Today we took a bus to the project Church of Christ Obrero
in Atlantida, designed by engineer Eladio Dieste in 1952. The bus ride was a
bumpy one, but it was neat to drive through the city then outside of the city
limits. It transitioned from high rise buildings and apartments to single
family homes. The social culture of Uruguay is much different from America. In
America, if you drive through a town where people are walking along a busy
street or if their front yard isn’t perfectly maintained, you get a perception
that the community is poor and run down. It could be that I am unaware of the
poverty stricken communities in Uruguay, but here it is the norm to walk along
the streets. People actually spend time outside socializing and just sitting
around to spend time together. In America we are always just trying to get to
where we are going, but here someone would stop and talk to you for 30 minutes
because that is more important to them than getting your errand done. As we
left the city there were still people out and about doing things. What would
have turned into suburbia in Indiana was a completely different culture outside
of the city. It was still majority single family housing, but it didn’t feel
like a suburb. A lot of people were out walking to work, walking their dogs (a
lot of people have dogs), riding bikes, gathering anywhere and everywhere to
stop and talk.
After the church we rode the bus back into Montevideo and
had lunch. We all got chivitos, which is meat with eggs and cheese on top of a
pile of fries, a very common dish in South America. Meals are viewed a lot
differently in South America compared to The United States. At home, you have a
meal because you have to eat. We get impatient if it takes too long to go out
to dinner because we are in a rush. In South America, having a meal with people
is special. It takes time, but they are in no rush. You have a meal with
someone to sit down, talk to them, and enjoy their company. Not that we don’t
do that in America, but it is a general understanding that dinner out will take
roughly one hour or so. In South America it takes at least two hours. The waiters
don’t come to your table to see if you need the bill ten minutes after you get
your food. Also, their eating schedule is much later than what we are
accustomed to. They eat lunch around 2 and dinner around 10. Most dinner places
don’t even open until 8.
In Uruguay, it is common to see people carrying around matte
cups and a thermos. Matte is a type of tea that is very common down here. It’s
similar to how Americans always carry around starbucks cups. Matte cups are a
little mug with a straw and they put the tea in the cup and carry around a
thermos full of hot water to keep refilling their mug. We saw a lot of these as
we walked along the river’s edge.
For dinner 5 of us stopped at a little pizza place. The
waitress didn’t speak English, so we pointed at what we wanted. Luckily, pizza
in universal, and it was delicious. After dinner, showers, and packing up, we
all went up to the rooftop to sit and hang out. There’s something about
traveling together that’s makes you really get to know people really quickly.
It was the perfect ending to our last night in Uruguay, then it got ugly.
We went down to our room to go to bed, and were doing our
nightly bed bug check, when three of the five girls found bugs. Apparently the
room we were staying in had some back backers in it a couple nights before, and
they think they may have brought them in. Kristi and I didn’t find bugs in our
beds, but to be safe we all slept in the boys’ room. Bed bugs aren’t the worst
thing that can happen to a traveler, but you want to avoid them if you can.
They leave little bites on your skin in rows, usually on your stomach or upper
legs. The problem is when they get in your suitcase and lay eggs, because they
will just take over your clothes. The only way to kill them is by getting your
stuff dry cleaned because that is the only water hot enough. So hopefully no
bugs found their way into our luggage!
Tomorrow we are taking a bus from Montevideo to Colonia for
the day. Colonia is a very small city in Uruguay, with a touch of European flavor.
Tomorrow night we are catching a ferry to cross the Rio de la Plata from
Colonia to go into Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adios for now!
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