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pocitos

We Almost Got Mugged About an Hour Ago

February 10, 2010 by Brian

Street

Pocitos is a nice area of Montevideo. When you hear about how safe Montevideo is as a whole, the one place you're always warned about is Ciudad Vieja…  Never Pocitos… I've known a few people to have bad experiences in Ciudad Vieja, thankfully we've never had a problem there. We've never had a problem anywhere other than here in Pocitos…

We had been here for 2 weeks, I was getting money late at night and a couple of guys who were watching me tried to circle me… I'm sure their intentions were less than honorable… I pulled out my blade told them I'd kill them, they took off…

One night I was coming home late from my favorite little bar down the street… Some guy came up, got in my personal space and grabbed me requesting cash… and I hit him until he stopped moving.

Both of these incidents happened late at night while I was by myself.

We just got back from the Wednesday Feria here in Pocitos… We live in
what I feel is a safe and nice area… And most people would agree…

Chrystal is due to have Kaylee
anytime now so she wanted to walk down with me. I threw Zoe in our
Kelty Carrier and off we go… Again, we live in a nice area and it's the middle of the day; it's beautiful out today…

So in this part of South America there's a drug called Pasta Base (pronounced: pasta ba-say)…
It's a derivative of cocaine and makes crack look like candy and meth
look like a picnic… It's highly addictive and from what we've been
told, when someone gets on it they're completely gone in 6 months… We see them on the streets, we call them base heads… I don't know their official terms, but they're
whacked out of their minds…

We just had one try to mug us on the way to the feria with his bare hands.  Zoe's Kelty is
weighed down with an extra 20 lbs of crap for when she goes off to stay with friends
when Kaylee gets here… She wanted to ride in it… The Kelty is a ton better than pushing her through a stroller in crowds and such…

So this dude comes from the other side of the street and walks up to me asking for money… I firmly say "no" and
we continue to walk… Then he decided to invade my personal space and
put his hands asking me demanding "dinero blah blah blah, dinero ahora blah blah blah, dinero blah blah blah
dinero…"

I'm not talking about putting a hand on my shoulder begging for money… I'm talking about him coming up on my and trying to go for my pockets…

I shoved the guy hard across the sidewalk and told Chrystal to take
Zoe… She started to then stopped… The guy caught himself from hitting the ground and took a
few steps back, so Chrystal thought he was walking away and didn't take
her… The guy started to come back towards me…

Thank god I was in the Marines and we learned how to maneuver and fight
with a 60lb pack on our backs… So I squared up to the guy and was
ready to defend my family, I intended to kill him… My daughter was on my back, my pregnant wife was with me… I wasn't going to screw around.

I'm not sure how I looked, but it was enough to put some fear in that guy's eyes… and he started
to back up yelling at us (I'm sure it had something to do with my mom,
goats and apples… I couldn't make out most of the rest of the
words…)

We proceeded to back away from him and separate ourselves… And I got
Zoe ready to toss of my back if he were to try to come back (I have my
little girl and my wife there, I don't want to be in this situation…)

Behind us a construction worker (probably in his 50s, but stacked) was stopped on the
corner, had set his toolbox down and had his hardhat in his hand…
When we got closer to him he stared venting about pasta base and the
crazy kids and such and told us he was ready to come hit him with his hard
hat… 😉

I hope this serves as a lesson to Expats here and people all over. It doesn't matter how nice of a neighborhood you live in… Bad people don't stop at neighborhood boundaries…

From what we've seen and heard, these base heads usually don't carry a weapon… they just try to mug you with their fists and intimidation. One thing I will suggest is to give a hard shove and get up in the person's face, prepare to be violent… or run.



Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: ciudad vieja, mugged, muggers, pasta base, pocitos

Playing at the Park in Pocitos

October 7, 2009 by Brian

We often write about how we take ZoĂ« to the park, which is just over a block from our apartment. The park we go to most often is called Parque de Juan Zorrilla de San Martin. It’s located on Ellauri and Vazquez Ledesma (where the Villa Biarritz feria is held on Tuesdays and Saturdays).

Yesterday I realized that we have never posted pictures from our trips to the park in Pocitos. So, I snapped a few pictures to share with you today.

Here’s a broad view of the park. Now that Spring is here, all of the trees are turning green and the park is looking much prettier.

There are two slides at the park. I don’t yet feel comfortable letting ZoĂ« go down them alone (notice the “side rails”). But she loves when Brian takes her on them.

There are a bunch of swings at the park and ZoĂ« absolutely loves to swing. When she wants to swing she starts yelling, “Wee!” and running over to the swings.

ZoĂ« also loves these teeter-totters. However, it takes both Brian and I to put her on them, so we only occasionally use these. They’re mostly for the bigger kids.

This is Zoë’s favorite activity of all – playing in the sand. It’s funny, if she falls down and gets grass or dirt on her hands while she’s playing, I have to dust it off immediately or she freaks out. But she loves getting dirty in the sand. She usually requires a shower after a trip to the park just to get the sand out of her hair.


