Uruguay + Buenos Aires

Quien no lo sepa ya lo aprenderá, de prisa

La vida no para, no espera, no avisa.

Tantos planes, tantos planes, vueltos espuma,

tú por ejemplo tan a tiempo y tan, inoportuna. Inoportuna.

Quien sabe cuando

cuando es el momento de decir la hora

si todo al alrededor

te está gritando

sin demora

sin demora

Uruguay: my time

I arrived in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay on a Wednesday, spent a few days and then headed to Buenos Aires for the weekend. I came back to Uruguay on a Monday, spent one day in a little colonial town which is a UNESCO heritage site, and now I am en route back to Montevideo. I am excited to be back in Montevideo. 

 

I have done some interesting stuff, like go to critical mass in Buenos Aires (crazy.), but mostly I have just been doing a lot of walking, a lot of exploring. I am been mostly enjoying being by myself, only today do I feel a bit lonely.

Pensando, estaba pensando, por la ventana de aquel bar,

Mirando a la gente de afuera ir y venir.

Juraría que te vi.

Some interesting things about Uruguay:

Uruguay is known for being a small, tranquil, and peaceful country. Its capital, Montevideo, is also this way. It is very much a contrast to Buenos Aires, which is totally crazy. Some people think that Montevideo is boring, but I have found plenty to do.

The culture of drinking mate is very interesting. People take the yerba, put it in the drinking vessel called a mate, and then they put hot water in it (not boiling) and then they drink it through a metal straw called a bombilla. A lot of people in the states know about this. The most interesting part of drinking mate is the social part of it. People take their mate and a thermos of hot water and put it in a special bag called a matera. Sometimes they drink it alone but usually they invite friends to drink with them. Everyone shares the same straw and mate.

Another interesting thing about Uruguay is that most people are very smart and very political. No one seems to be apathetic. Everyone keeps telling me about the same political news and happenings. Lowering the age of impunity, for example, is on the table because of young people drinking and driving.

The president, Mújica, is a former member of the Tupamaros urban leftist guerillas. He was imprisoned for 15 years before he became a politican. Truly incredible. People seem to like him, generally, and he rides around the fucking town on a Vespa, for heavens sake.

Uruguayans drink way more mate than Porteños (people from Buenos Aires). 

Buenos Aires

Presidential Palace, Buenos Aires

 

The food is incredible, but it is pretty expensive. A popular dish is the chivito, a delicious sandiwich of tenderloin steak, hard boiled eggs, mozzarella, ham, tomato, and lettuce. It cost about 5 or 6 US$.

The meat is delicious.

People are incredibly nice, smart, and worldly. And they smoke a LOT of pot. Smoking pot is legal, but growing it or selling it is not. HAHAHAHA.

People DON'T speak English. In Buenos Aires, some people know a bit, but Uruguayans don't really know any English. I think it's pretty cool. I have basically not spoken any English throughout the trip.

My final days in Uruguay were very tranquil. I mostly just hung out with my hosts and other Csers. On Wednesday, we went to a show that was part of a series of art and music from Catalán...it was a quaint show by a singer named Dani Flaco. The show was at the Centro Cultural de España. Afterwards we all went to drink beers, grapamiel, and eat.

Today (Thursday), it was raining and I spent the day by myself. A lot of people say Montevideo is a grey city. It kind of is. The coastline of Montevideo is not ocean, it is actually the Rio de la Plata. The river is murky, ugly looking water. Not at all a paradise. One of my favorite singer songwriters, if not my absolute favorite, is Jorge Drexler from Uruguay. He has so many songs that are about this damn river. Anyways, I walked along the rambla, in the rain, by myself...contemplating everything: my life, my travels, being in JorgeDrexlerLandia. I walked more. Took some photos of myself before a nice gringo couple walked by and asked me if I wanted a photo. 

 

My last day in Montevideo: Pura Casualidad

My last day in MVD was nice. Like I said, I walked along the rambla in the grey rainy weather. I drank coffee and read and walked and walked.

My host, Vero, came home and I talked with her at the house while she did some work. She is awesome.

We waited for her sweetie to come home and then we all went to Fun Fun, to meet up with a group of couchsurfers. Fun Fun is a historic bar in MVD.

There was a French couple there, whom I met in Colonia, who actually wrote my hosts to request a couch. They said no because they were going to host me...”Y SOS VOS!!!!” She said. So freaking cute.

Ok so we had an AWESOME time at Fun Fun. My hosts left. I left shortly after.

I was going to take a taxi to the bus terminal and then a bus at 1:30. My flight leaves at 6:30 and the only other bus was going to leave at 3 so I decided not to risk it.

But then I freaking get home and realize that I left my favorite scarf in Fun Fun. So, the taxi that was supposed to take me to the terminal ended up taking me to Fun Fun. My scarf wasn't there.

So then he takes me home and I ask him if he could come back in an hour and take me to the airport. He said yes. He also said he would take me with the money that I had, which was a bit under the fixed tariff for going to the airport. Fuck yeah.

I come home, eat some bomb tortilla (quiche-like thing filled with rice and veggies and cheese and meat) with my hosts, try to sleep for 30 min but just end up playing with the cats.

Taxi comes. We end up having a great conversation. He has 3 DAUGHTERS. The eldest, an oncologist in Australia. The youngest, only 5 years old. The youngest was born in Spain and at the end of the month, he is moving his family to Spain.

He drops me off, I thank him for taking me even though I didn't have the whole tariff, and repeats an opinion that we both hold and had talked about:

“Si eres bueno, atraes lo bueno”

“If you are a good person, you are going to attract goodness”

Que delicia.

The vibe continues. I check in for my flight way early. I fly through security and immigration and I am launched into duty-free-landia...and I'm looking at shit...thinking about how I can't buy anything since I have to go through fucking security again in Miami. And who do I see?

No fucking way. A beautiful young woman comes up to me and says,

“Hola, como estas? Te reconozco de la semana pasada”

“Hi, how are you? I recognize you from last week”

I was in shock...and then it hit me.

When I arrived in Montevideo from the United States, at 5 in the morning, I was waiting for a bus. I was asking all the buses if they went to la ciudad vieja. This young woman thought I was Brazilian, since most foreigners who come to Uruguay are Brazilian. She starts to speak to me in Portuguese.

“Voce e brasileira?”

“Nao, mas eu falo portugues”

“Are you Brazilian?”

“No, I'm not, but I speak Portuguese”

She proceeded to tell me, in Portuguese, which bus I should take. So sweet. I asked her where she was from and she said she is Uruguayan but she grew up on the border between Brazil and Uruguay. She was morenita (her skin was a beautiful caramel-brown color), which is pretty rare in Uruguay.

Anyways, seeing her at the airport was out of control. She was so sweet. She was telling all her co-workers the story, saying that now, she is in such shock to know that I am from the U.S. speaking Portuguese and Spanish...heh heh heh.

And now, I am just waiting for my first flight headed home.