Montevideo….a city definitely unto its own. A small big city in a small country. A lot of old with a splash of new.

My impression of Montevideo is that the people are very friendly, life is a bit slower, and there I just enough to satisfy everyone without having too much.

Prior to arriving in Montevideo, I had contacted Rotaractors and Rotarians there to arrange a homestay. I began emailing with Gerardo, a Rotarian on one of Montevideo’s Rotary clubs. Via email, Gerardo assured me in advance that his club would host me and show me around Montevideo.

Well, Gerardo and his club were genuinely great hosts! At the airport, I was greeted by Gerardo’s son and daughter, Gonzalo and Veronica, 20 & 23, and got to know them over the next three days as we spoke spanglish together.

Gerardo owns a machine shop, and I even found it pretty interesting as I went to his machine shop about 3 times during my stay there. He owns the most awesome 1970ish Peugot wagon, which nobody would blink an eye at in a city like Montevideo, when mixed amongst much newer cars, even much more older, and horse drawn carriages owned by the poorer people of the city.

It’s difficult to describe, but I was bounced around for 3 days between different Rotarians and Rotaractors, taken to different places around Montevideo, ate lunch with different families and people, and generally got to know a lot of different people in a short amount of time.

For example, on my first day, Gonzalo took me around to a few tourist sights. We drove up to the cerro in Montevideo, of course an old fort overlooking the river to guard the city, with amazing views of Montevideo. Then we walked around the center, before proceeding to the congress palace. It was about 6pm, and the palace closed at around 4pm. Of course, I was just following Gonzalo around, and somehow we ended up inside the palace despite the closure, with all the lights off, wandering the halls! I don’t know for sure we definitely were not supposed to be there, but it was both of our first times there. We left the palace to a torrential downpour, which caused massive floods in Uruguay & Buenos Aires. Yikes.

Mate….I really didn’t expect it to be as much a part of the culture in Uruguay as it is. People drink mate at work, in the car, on the beach, and at all times of the day. Mate is a drink derived from the yerba plant, an herb, and tastes like really bitter tea. The mate cup is usually a wooden bowl hollowed out from a small pumpkinlike plant, then filled with yerba herb, and sipped on with a bombilla, a metallic straw with holes at the bottom to filter out the yerba plant. The Uruguayans don’t go anywhere without their thermos, to hold piping hot water and refill the mate cup. Literally, I think they are crazy for this stuff. Needless to say, I was able to enjoy this with my various hosts over a few lazy afternoons. Dont mind if I do....

The country is not rich, there is a large amount of poor people, but they get by better than poor people in the US due to the fact that most of them actually have jobs and health care access. It is readily evident because many of them use horse drawn carriages for transport.

Montevideo=great little city. The end. Stay tuned. –From Colonia, Uruguay.

Neighborhood near Gonzalo's & Gerardo's house:


From the Cerro in Montevideo:


With Gonza in the palace after hours, just before getting drenched by the torrent:


The fun downpour:


Mate one afternoon with Gerardo. Sipping the bombilla, thermos absent, ha:


Asado in Mercado Puerto with Mario. We had chorizo, morcilla (blood chorizo), some intestine stuff, and some random cuts of meat). Friggin delicious:


Above La Rambla, Uruguays version of Chicago's lake shore drive:


Gerardo & family, including the dog!:


Mate, Bombilla, Thermos!


Asado:

Lima-Rio

Well, still alive and made it to Rio in one peice. Thought I'd recap my last 2 days in Lima.

Tuesday we ate ceviche yet again. Delicious, too much seafood now though, I think my bowels are not liking me for that, for all those curious people...haha... Anyhow, my host in Lima Marco had 2 more couchsurfers arrive Tuesday from Ohio, and after ceviche we went to Marco's parents house. For some reason, garage doors are really intricately carved, I don't get it, must be because there are walls or gates on most houses so it's the only thing you see...Needless to say, the inside was really nice, felt like a grandparents or great grandparents house with all the nice things...ha.