Filed Under: Baby, Entertainment, Family Tagged With: park, parque de juan zorrilla de san martin, pocitos

Renting an Apartment in Uruguay

July 12, 2009 by Brian

Renting an apartment in Uruguay is a very different process than our experiences in the States. Oftentimes in the US, you deal directly with the owner. However, in Uruguay, typically both the owner and the renter have a real estate agent (inmobiliaria) representing them.

As a renter in Uruguay, it’s best to have more than one real estate agent representing you
 we had four. Why? There is no MLS (multiple listing service) in Uruguay, so oftentimes only the owner’s inmobiliaria and a few of their friends know about each available apartment.

Every real estate agent will have different apartments to show you, so you don’t want to limit yourself to only what one agent has to show you. Luckily we were given that piece of advice our first week here.

We decided to spend our first week exploring Pocitos to get to know the area, and start looking at apartments our second week in Montevideo. We had our room at the Punta Trouville Apart Hotel reserved for three weeks, and we were hoping to have an apartment before the end of that three-week period.

The first apartment in Uruguay we decided to check out was one we saw on the Internet. It was a fully furnished 2-bedroom apartment listed on the Internet for U$S 600.

When we contacted the inmobiliaria, she showed us the apartment and told us the rent was U$S 650
 It was also listed as being in Pocitos, but it was actually in Parque Batlle. Next inmobiliaria please.

Our next inmobiliaria showed up to our hotel in a cab and said she didn’t have enough money to pay for a cab to the property. It was a “3-bedroom house” in “the heart of Carrasco,” furnished at U$S 620 per month.

We planned on staying in Pocitos, but that is an AMAZING deal for a furnished 3-bedroom house in Carrasco. She told us it had a “nice patio and a parrilla” and it was “not to far from the beach” and it was “walking distance to everything.”

Well, it was actually in Carrasco Norte. The “3-bedroom house” was a quadra-plex and the unit was a center unit. The 3rd bedroom was off of the kitchen and led to the parrilla, and didn’t have a door
 I would consider it a dining room.

It was walking distance to the Portones Shopping Mall; “They have all the stores there, you don’t need any others.” And it was a good 2-3km from the beach
 LOL, at least we got to see part of Carrasco we would have not otherwise seen.

After that, we had two other realtors we were working with and they were both phenomenal. We started out looking at furnished one-bedroom Uruguay apartments, thinking that Zoë could sleep in her travel crib in our room since we only planned to sign a six-month lease initially.

While it was a nice idea, we quickly realized we just wouldn’t have enough storage space for our luggage
 or much privacy.

So, after seeing several very nice fully furnished one-bedroom Uruguay apartments ranging from U$S 500-900 our first week of looking, we started viewing two-bedroom apartments in our third week in Montevideo.

On Wednesday, we had a full day of apartments to see with our real estate agent. (BTW, because we did a 6-month lease with option to extend; we paid a premium. If you are willing to do a 1-year lease, you can get an even better price
)

The first two-bedroom apartment we saw was beautifully furnished, but overpriced at U$S 1200 per month (gringo discount). Then we saw a couple of Uruguay apartments in a compound type community. The whole community was gated with 24-hour security, and it even had a market and jardin (preschool) in it.

We were told there were a lot of international people and people from the US who lived there. They were reasonable priced U$S 700-850 range, however, the community was very secluded from the heart of Pocitos, where we really wanted to live. In addition to that, if we wanted to live with a bunch of people from the US, we would have stayed in the US. Zoë was tired, so we went home to rest for the day.

The next morning we were out looking at Uruguay apartments again. The first one we saw was down the coast a bit, right on the Rambla.It had amazing views (the yacht club on one side and the beach on the other, but again, it was just a bit too far from the area of Pocitos we wanted to live (at U$S 1000 per month).

The next apartment we saw was a small two-bedroom apartment overlooking the park, and a couple blocks from the water. At, U$S 850, it was perfect. We decided we would take that one


Until we saw the next and final apartment on our tour. It was only a half of a block from the water and one block from the park. It was nicely furnished and the second bedroom was a little bigger, which was nice for Zoë.

It also had a pool, parrilla (barbeque), gym and 24-hour security. It was slightly more at U$S 900 per month, but gastos communes was less (basically like HOA fees that you as a tenant are responsible for when renting an apartment in Uruguay).

So, we went to lunch to talk about our options and decided to make an offer on the final apartment we saw. We made an offer that day, Thursday. We offered a little less than the asking price, in exchange for paying six months rent up front.

Unfortunately the owner lived in Argentina and was out of town, so we were told we’d have to wait until Monday for an answer. Monday came and we received a counter offer, which we quickly accepted.

However, on Tuesday the owner decided that since ZoĂ« walks, she wanted to renegotiate (I guess she was afraid ZoĂ« would break something). We decided that we weren’t interested in renting from her at that point, and made an offer to rent the other apartment we liked.

