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Surprise Visitors at our Gate

Surprise Visitors at our Gate

Yesterday afternoon about 15 riders surprised Joe and I at our gate. There was a parade in San Jacinto the next town down from us and our dear friend Patricia and another long time friend Pablo, decided to bring their crew to our home for a visit.  After a short welcome, we brought out the beer for our dusty travelers and shared a laugh or two.

The most amazing thing besides the beautiful…

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Thoughts of a Uruguay Fútbolista

Thoughts of a Uruguay Fútbolista

Joe found this wonderful letter that Uruguay football player Edinson Cavani wrote to his younger self,  it is worth a read.

Dear nine-year-old Edinson,  I am writing these lines to the boy that everyone in the neighborhood calls “Pelado”.  When you were a baby you did not have too much hair. And it grew to you very little by little. A shit, but there was not much you could do about it. So,…

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World Cup – Uruguay Wins Against Portugal It was a great game and the people of Uruguay go crazy for their National team.  Here is what it was like several hours after the game was over in the street outside of our apartment here in Atlantida.

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Things I Have Not Seen Before

Things I Have Not Seen Before

You would think by this stage in our lives that we would have seen just about everything, well we haven’t…..So this store was a shock to both Joe and I. Sure in college we saw stores that had a few items for sale but to see a store just for marijuana paraphernalia – never before. It is legal to buy marijuana in Uruguay, if you are a citizen. It is controlled by the government and there is a…

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Food Treasures from Montevideo

Food Treasures from Montevideo

While in Montevideo we spend many hours searching for spices and food items we are not able to find here in Atlantida. Things like fish sauce, miso paste, whole coriander seeds. So our searching was fruitful as you can see from all the goodies in the above picture.

On our one outing we visited Bosque Bambu. It is a store in front with a buffet style restaurant in the back.  It was wonderful, we…

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Japanese Gardens at Museo Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo UY

Japanese Gardens at Museo Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo UY

Behind the main house of the Museo Juan Manuel Blanes is a beautiful Japanese Garden.  This garden was donated and constructed by Japan to show their appreciation to Uruguay for 40 years of friendship.

It is a beautiful setting, with mature trees and lush vegetation, where pathways, bridges and ponds create a special paradise for the senses.

This was part of the koi pond and was alive with a…

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Casa Quinta - Museo Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo UY

Casa Quinta – Museo Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo UY

This was a great afternoon visit. The Museo Juan Manuel Blanes is a beautiful old home filled with a variety of artwork from paintings to sculptures.  It also has a beautiful Japanese Garden donated and built by Japan to thank Uruguay for 40 years of friendship.  I took many pictures so this will be a two-part post.

Many of the painting filled an entire wall with the subjects being almost…

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Myeong Ga Korean Restaurant in Montevideo

Myeong Ga Korean Restaurant in Montevideo

One of the great finds on our trip to Montevideo was the Myeong Ga Korean Restaurant near Plaza Independencia in old town. We have had few opportunities to try Korean cooking and this was a fabulous restaurant to cut our teeth on.

The menu was filled with dishes from soups to beautiful meat dishes that several could be made vegan if that is your thing.  We had a wonderful super spicy beef soup…

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Bar Facal and The Locks Fountain

Bar Facal and The Locks Fountain

Bar Facal was founded in 1882 in downtown Montevideo. We stopped there one morning for a quick breakfast on one of our outings. 

This the Italian Cappuccino and was served with churros.

On the sidewalk outside the bar near to the fountain, is a full sized bronze statue of Carlos Gardel, a French composer, singer/songwriter and actor and the most prominent figure in the history of tango.

The Locks…

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Starbucks First Store in Uruguay Starbucks Coffee opened their first Uruguay store in Montevideo Shopping in April of this year. We happened to walk by and saw this incredible line out the doors waiting for a cup of coffee.  Good luck, the last time I was caught waiting in line was at Disney World in the 90's.  Never again.

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Uruguay Playing in the World Cup

Uruguay Playing in the World Cup

It is big deal for Uruguay to be playing in the World Cup again. For such a small country of less than 3.5 million people they have qualified and participated in 12 of the 20 World Cups. They won twice and came in 4th on three different occasions the last in 2010.  Again, this is a huge accomplishment from a country with a population of under 3.5 million people.

Everyone in this country is…

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Rudy Burger

I know I wrote about Rudy Burger back last year when we were living in Montevideo. And I told you it was the best burger we have ever had, well it still is the best burger we have ever had.  Once again we stopped and had to try it. And once again it was excellent.

Very attentive staff with fast service. Food excellent, can’t think of one thing that was not perfect. Only wish they had a location…

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Micro Brewed Beer at Agricola Mercado, Montevideo

Micro Brewed Beer at Agricola Mercado, Montevideo

We spent most of last week in Montevideo, a bit of time for business but mostly for personal. After spending three months there back in early 2017 it was wonderful to spend time in the same area, Buseo, because we knew everything already.  The apartment was a sweet, very comfortable efficiency and get this – it had under floor heating as well as a reverse a/c heat unit.  And the kicker was it was…

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Just Another Day

Since living outside of the US we have found great joy and much peace in walking the beaches and Uruguay is not an exception.  Each morning when the weather is nice we head towards the water. Our apartment is two blocks from the beach and there are several access walkways and paths to get access to the beach which here is lower than the road.

You can see from the picture above that the beach is…

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A Long Time Coming

A Long Time Coming

To say that 2017 was notour favorite year would be an understatement. Making a move is always difficult but in this case it was terribly difficult as we were pretty settled in our minds that San Clemente, Ecuador would be our last home, last hometown, and we would be buried there. We felt almost betrayed that the earthquake and its many aftershocks had caused us to make the move.  Uruguay was…

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Today's Recipe: Ratatouille

Today’s Recipe: Ratatouille

This morning we woke to 40 degree weather with a wind of around 18 mph.  A good day for a warm and hearty stew recipe. I had all the ingredients for a wonderful Ratatouille so that is what I have made.

If you like zucchini and eggplant you will love this recipe. The cutting up of the veggies takes the most time, the cooking time is super fast and you end up with a very hearty meal.

Ratatouille

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La Pippona

Empanadas anyone? What we are used to is a fried empanada with more crust than filling. These empanadas from La Pippona are light and flaky baked crusts with filling galore. We have tried several of them and so far our favorites are the Mexicana which is super spicy for Uruguay and the Ham and Cheese which is filled with chunks of great ham and a rich creamy melty cheese. 

I failed to tell you we…

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