As I mentioned in my last blog, we have been driving the countryside looking at chacra's (which are country homes, usually ranches.) The countryside is high rolling hills, dotted with big boulders of granite. Spring is just started to sprout, with pretty yellow wild flowers everywhere. We stumbled on to the most quaint little home on 25 acres. The entire acreage was outlined with a stacked stone fencing. We drove up and were met by two large dogs. I told Mark not to get out but he did anyway. Of course, I was wrong. The two of them snuggled up to him like he was there long lost master. Ethel, the owner, came out to greet us and showed us around. It had a gorgeous view, a small home, something out of a storybook. There was a hired hand and 72 sheep. I believe I would have bought right there on the spot if it hadn't been out of our price range.
The infrastructure is very good in the country, except when you get off the main roads. Then it turns into red clay with lots of bumps and potholes. Our new car is certainly getting a good workout. We had to buy an automatic. Most people have a manual but my neck couldn't handle the constant jerking and I didn't even want to try to drive it. We already had a little fender bender backing out of a driveway but hope to get that fixed this week. It will cost about $140--not bad!
Our new best friends, Rosmaee and Emiio, have been helping us out every step of the way in Uruguay. They took us on Friday to check out health insurance. We decided to go directly with the Cantegril hospital. Our cost is $132/month for each of us for the VIP insurance. That covers everything you can imagine, including our funeral, if we should pass away here! We go for testing on Monday. Of course, we already know from our residency application that we are healthy so we should be good to go. This is an awesome price for health insurance, isn't it??? Prescriptions are $5.00/each because we are over 55. Otherwise, they would be free. Our insurance includes cliniic as well as hospital coverage so we basically have no out of pocket expense other than our monthly payment. We will pay all at once and get a one month discount.
Rosamee has also been helping us with real estate, even though she is not a realtor. She has been in this country for 10 years and she knows the ropes and most everyone in town. We were working on a condo purchase this week but it fell through. When we got to the point of signing on the dotted line, we were informed that the owner, an Argentinan, wanted us to pay for some of it under the table so that he did not have to pay capital gains of 30%. We, of course, refused ,so the deal quickly unraveled. Now we are back to the drawing board, bemoaning the return to our dorm room. We did stop yesterday while in LaBarra at a real estate office and met a Mexican woman, named Monica. She speaks fluent English and is quite funny. She has a condo for rent that we will look at today for rent. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
We've been trying to shop around Punta as much as possible to get the lay of the land. I have been needing some winter clothes because I mistakenly thought it would be warmer in the winter here. It is warm during the day but the moment the sun goes down, it gets really cold and it is also very windy by the ocean. Found some nice Seven jeans on sale that fit well and bought those. Then Mark insisted I try on a bikini--not just any bikini but a Brazilian one. Now start visualizing that and hurry to the bathroom!!! Mark picked it out and made me try it on. "PERFECTO", he claims and buys it for me. I asked the sales lady if the top was a medium because it was so skimpy and she said that is the way Brazilians where them. The bottoms were a little baggy in the back. I do not have a JayLo butt to fill it out.
Friday night, we walked down to our local restaurant and bar for dessert and wine. We met some people from Montividieo and there was a great singer/guitar player there that evening. We ended up staying later than anticipated. The owner brought out Lemoncello at 12:00AM for everyone, free of charge.We have a favorite waitress there, Joanna, who has been trying to help us with a place to rent. We found out that she has spinal cancer and she is not doing well. We want to talk to the owner of the bar, who is also her boyfriend, about doing a fund raiser for her during the High Season. She needs money as she cannot get the proper care she needs on her insurance. (She doesn't have the VIP policy.) Hopefully, we can do something to help her out. She is only 20 years old and has a three year old son.
On Saturday, we headed directly to the Mantra Spa in LaBarra. This complex has a spa, a theatre, a wine and cafe bar and a casino. Great place to spend the day. We were only interested in detoxing from a night of heavy wine drinking and a sore neck from all of the traveling over dirt roads! For $25.00/person, we had access to the spa for workout, swimming, hot tub, jazucci, dry and wet sauna, shower facilities, drinks, etc. We stayed for a half day and it was well worth it. I felt like a new woman leaving there!
Last night we stayed in the with the puppy dogs and watched Spanish TV. We found our friend, Leah's twin! She has a talk show. But she really reminds us of Leah. Maybe a long lost sister!
We are having a great adventure and we look forward to each day. Hope all is well with everyone in the US. Miss everyone!
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