Punta Del Este for the night and then take a slow drive back to Montevideo so we could visit a few more beach towns like Punta Ballena, Piriapolis and Atlantida.

Even though it was raining, the drive out to Punta Del Este was nice. We were finally able to use Zoë’s car seat, although the poor little girl got a little car sick at one point ☹ It’s a pretty, scenic drive and you quickly realize how sparsely populated the country is outside of Montevideo. It was quite relaxing (but I wasn’t driving ☺).

When we finally reached our destination, it was already dark so we set out to find a hotel in Punta Del Este. We stopped by several hotels to inquire about prices and they ranged from U$S 30-100 (this is the low season for Punta Del Este hotels; I’m sure the prices skyrocket in summer). We also stopped by the hostel (Brian’s friend Johnny who is staying with us was curious about prices there), but they were full.

After checking with about 8 hotels in Punta Del Este, we decided to stay at the Shelton Hotel, which is a family built, owned and operated hotel. It was U$S 30 per night for a single room and U$S 45 for a double room.

The staff was very nice and they even showed us up to our rooms and made sure the heater and TV were working properly. The staff consisted of 5 people, the Sagorsky family.  Their grandfather built the hotel in 1974 and it’s been in the family since.  We like to support family businesses.

From the moment you walk in the hotel, you feel like you stepped into a bit of a time warp.

Here are few pictures of the Shelton Hotel lobby:

And the hallway on the way to our hotel room:

We even had an ocean view from our hotel room (this is a picture from the next morning):

It was definitely a solid 3-star hotel. Nothing fancy, but it was perfect for our needs… a safe, quiet place to stay for the night. We decided to rest for a bit before we ventured out to find somewhere to have dinner since it was only around 7:30 and restaurants don’t typically start serving until around 9:00 in Uruguay.

When it was time to go out to eat, we walked around Punta Del Este a bit and settled upon a restaurant called View Point. It was situated at the top of a building, overlooking the water.

We walked into the building and took the elevator upstairs. It definitely appeared to be the nicest restaurant we had dined in since moving to Uruguay. We were all dressed VERY casual, but the staff still treated us like royalty.

We had three waiters serving our table! Seriously… the best service we’ve had just about anywhere.

Zoë had the squash and spinach ravioli. They brought hers out first so we could feed her before our food came out. The fresh pasta was covered in a simple butter sauce and was delicious. They made it special with no cheese for her since she’s allergic to milk. She said, “Mmmmm!” with every bite.

I had the seafood risotto. The mussels in Uruguay are so different than the mussels in the US. They aren’t chewy and I actually like them. The risotto was great and I couldn’t finish my whole plate, even with Zoë’s help.

Brian had the pasta sampler, which included shrimp angel hair pasta, gnocchi and two types of ravioli. He said it was delicious and couldn’t finish his portion either.

Johnny had the Ribeye steak, which was also great.

In addition to the four entrees, the guys shared a bottle of Don Pascual Tannat Reserve, and we probably had 3-4 bottles of mineral water (in addition to the wonderful bread basket). Our bill came out to around U$S 160, which is by far the most expensive meal we’ve had in Uruguay, but well worth the experience. We knew the restaurant prices in Punta Del Este would be higher than in Montevideo.

Afterwards we walked around Punta Del Este a little bit more and headed back to the hotel. We wanted to make sure we got a good night’s sleep so we could head out early to check out Punta Ballena, Piriapolis and Atlantida.

In the morning we took advantage of the Shelton Hotel’s complimentary breakfast. It included coffee, orange juice, water, toast and marmalade, medialunas (similar to croissants) and some shredded apple for Zoë. Again, nothing fancy, but it filled up our bellies.

Overall, we weren’t really impressed with Punta Del Este… a lot of high rises crowded around the water. But, we’ll have to go back in high season to give it a fair shot. Before we close out this blog entry, here are a few pictures of the beaches in Punta Del Este.

