To a North American or European, it might seem a bit bizarre that a woman stopping at a kiosk would make no effort to pull to the side of the road, and instead simply “park” in the middle of the road. And it’s not that there was no traffic — we were stuck for a few minutes waiting to cross the road.
I would probably have to explain to a Uruguayan what’s wrong with this picture from my standpoint.
Es lo que hay.
Once I saw someone stop in the traffic circle at Plaza de Madres at that little kiosk at the start of Artigas. He left his car running, of course, bought his cigarettes and went back to the car and left. Fortunately, I have never seen that again.
In northern Canadian communities, it happens that two guys passing each other in opposite directions in their big pick-up trucks sometimes just stop and have a chat. Sometimes, there is not sufficient room to go around, but that fact rarely causes them to break off their conversation any too quickly. A toot on the horn might get one or both of them leaving their trucks and coming after you to find out what your problem might be, because it sure and hell couldn´t be them, could it?
At least the kiosk and other middle of the roadway stoppers in Uruguayan are not aggressive.
I did that recently here: stopped to say hi to one of Jesse’s friends. We broke it off when a car came, though, probably quickly by local standards.
I’m guilty of stopping on my motorcycle to visit, but I didn’t impede traffic, and it wasn’t during the high season. Where does one find poultry in Uruguay? Are there stores?
I’ve only been in one store selling chicks, in Pando, a farm supply place. I see quite a few grown birds advertised on mercadolibre.com.uy (Gallos y Gallinas) if you’re feeling adventurous. I’ve mentioned our neighbor’s guinea fowl before. They’re said to be great eating, but they’re such characters that it’s easy to get attached to them as pets. I suppose, though, the same is true for any animal if you’re not used to raising animals for food.
Guinea fowl hate snakes and will attack and then eat a rattlesnake, so they were very popular in the west Texas country where I lived.
Interesting. In the hills of North Carolina, a local character told me of his technique: fence off what you want to preserve (your yard) then turn a pig loose. He described how they’d throw the rattlesnake in the air and catch it in their mouths. Fortunately, I never had occasion to test this approach.