Unfortunately, that owner decided that since we did not have an Uruguayan job, he didn’t want to rent to us (even though we were paying six months rent up front plus a security deposit). At least he let us know immediately.

Our real estate agent assured us this was not common, and that it was the first time they’d ever experienced anything like this when working with families like ours to rent an apartment in Uruguay.

Luckily, there was an apartment that had just become available in the heart of Pocitos that they could show immediately.

So, Brian went down to take a look at it (ZoĂ« was down for a nap) and it was perfect! It was bigger, less expensive than either of the other places we were looking at (U$S 700 per month) and right on 21 de Setiembre (one of the main drags in Pocitos), one block from the park and 5 œ blocks from the water. It has a lavaropa (washing machine), drying lines on our back balcony, and we have a front balcony as well.

We immediately put in an offer on it. It was accepted; we signed the papers Wednesday and moved in on Thursday. It was a great feeling to know that we’d be out of that hotel. As much as we all love each other, we also need our own space.

So, even though it was a trying process to rent an apartment in Uruguay, we’re happy with the way things turned out. We love our apartment. Our porters are great (yes, we have porters
 it’s pretty cool). Our apartment came with a parking spot, which we don’t need since we don’t own a car, and Mario (one of our porters) was able to rent it out to another tenant for $1000 Uruguayan pesos per month. So, that essentially dropped our rent to only about U$S 655 per month. We couldn’t even get an unfurnished studio for that price in San Diego, let alone a furnished apartment with porters!

We would also highly recommend the inmobiliaria who helped us our rent our apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay. They are professional, very friendly and extremely helpful. We also found that they had the most listings to offer us to look at in the Pocitos area (they cooperate with several other agents to find you the perfect apartment to rent or buy in Uruguay). You can visit their website here.

As promised here are pictures of our new apartment in Uruguay:

Front Balcony
Living Room
Kitchen
Guest Bathroom (small shower behind door)
Master Bathroom
Zoë’s Bedroom
Master Bedroom
Back Balcony

Filed Under: Culture, Family, Real Estate, Services Tagged With: apartment, apartment in uruguay, carrasco, inmobiliaria, montevideo, pocitos, real estate agent, realtor, rent, rental, uruguay, Uruguay apartments

Massage in Montevideo Uruguay

July 11, 2009 by Brian

UPDATE: Jan is no longer in MVD. Both her and Ken moved on to the beautiful Andes in Ecuador. Not only will we miss them, but our backs will too 😉

If you’ve been looking to get a massage in Montevideo, Uruguay, you have a few options. There are a number of clubs or “spas” around that offer massage services. If you want an “okay” massage, you can get one
 BUT
 if you want a GREAT massage you’ll want to go to Jan Wallace.

Even though most of you haven’t heard of Jan, many celebrities have. Jan started practicing massage in 1983. She was trained in Oregon and first licensed there. Oregon has very strict licensing guidelines as opposed to Uruguay, which has none.

After practicing for many years in Oregon she moved to San Diego, California where she worked at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad. La Costa Resort and Spa is the #2 Spa in the world. She was Barbara Walters preferred massage therapist at this spa. After Jan’s time at La Costa, she created her own massage business in San Diego.

Now Jan lives here in the Pocitos area of Montevideo, Uruguay. We had the pleasure of meeting Jan and we immediately took advantage of her services. Wow
  Jan gives an awesome massage. We are now her regular clients.

She is trained in a variety of massage techniques, including Swedish Massage, Shiatsu/Acupressure, Reflexology, Sports Massage, Lymphatic Drainage Massage, Trigger Point Therapy, Deep Tissue and Pregnancy Massage.

Additionally, Jan one of a select few individuals in the world who practices Bio Energy Therapy. Bio Energy Therapy is a non-invasive treatment that can help with may chronic problems that are often considered incurable. We opted to use this therapy to help heal some back, neck and shoulder pain. We were surprised at the speed with which we experienced positive results. Jan can explain this technique in much greater detail if you’re interested in learning more.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Health Care, Services Tagged With: Bio Energy Therapy, Massage, Massage in Montevideo, montevideo, pocitos, Therapist, uruguay

World Famous Tattoo Artist Visiting Uruguay:
Set Your Appointment Now

July 10, 2009 by Brian

Johnny Luck, world famous tattoo artist, is in Montevideo, Uruguay from now through August 15, 2009.  He is setting appointments to work out of Good Luck Tattoo on 21 de Setiembre @ Hellauri.

If you want or need a tattoo, please contact us to set up an appointment. In the meantime, Johnny has an extensive portfolio with him that you can touch and feel, and a couple of examples of his work posted online. Click here to check out his web page.

Click here to contact us.

Filed Under: Culture, Entertainment, Services Tagged With: montevideo, pocitos, portfolio, tattoo, Tattoo artist, tattoos, uruguay

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