We walked around central Lima later, and visited Iglesia San Francisco. Our tour was in Spanish...I needed to be 2 feet away from the guy to catch half of what he was saying haha. Nonetheless, I didnt learn a whole lot, but there were thousands and thousands of bones in the catacombs below the church, something similar to a cemetary.

Then, somehow, we managed to meet up with Luz, a Rotaractor, in the Plaza de Armas. She is 23 and doing some sort of pharmacy/medical thing. She didnt speak a lick of English and was incredibly chatty, so that was a bit of a trip. Marco wanted to take the Ohio'ans for Anticuchos (grilled heart), so I had that for the second night in a row. Renzo, president of rotaract valle escondido, met us up at the anticucho place, so then there were six of us. So Luz & Renzo had a suprise for me they said, which was they took me to a Rotary meeting. We took two combis to get there, one of them half broken, a total riot.

The Rotary meeting was at a CHIFA (Chinese) Restaurant. A combination of chinese & peruvian food, haha. Tasted like US chinese to me. I explained to the group in Spanish what I was doing, where I was going, and tried to talk about Rotaract in Chicago, etc, in Spanish. In the end, they presented me with a gift of a bottle of Pisco, a liquor used in making Pisco Sours. Awesome!

Wednesday I walked around the neighborhood Barranco with Marco, nothing spectacular, but relaxing. Then we went to a mercado to buy the ingredients to make Pisco Sours that evening :Limes, Eggs, Syrup, and Bitters. Two more couchsurfers showed up from Germany, so we made Pisco Sours for all that evening. One of the Germans had been travelling all over S. America for months, so she gave me so good advice on Buenos Aires, Mendoza, and even Easter Island!

So today I flew from Lima-Sao Paulo-Rio. Had to change airports in Sao Paulo, a bit of an adventure. There was a free airport transfer that I found after talking to about 3 different people. After I finally found it, the line was massive, and they said there was only 1 bus every hour! Great. I had a long layover, but the line was crazy. The girl in front of me had a huge backpack, and she looked like a bit of a gringo, so I asked her if she spoke English (she was from England & had been travelling for 4 months). There was a definite yes, and I asked her if she wanted to split a cab. Her flight was leaving in less than 2 hours, and it takes about an hour to go between airports. We went in to get some Brazilian Reals and hopped in a cab and got stuck in the great Sao Paulo traffic. Had some good travel conversations, and she got to the check in counter about 30 minutes before her flight left, I think she made it, but I had a good few hours, so I was ok. We exchanged info because she is going to be in Buenos Aires while I am there.

Finally I made it to Rio, my host Brian picked me up. We spent 20 minutes trying to ge this car out of the parking lot. Like a game where you have a car stuck between two parallel walls the width of the car, yeah that was fun, in 37C weather, so we were dripping wet. Brian lives in Flameco in a 1st floor high rise near the beach, a great area. Within 10 minutes they asked me if I wanted to be in the Carnival Parade in the Samodromo in the Rotary float on Saturday & Sunday. I said heck yea!!! Wow, that was a stunner for me, once in a lifetime chance. His mom actually speaks some Spanish, so that's how I have to communicate with her.

On the horizon: Futbol game at Marcana Stadium Saturday, and some blocos and meeting Brians friends. Should be an entertaining 7 days here in Rio. I'd upload pics, but I gotta take a nap, running on 4ish hours from the two flights today.

Oh, I forgot, I had a 45 minute conversation in Spanish with the taxi driver to the Lima airport last night! It was awesome! His son is a mechanical engineer so he gave me his card and I gave him my email address, and he said his son is also studying English, so he may email me for practice. Really nice taxi driver.

Phew, I am pooped, but someones gotta do all this. It's hard, I know.

Here are my photos from Lima: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?id=31400194&aid=2117000