27 de Febrero 2011 - On the pier

27 de Febrero 2011

Today, we had lunch with Mari´s family - mother, father, uncle, brother, sister-in-law, nephew, plus Mari and I. For the meal we had delicious store bought, yet hand made raviolis and red sauce. We each had a giant plate full that left us all feeling stuffed.

After lunch, Mari and I took a stroll down to the waterfront, or as it´s referred to here - La Rambla. Her parents place is situated four blocks away from the waterfront, so after a 10 minute stroll we found ourselves facing the Rio de la Plata flowing by on its way to the sea. The water is actually a mix of fresh water and sea water, as Montevideo is placed near the mouth of the river as it meets the Atlantic Ocean.

A shot towards downtown along the coast.

As it was a beautifully hot and sunny day, there were many people hanging out on the local beaches - sunning, playing in the water, and drinking mate (pronounced maw-tae). Drinking yerba mate is the Uruguayan passtime, and you can see people anywhere, anytime, drinking the tea like herb. Especially so on the beach around 5 pm in the afternoon. Scanning the beach its easy to pick out the people drinking mate, with a large thermos and cup in hand. Its similar to seeing the coffee drinkers walking around Seattle.

Today was definately a nice day to be in Montevideo.

25 de Febrero 2011

Some info on Uruguay.



I am going to try and learn some things about Uruguay while I am here, and will try and outline interesting facts here on the blog. This will enable me to continue learning while holding onto a hobby of informing those of you back home where I am and what I am up to.



Uruguay is composed of 19 departments. This structrue is perhaps similar to the counties we have back home Washington State - King County, Snohomish County, Pierce County and so on.




Here is the same map relating the names of each department.



As you can see in the image above and below, Montevideo (the dept. where Mari and I are residing) is the smallest department of the 19, located all the way at the bottom of the map.



Each of the 19 departments has a capital city that monitors the department. For example - Colonia del Sacramento is the capital of Colonia. In this respect, Montevideo is the capital for the department of Montevideo, while also serving as the countries capital as well.

Stealing from http://www.wikipedia.org/, Uruguay "is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital of Montevideo and its metropolitan area. Comparing Seattle and Montevideo, Wikipedia relates that the 2010 census found that Seattle is home to 630,320 residents within a metropolitan area of some 3.4 million inhabitants. Thus, the greater metropolitan area of Seattle has roughly the same number of inhabitants as all of Uruguay.

Uruguay won its independence between 1811–28 following a struggle between the claims of Argentina and Brazil, being laid by England, Spain and Portugal. There were three major battles fought in 1811 that helped bring about Independence for Uruguay. The 200 year anniversary, the bicentenial, is going to be celebrated here in 3 days on February 28th 2011.

Stealing a bit from http://www.explore-uruguay.com/, "Uruguays National Independence day is known as Independence of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.

At the end of May 1810, news came to Montevideo about the establishment of the First National Government in Buenos Aires. The people of Uruguay now begin to have feeling about emancipation.

On February 28, 1811, a group consisting of hundreds of patriots and led by Pedro Venancio José Viera y Benavides took the cities of Soriano. Once taken, he proclaimed the end of Hispanic domination."

This was the first battle of many, spread over several years, that helped free Uruguay and set it apart from its much larger neighbors - Argentina to the west and Brazil to the north.

The major military leader here is Artigas - or rather, Jose Gervasio Artigas Arnal. He is the national hero of Uruguay, and is referred to as "the father of Uruguayan independence". There is a major building devoted to his tomb located in downtown Montevideo and is open free to the public everyday and stationed with armed guards. Its quite a site.

Artigas admired the United States of America and was said to always carry a copy of the United States Constitution with him. He wanted the United Provinces of the River Plate government to be based on the same federalist ideas as the USA. These ideals went against what the Buenos Aires government of the time wanted, but he managed to gain the support of some other provinces. Because of this, the Buenos Aires government supported the Portuguese invasion of the Eastern Bank. - Wikipedia

22 de Febrero 2011

Updates on Mari.

