The high season is slowly coming to an end. Traffic has let up and many of the regulars are coming back to town. As I may have mentioned earlier, many, many locals rent their homes out during high season and receive enormous amounts of money for 4 - 8 weeks. One of our expat friends rented their house out for 7 weeks and took a trip to Bariloche. They really enjoyed it and found it to be alot lower cost of living than here. So, they more than paid for their vacation and had money left over from the rent they charged. (A three bedroom house like ours would probably rent for $15,000 for 6 weeks.) Their blogs and pics were spectacular. Mark and I are thinking we may try to do that ourselves within the next couple of years.
The work on our yard, pool, etc. continues at an excrutiatingly slow pace! I thought it took a long time to build our own home in Illinois but this beats all. Workers here move at a very slow pace and that is to our disadvantage. We have to pay their social security, insurance, etc. for every day they work. It is hard to describe but basically, the estimate that we got included a charge for all of this and if they go over the amount of time estimated for the job, we will have to pay extra. So, whenever I see them taking a two hour lunch or leaving early, it sort of makes my blood boil! We are making progress so I need to look on the bright side but I tell you, I will be glad when everyone is out of our yard and we can lay down some sod/seed/grass, etc.
Our job is to pick out all the trees, plants, flowers, etc. that will be planted once all of the other work is finished. We have visited so many "viveros". There are so many beautiful trees and flowers to choose from. It is very relaxing to go visit but difficult to decide which might be best for our yard. We have had many landscapers come out to give us their opinion. We will hopefully be deciding soon.
We finally visited a museum on a rare rainy day. It is located in LaBarra. Great little museum with history of the area and many pictures to view. It has one of the largest collections of shells and fish, fish vertibra, whales bones, etc. that I have ever seen. An absolutely must see when visiting here. The best $5.00/each we have spent in awhile. The website is: www.museodelmar.com.uy. Check out the site, it is very cool.
We haven't been doing much lately. Been recuperating from our 4 visitors in Dec/Jan and we are waiting to see how our expenses turn out on the house. For this reason, Mark will have to forgoe the Shakira concert at the Conrad Hotel. He is a big fan of Shakira, "Hips Don't Lie", "Gypsy", etc. We just bought her new CD. We are into music down here. Another CD just purchased is Charlie Garcia. He is probably the most famous rock musician in SA. We continue to visit our favorite little restaurant, the Viejo Almacen. They have good food and great live music. So for a mere $40, you can bet pizza, beer and a live band for the evening under the stars. We feel very at home there. It is owned by a Uruguayian family and they are so welcoming and kind.
We love to take our drives around the countryside. One of these days, we will find our perfect lot with a perfect view of the ocean. In the meantime, we enjoy seeing the countryside, taking pictures, stopping for lunch and a beer and meeting the locals.
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| Look out point near Punta Colorado |
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| Church we came across on a country drive. |
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| Thinking these will look good on our front porch. |
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| The owners and our friends at Viejo Almacen |
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| Envisioning a finished backyard! |
