Uniquely Uruguay: September 2011

Ahhh, the signs of spring are popping out all over. On my daily walks, I see signs of it everywhere. Flowers are blooming, trees are budding, more people are out roller blading and walking or jogging.   The birds are chirping and all the municipal workers are putting in overtime. It's the time of year that Punta del Este begins it's annual sprucing up for the tourists. It is quite a buildup to January!

Well, folks, we have just celebrated our one year anniversary here in Uruguay. We have had a wonderful year. Lots of up and downs, lots of learning experiences and many new adventures. We have learned the old adage "When in Rome...." over and over. We try to eat meat & fish more than chicken and pork because it is plentiful and less expensive and delicious! (But so is the chicken and pork.) We make our own steak sauce and salad dressing because that is imported here and very expensive. I am going to give you the recipe for our favorite salad dressing so far. It is "The Best Salad Dressing Ever!"

Ingredients:

2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbs Worcheshire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup ketchup
1 Tbs instant minced onion
1/3 cup sugar

Place all ingredients in bowl, mix well and refrigerate for at least one hour.   Taste better after a day.

It is delicious on regular salad or spinach salad. We add chopped cabbage to our greens of rucula, and italian lettuce plus mounds of fresh veggies of all kinds. These use hearts of palm here alot in salad.

We are amazed at the abundance of fresh veggies all year long.   The markets are full of fresh fruit, fish, cheese, honey, homemade bread, etc. The big on is on Sunday so that is when we do our shopping for the week.   There are also smaller ones on Wed and Thurs.   Everything is cheaper than at the grocery and alot more fun.

We survived the winter with all of our toes and fingers intact! As I mentioned in previous blogs, it is colder inside the houses than outside. Homes are built only for summer here. A big topic of conversation among the year round local expats is how to heat most efficiently and cheaply. Fireplaces are nice but not efficient and I have about had it with the smoke.   I had to repaint my walls this spring because of all the smoke that came into the room when the wind blew too hard. There is a trick to building fireplaces so that they don't back up but apparently our builder did not figure it out! The split units for heat/cool are great in the summer, horrible in the winter. Most new homes have radiant floors but electricity is very expensive so many people are leaning toward solar, gas, wind or a combination thereof.   We just bot a gas heater and sat in front of it most of the winter. Then we had electric blankets on our bed at night.   Makes for great sleeping.   Did you know that if your head is cold at night you sleep better?   That is true. Look it up on the internet! We slept like logs all winter!!!

Ok, so what did we do all winter, you asked? Not too much. We have met alot of people from the Expat meetings and we all did dinners at each others homes.   (Most of the good restaurants are closed during the low season.) We worked on our Spanish a bit. Definitely know alot of words now, just need to start making sentences. Although, you would be amazed at how you can communicate with only words!

We bought an investment property overlooking the Atlantic ocean.   It is on a hillside with an awesome view in a beautiful little area called Punta Ballenia. (That means Point of Whales, and yes, the whales hang out there in the spring.) This property needs a major overhaul and we will begin work on it this week.   The name of the house is "Burbujas", which means "Bubbles". At one time, it had alot of round windows.   They are long since gone.   This home is one of the oldest in Punta Ballenia. Not sure how long it will take us to remodel but would like to have it ready for the high season.

One of our favorite things to do is visit the remates (auction houses) in Montevideo and Maldonade. You can get some fairly good buys if you know what you are doing. Of course being Americano's is a dead give away for raising the bid.   Everyone here thinks ALL Americans are rich. (I hate to dissappoint them but we are NOT!) And I have a feeling alot of Americans aren't feeling too wealthy these days. Uruguay, on the other hand, is thriving! Everything here is growing: employment, GDP, cost of liviing, etc.   It is getting more expensive here but still cheaper on the big things like health care and taxes. Back to remates---we have bought some very nice pieces and knick knacks and we have sold a bunch of stuff.   We love our one remate, Palmeres. The auctioneer, Todo, is great and he speaks a little English.   We always knows our name when we come and we feel right at home.

We added MagicJack to our communication options.   If you ever need to call us, our phone number is:   704 464 9437.   It is free to us and you. Skype address: Mark.and.JanetBial2. Talk to you soon!   Janet

Last weekend we attended a baptism in a very old, charming church near Montevideo. Our very dear friends, Rosamee and Emilio, had their one year old daughter, Sophie, baptised there. There was a birthday party for Sophie (1) and Emilio (??) at their home afterwards. They are very good friends of ours and they have both been invaluable in helping us accomplish our residency, home purchases, construction, etc. Don't know what we would do without them.