Exploring Uruguay

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Recipe of the Week – Thai Cole Slaw

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This week’s recipe of the week for Thai Cole Slaw is compliments of my lovely aunt. She made it at a family function a few years back and I fell in love with it.

I have made this recipe many times and it’s always a big hit. Brian isn’t a fan of peanuts, so if you aren’t either you can omit them (or serve them on the side), but I think they make the recipe.

Dressing Ingredients

1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
½ jalapeno, seeded and chopped very fine (to taste)

Cole Slaw Ingredients

1 head of cabbage, shredded
¼ cup red or green onion, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
½ cup celery, diced
1 cup dry roasted peanuts

Directions

  1. Mix the dressing ingredients
  2. Let marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour
  3. Mix together salad ingredients
  4. Pour and toss the marinated dressing over the cole slaw just before serving

Tips and Modifications

The dressing does not have a long shelf life so it’s best to make it the day you will be using it

Dia De Los Trabajadores En Uruguay

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On May 1st Uruguay celebrates Dia De Los Trabajadores along with most other countries in world; otherwise known as Dia Del Trabajo,  International Workers Day, May Day or Labor Day.

Every May 1st a lot of countries around the world come to a standstill to celebrate the fight for the 8 hour work day. There’s a lot of history behind Labor Day, if you’re interested in learning more Click Here

This year Dia De Los Trabajadores falls on a Saturday.

Starting tomorrow evening (Friday April 30th) most services around the country will close early and stay closed until Sunday. To our understanding this includes taxi companies, bus lines, ferias, grocery stores, shops, restaurants and pretty much everything else.

We heard there will be some clubs open on Saturday night in Ciudad Vieja and there will be parties around the country… We’re looking forward to see.

It sounds like it will be pretty cool…

To all of our followers who get the day off…

Have a great one!

Canada Taking Interest in Uruguay

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I heard that Uruguay’s government owned part of Pluna Airlines, “Uruguay’s Airline” (at least the main one).

It seems Uruguay’s government has their hands all over the private sector. They are into the banking industry, telecommunications, Internet, healthcare… (Sounds kind of like the U.S. government.)

So Uruguay’s government being involved in the airline didn’t surprise me.

I probably wouldn’t have thought about Pluna again until I was ready to fly, but I just read an interesting article in the Montreal Gazette which states…

“Latin American Regional Aviation Holding Corporation owns 75% of Pluna while 25% is ‘indirectly owned’ by the Uruguayan government.”

I’m not sure what “indirectly owned” means, but I’m sure they’re getting some green somehow.

How does Canada fit in?

Jazz Air is a Canadian airline that just bought a 1/3 equity stake of Latin American Regional Aviation Holding Corporation.

According to the article, it seems South American air travel is an up and coming market for investors.

Click here to read the article.

The New Face of Exploring Uruguay

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Hey everyone… We reorganized Exploring Uruguay to be easier to navigate and to help you find what you’re looking for faster and with greater ease.

We just switched from using Site Build It and TypePad to using WordPress with the Thesis Theme.

It took a little longer than we expected to switch servers and everything, but we’re happy with the change.

We still have a few things to iron out with the site… If you run across a broken link or something that looks funny; no worries… We’ll be fixing it soon.

Along the sides you’ll see a bunch of useful links for products and services to help you as a traveler or an expat.

Thanks for following us and enjoy the adventures to come.

Coming Soon…

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Hi Everyone,

We’re currently working on a new design for the Exploring Uruguay site, so this week we won’t have any new blog posts.

We plan to have the new design live by next week, and we’ll resume posting then.

Have a great week,

Brian, Chrystal, Zoë & Kaylee

Recipe of the Week: Zesty Chicken and Vegetable Stew

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ChickenStew

Mushrooms are expensive in Uruguay (compared to the States), so we don’t cook with them as much as we used to. But, I saw a pretty good price on them at Devoto, so I picked up a large package and that’s where this recipe was born.

This chicken and vegetable stew is a delicious, healthy treat. In addition to being served as a stew as shown in the picture, it would also be great served over rice or pasta. Just add a bit more tomato paste if you’re serving over pasta.

I have mentioned in other recipes (like the chicken taco salad recipe) that we typically reserve the chicken breasts from our roasted whole chickens for a second meal. This is the ideal way to prepare this stew.

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
  • 2 red bell peppers, diced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 4 cups mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • ½ teaspoon parsley
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce
  • 1 tablespoon grape seed oil

Directions:

  1. Heat grape seed oil in a large wok or frying pan over medium-high heat
  2. Sauté bell pepper and onion until soft, about 5 minutes
  3. Add garlic and mushrooms
  4. Sauté until mushrooms are soft, about 3 minutes
  5. Add chicken, hot sauce, spices and tomato paste
  6. Sauté until everything is heated through, about 8-10 minutes
  7. Serve

Tips and Modifications:

  1. If you’re looking for a little extra flavor, try topping the stew with some fresh-grated Parmesan.


What’s a Gringo Discount?

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What's-a-gringo-discount An Uruguayan friend of ours said there are 3 prices in Uruguay.

  1. Regular Price
  2. Gringo Price
  3. Dumb Gringo Price

She also said; "It's perfectly natural to start out with the dumb Gringo price… Because there are a lot of dumb Gringos here who will pay."

It was said in jest, but at the same time there's a lot of truth to that statement.

A lot of people here try to take advantage of unsuspecting Gringos… Yes, I say a lot because of the amount of people compared to the population.