After so much time spent in wonder and pain, Mari finally went to the doctor yesterday. They poked and prodded at the cyst and deemed it too infected and swollen for surgery. The decision was to allow it to heal a bit more before they can operate, which entails draining the wound. Thus, yesterday they sliced her open to drain the fluids that had built up around the cyst in her chest. After squeezing out what they could in the hospital, they placed a plastic tube inside the wound and bandaged it up, sending her home to allow the wound to continue draining over night. Her once white bandage slowly turned moist and pink throughout the day.

This morning, she returned to the hospital for a checkup and cleaning. Even though the cyst is on the mend, they said they need to leave the draining tube inside and that she needs to return to the hospital every morning for the next five days so they can keep an eye on it. This will allow the infection to heal and all the mucus and buildup inside to subside. Once the cyst has been allowed to heal a bit, they can admit her to surgery and cut the entire thing out.

Mari feels horrible at being served the triple whammy.

1. The pain and uncomfortability of the infection
2. the pain and uncomfortability of the draining and healing process
3. and the inevitable pain and uncomfortability of the surgery process.

She kicks herself for not having had it removed before where she simply would have had the single pain and uncomfortability of just the surgery process, minus the first two that she is enduring now.

As for Montevideo, here is the weather forecast for the next several days.

• Tue 77°F 66°F
• Wed 77°F 64°F
• Thu 77°F 66°F
• Fri 78°F 69°F

I havent stepped out of the house yet, but the sky is blue and littered with a bit of whispy clouds here and there.

Mari is not feeling 100%, Ruy is at work, Lucy is off running errands, so I have found myself sorta trapped in an abyss of unknown suburbs. I have a lot to learn on where I am in context to the city, and how to use and get around on the buses. Not to mention my extreme lack of true spanish skills.

But.....yesterday, Mari, Ruy and I spent the day analyzing the 4 local gyms. Looking at the facilities and finding the pricing structures. 2 of the gyms are uber expensive, while the other 2 are priced more adequately. I think joining the gym will be the first adventure for me here in Uruguay.

A bit on Uruguay

20 de Febrero 2011

Mari and I arrived safe and sound in Uruguay. We are now staying in a small suburb of Montevideo, the capital. The neighborhood is known as Malvine. Mari´s parents, Ruy and Lucy, live here - in a nice 2 bedroom condo.



The house is full of old photos - like this one. Look how cute Mari was as a child!


When we arrived home Mari´s nephew, Matias, was staying over. Matias is 3 years old and is not much of a talker. They recently took him to a see the doctor and found that he has liquid in both his ears. I am not exactly sure what this means, but he will be heading into surgery in less than a week to hopefully fix the problem. Poor little guy.

We are eating well thanks to Ruy´s cooking. And can finally sit back and relax for a bit. Since we arrived on Saturday, we need to wait until Monday for Mari to see the doctor. She has an appointment bright and early tomorrow morning. I dont know if this is a consultation, or a surgery appointment, but we are ready for either. Wish her luck.

T

18 de Febrero 2011

We fly out of Panama City today towards Uruguay on the 6:30 pm flight, arriving somewhere around 5:30 am in Montevideo.

Yesterday we spent nearly the entire day, no joke, in the Allbrook Mall shopping. I bought sneakers, underwear, shorts, sweaters, and a hoodie. Plus, speakers for my Ipod. Mari bought gifts for friends and family, as well as clothing as well. We bought a medium sized piece of luggage as well to support our new indulgences.

Traveling with our backpacks through the last 8 countries we were traveling light, but now that we are headed to Uruguay and will be settling in for a while, we needed to round out some of the holes lacking in our wardrobe. Plus, we know its cheaper to buy the things here than it will be to purchase them in Uruguay.

Its 10:15 am right now. I need to pack up my things and get ready for check-out. Then we can linger around the city a bit before heading out.

Ciao.