Living like a local

We've been in Uruguay for a little over a week and we are now getting acclimated to our new environment. We have been eating in more often due to the cost of eating out.We discovered that it costs us about $50 or more for dinner for the five of us. Most of the restaurants here are parilla's, which serve grilled meats, pasta, and pizza. The cuisine is inspired by Italy , so pasta is a main staple. beef is their main export , so steaks are a main staple as well. We can buy a nice t-bone steak from the grocery store which is around 12oz. for $2.50.  Keep in mind, antibiotics and hormones are not injected into their cows and they are free range, grass fed. What we are getting is real, organic beef. In the US, a nice ,organic steak can cost as much as $9.99 /lb. Most of the fruits and vegetables they sell at the local markets are grown locally. The milk ,cheese and yogurt is produced from those same cows that are roaming around eating grass. Everything tastes and looks so much better here. Most neighborhoods in the city have their own farmer's market on certain days of the week. They are called "ferias". On Sunday we went to the largest and oldest feria in the city. It spans over 3o city blocks. You can find fruits, vegetables, meat, clothes, antiques, records etc.. It 's like a big outdoor flea market in the states. Everyone shops this way here in Uruguay.

In Uruguay, most people wash their clothes by hand and line dry. All gas in imported so anything that uses gas is very expensive. They do have "lavaderos"( drop off laundry) but we have found this to be very costly. It's about $20 for a typical "American" load.With a family of five, this is just not a cost that we want to incur for the sake of convenience. Since we are living like a local, we decided to partake in this primitive yet essential task of hand washing our clothes. Living in an apartment limits the space you have to line dry , so we are only able to wash about 10 items at a time. We have just incorporated this chore into our morning schedule to allow for drying time. As I mentioned before, gas is very expensive , so most people in Montevideo do not own a car. Most people use public transportation or walk. We have certainly been getting plenty of excercise by walking everywhere.This must be the reason most of the Uruguayans we have seen have been slim and trim. Eating pasta and steak everyday does not seem to have any bearing on their figures. Here's some photos we have captured so far, of Uruguayan life in the big city:

Handknit wool hats for sale at the feria; I bought the pink one in the suitcase for $15.

                                                 

                                           Inside the "Mercado Del Puerta"; the market near the port . Several different parillas.

Street vendors at the largest feria in the city

     Street vendors selling mate; cups made from gourds to drink yerba.

        Fruit and vegetable stand in the neighborhood

  another fruit and vegetable stand

              Meat counter at the grocery store

     Our homemade version of the Chivito; the national dish- steak, ham, cheese, olives, onions,

and fried egg

       The entrance to the "old city"; the area where we are staying in

     A parilla; a restaurant where they serve grilled meats

A view of the streets

        

Bird's eye view of our laundry hanging outside the window

A colorful cobblestone street

A view of the tops of buildings

This is our home for 2 1/2 weeks.

Lodging can be the most expensive part of a trip. We decided to look into short term housing in Montevideo to save some money. I simply google-ed" apartments for rent in Montevideo", and a slew of websites popped up offering short term rentals. In Montevideo particularly, there are many foreigners who invest in properties with the intention of renting them to other foreigners. I came upon a unique property that was in our price range. We moved in yesterday and we are very happy with our choice. The Penthouse-Loft is located in the Ciudad Vieja, which is the "Old City". The building is about a 100 years old and has alot of character. Here is a link to the website:
www.rentinuruguay.com When  you get to the site, click on Montevideo.

 It sure beats staying in a hotel! We have full use of the kitchen which is fully equipped. We went to the market and picked up pasta made from scratch, vegetables, crusty bread and ate like the locals do. We saved $40 by doing that. The place we got the fresh pasta also had homemade meat pies and empanadas. We bought the meat pie for lunch the next day.

 Here's a picture of the yummy pie (I don't know what it is called in spanish yet) Ham, Cheese, Boiled Egg, Sweet Onions, Red Bell Pepper and Olives in flakey crust.

Bargain Gone WRONG!!!

We are finally in Uruguay! It was a VERY difficult journey , but we made it! Here is a quick synopsis of what transpired in the first 48 hours of our trip:

- We received an email the night before our scheduled flight to leave. It read "We are sorry to inform you that Pluna Airlines has ceased all operations and all flights after July 9th will be cancelled. Please make alternative arrangements to get to your destination."