  • Real Estate Agents – There are some good real estate agents here… But there are some that aren't. Get referrals.
  • "Relocation Specialists" – There are some scum bags down here who will charge you outlandish fees, then take your money and documents and run… Friends of ours just had their birth certificates and all of their important documents taken, along with a chunk of cash they paid for a "relocation specialist" to help them.
  • Restaurants – Try to use the Spanish menus where you eat. We've run across a couple of places that gave us English menus where the prices were higher than in the Spanish ones.
  • Waiters – When you point out that you didn't order that extra UYU $250 peso dish, they will take it right off… This has happened to us a couple of times.
  • Taxi Drivers – Taxi drivers here seem to love to take us for rides or attempt to anyway. This kind of sucks because you are at their mercy if you don't know where you are going. The best way I've found to avoid this is to sit in the front seat next to the driver and hand him written detailed directions of where to go.
  • Store Clerks – Either a lot of people here have a hard time counting change or they know exactly what they are doing. What I mean by that is, I've had numerous cashiers short me 5-10 pesos… I typically catch it and I get my money back. It's not that 5-10 pesos is a lot of money, it's the principal behind it.
  • Feria Vendors – If a vendor at the open air market can hustle you, they will. Always ask the price when it's not marked. You can usually talk the vendor down in price too.

You can go on the boards at Sociedad Southron and read about people getting taken advantage of.

While, some of these instances are avoidable… There are some things that just aren't.

What kind of Gringo Discounts have you received?

The Value of the US Dollar vs the Uruguayan Peso

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We’ve mentioned in passing that the value of the US dollar has fallen significantly against the Uruguayan Peso since we moved here last May. It has fallen from about a 24:1 exchange rate to about a 19:1 exchange rate.

That’s pretty significant – it’s about a 25% drop in the last year, and that’s before you have even taken inflation into account…

So, the cost of living in Uruguay for US citizens has risen dramatically over the last year. When we arrived, our cost of living was around $1900 per month. Now we’re up to around $2400 per month (just our basic expenses).

I found this website where you can graph the change in value of 190 currencies, and it put it into even more perspective.

Here’s the change in value of the US dollar against the Uruguayan Peso in the last year:
Currency-value-1-year

And in the last five years:
Currency-value-5-years

When you’re making a decision to move abroad, it’s always a good idea to understand the trends in the currency’s value against the currency of your home country (where your income is coming from).

Right now, the value of the US Dollar against the Uruguayan Peso is the lowest it has been in about 2 years. But, if you look at the trend from the last 5 years, there is only one other dip this low. So, hopefully it will rise again before too long.

For US Citizens currently living in Uruguay, how has the fall of the value of the US Dollar affected you?

Recipe of the Week: Chicken Taco Salad

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Tacosalad

On last week’s Recipe of the Week for Black Bean Soup, I promised that this week’s recipe would be for Chicken Taco Salad. The two recipes go great together for a light, but delicious dinner.

Whenever I make a whole chicken, we typically eat everything except for the breasts the first night, then use the breasts for a separate recipe the following night. This is how I make the Chicken Taco Salads.

You don’t need to use dressing with this salad. The Pico de Gallo, Sour Cream and Mexican hot sauce combine to make a perfectly flavored “dressing.” Enjoy.

Ingredients:

  • 1 head of lettuce
  • 2 chicken breasts, diced (2-3 cups)
  • 1 cup black beans
  • 3 cups pico de gallo
  • 2 cups avocado, diced
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • ¼ teaspoon Ground cumin
  • Mexican hot sauce, to taste


Directions:

  1. Shred the lettuce and place it into four bowls
  2. Add ¾ cup pico de gallo to each bowl
  3. Add ¼ cup black beans to each bowl
  4. Sprinkle cumin over the diced chicken and mix
  5. Add diced chicken to bowls
  6. Add ½ cup diced avocado to each bowl
  7. Add ¼ cup shredded cheese to each bowl
  8. Top with ¼ cup sour cream
  9. Cover with Mexican hot sauce, to taste
  10. Serve

Tips and Modifications:

  1. To make 2 larger servings rather than 4 medium servings, simply double the portions listed in the directions
  2. When making black bean soup, reserve one cup of black beans for this recipe


How to Redesign Your Life and Travel the World

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Globeinhand

When we decided to leave the US and live abroad, we sold off everything we had worked so hard to acquire. The expensive furniture, the brand new 52” LCD TV with full-blown entertainment system, mountains of books, every kitchen gadget you can imagine… I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

When we told people why we were selling everything, we got two reactions from people. It was either, “Wow, that’s so cool, I could never do that.” Or, “Why would you want to get rid of all of your belongings?”

Our answers were, “Yes you can. All you have to do is just do it.” Or, “they’re only possessions, they just weigh you down… life experiences are so much more important than material things.”

We were always surprised by how shocked people were when they heard our story. I can tell you this from first hand experience… selling all of your possessions and moving across the world is a life changing and liberating experience. No matter where life takes us, it is something that I wouldn’t change for anything.

If you’re one of those people who “wishes” they could do what we did… you can. I recently came across a blog, Almost Fearless, that is all about redesigning your life so you can travel the world. They have some really great articles – I wish I had discovered this blog sooner.

If you get a chance, check it out. The best place to start is on the About page, where she has listed some of the most popular posts to get you started.

What’s holding you back from traveling or living abroad?