The story of our road trip through Punta Ballena, Piriapolis and Atlantida will continue in our next blog…

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: hotel, hotels, Punta Del Este, restaurant, shelton hotel, uruguay, view point

Renting A Car in Uruguay

August 6, 2009 by Brian

Renting a car in Uruguay has been one of the easiest things we’ve done since we got here.  We simply walked over to Budget Rent A Car (located near Punta Carretas Shopping), asked to rent a car and got one.

To rent a car in Uruguay, all we had to do was show our driver’s license and passport, pay and we were off.

Now, it just so happened that the weekend we decided to rent a car was a holiday, ‘Constitution Day’ Weekend, so we got hit with higher prices because we had to go through Budget instead of one of the smaller local agencies (because they were all sold out.)

One of the smaller agencies would have gladly rented us a car for $20 a day, but she didn’t have any available.

Another local agency would have rented us a car for $22 a day, but he didn’t have any available either.

So renting the car from Saturday morning through Monday morning from Budget was U$S 148…  A little steep, but hey, it was worth it for the great time we had.

Now one thing about renting a car in Uruguay you do need to know and be prepared for is they are sticks.  Yes, manual transmissions.  We had read that on a blog or website prior to moving here, but to actually see it is kind of funny.

Regardless, we had a 2009 Fiat with less than 3,000 km on it. The Fiat had CD player with detachable faceplate with a MP3 input…  Our iPods provided a fantastic soundtrack for a great road trip.

Long and short, you should have no problems renting a car in Uruguay.  Driving, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Budget, rent a car in Uruguay, renting a car in Uruguay

Having a Baby in Uruguay Follow Up: First Trimester Down!

August 5, 2009 by Brian

If you didn’t read our original blog about having a baby in Uruguay, you can find it here.

We’re happy to report that we’ve made it through the first trimester!

Everything is going well with my pregnancy and the care I’m receiving at Hospital Britanico has been great. I’ve found an obstetrician that speaks English, which has been very helpful, although I am a little nervous about the fact that not all of the labor and delivery staff will speak English.

If it were anything other than delivering a baby, I wouldn’t worry so much about the language barrier. I guess we need to brush up on Spanish medical terminology.

The latest discussion in our house is whether we’re having a baby boy or baby girl… I think we’re having a boy; Brian thinks we’re having a girl. We have another ultrasound next Thursday, so we’re hoping to find out if we’re having a boy or girl in just over a week (right before Brian embarks on a weekend journey to the States to pick up my maternity clothes and baby stuff). Of course we’ll keep you updated when we get the news.

Although I don’t think she quite understands yet, Zoë points to my belly every morning and says “baby.” I still think she’s going to be in for a bit of a shock when we bring an actual baby home in February. But she is a very loving little girl, so I think she’s adjust just fine with a little time.

I was just thinking today about how different it is going to be having baby #2. When Zoë was born, Brian was able to stay with us in the hospital.

This time around, he’ll have to stay with Zoë at night, so I’ll be at the hospital alone with the new baby. While it’ll be different and I’m sure Zoë will be wondering where mommy is, it’ll give me some private bonding time with the new baby before we bring him or her home and mommy is pulled in multiple directions.

That will have both its pros and cons. When I was still recovering after having Zoë, it was nice to have Brian there to change Zoë’s diaper (he actually changed her very first diaper) or bring her to me so I could feed her.

But, I guess the positive side is that I’ll get extra snuggle time with the new baby and can sleep knowing that Brian isn’t laying on an uncomfortable cot next to me ☺ We’ll see how I actually feel about it when the big day comes.

We’ll keep you posted on our blog in the coming months about how things are going. And of course, we’re still working on our ebook to help other expatriate families understand the process of having a baby in Uruguay.

Filed Under: Baby, Family, Health Care Tagged With: having in baby in uruguay, hospital britanico, ultrasound

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