- We went into a panic and were on the phone with "Cheapoair" for 2 1/2 hours trying to make "alternative arrangements".They said it would be no problem they would just give us a refund. We told them we didn't want a refund , we just want to get to our destination. They said it would cost us an additional $2500. We asked them for other options and they told us they couldn't help us until 9:00a.m. when the airlines opened. (We originally had made all of our travel arrangements online through "Cheapoair.com". It is a budget travel site that compares all the airlines and finds the best quote based on your travel dates. We did save hundreds of dollars by booking through them. The only catch is that we had 3 different legs and 2 layovers with a total travel time of 20 hours. To most people this itinerary would be grueling and avoided at ALL cost. But for us, having an active 21 month old, it was strategically planned. He would have several breaks off the plane to run around in the airport. The final leg of our flight would be from 10:30p.m. to 8:30a.m.,this way he could sleep through the longest flight of the trip. It would of worked out perfect for what we wanted.)

- By 10:30 a.m. the next morning "Cheapoair" had booked another flight and everything was OK.
- 7:30p.m  We arrive in Miami with a layover till 10:30p.m
.
-At 8:30p.m. we check in at TAM Airlines for our 2nd Leg. The TAM Supervisor informs us that "Cheapoair" booked us on a connecting flight in Brazil and we cannot fly on this flight because we don't have Visas.

-At 9:30p.m. Tam Airlines says they booked us on a flight with American Airlines and everything is OK.We are scheduled to leave at 11:15p.m.We are super relieved and thankful to TAM.

-At 9:45 p.m. we are at the American Airlines desk trying to check in for our flight scheduled to leave at 11:15. The American Airlines representative informs us that we are not in the system, at all.The reservation that TAM had made never went through to their system. We ran back to the TAM desk and no one is there. It appears that they are closed for the night. We run back to the American Airlines desk pleading with them to help us. No one can help us . We run back to the TAM desk and find one TAM guy named Guillermo to help us at the American airlines desk. Because they are competitors, the computer systems don't overlap and they have a hard time finding the tickets they had purchased for us. They finally find the information they need to get us on the plane,but it is too late. The plane is closed!!We are really mad at TAM!

-At 10:30 p.m.we have a new flight booked with American Airlines for tomorrow night. We asked the TAM guy if they could get us hotel since they screwed up our flight. They do the right thing and Comp our hotel and food for the next day. Evidently the supervisor that messed up our flight was in the back office the whole time. She tells us to look for the van that says"Regency" on it. We're feeling better, we're staying at the "Hyatt Regency" and we're going to eat well. Everything is OK.

-At 11:15 p.m. we're standing in line waiting to check into our room for the night. We are third in line and there is only one guy behind the counter. We wait patiently.

-At 12:00a.m.. the lights flicker for a second. The power has gone out and now the hotel's generator has kicked on. The computer system is down and we cannot check in because this is not the"Hyatt Regency" just the "Regency" and they have no computer backup system. Meanwhile, the hotel lobby fills up with a busload of people from the Dominican Republic.

Here's a picture of our 3 boys in their chair of choice in the lobby of the "Regency":

-At 2:15a.m. the computer system is back up and running and we can check into our room. We proceed to our room, apprehensive to ride the elevator.Considering the way our evening has gone,it would only be natural for us to get stuck in the elevator. We make it to our room ,open the door ready to dive into our beds for the night. There is one king sized bed and five of us. We consider drawing numbers to see who is going to sleep on the chair and on the floor. We call the front desk and ask for a cot, they don't have one. We ask if there is another hotel we can go to that will accept our comp. They tell us the "Doubletree" will , and they will drive us there.

- At 2:45a.m. we are at the "Doubletree Hotel". Everything is OK. We see promo posters that show them giving you hot, homemade chocolate chip cookies with your keys. The Chinese family in line in front of us , get there key and chocolate chip cookies. We proceed to the front of the line, check in, get our key, but no cookies. We ask if we can have our cookies and they inform us that they are out of cookies. Of course they're out of cookies!

-At 2:55a.m. Everything is finally OK and we are ready for bed.

Yeah! A new camera for taking travel photos.

I'm very excited to start using my new camera. I purchased it on Groupon and I got a really great deal I wanted to share. If you're not signed up for Groupon yet you should really check it out today. You can get some super great bargains and you can tailor it to things you frequently spend money on anyways. Here's the link  to view the deal. Unfortunately, the sale is over but if your in the market for a new camera, keep a look out for deals like this. www.groupon.com/deals/gg-easyshare-z5010-digital-camera