Author: doug

Puppy plates?

puppy-plates

I spotted a pile of cut-up license plates at the back of the intendencia (town office) in nearby Salinas. Went to take a photo and realized, wait, there’s a tiny black-and-white puppy in the middle of them, licking up water dripping from an air conditioner overhead. I saw nobody around, but knew there must be. It’s where all the equipment is stored, busy place.

After waiting a long time inside (I cleaned almost all the leaves of the office ficus plant to pass the time), I was able to ask about getting wood chips from their cleanup ops.  No estamos chipeando (we are not chipping) was the answer, because it’s too dry, but they took my number and … this is Latin America … I won’t hold my breath for a call from them.

After which I went back by the pile of license plates. No puppy to be seen.

The beginning of a place to park

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Though draining water runs down the middle of our street, it has deep ditches on either side, and limited width. Not a good place to park. But if people pull into our driveway in a car, they block us in, and if more than one car, one blocks the other.

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So the last couple days have been busy, and the hill is no more. Now to try to get something to grow out there besides the one bush we transplanted from the back yard.

How things work (officially) in Uruguay

confiscated motorbikes, Atlántida, Uruguay
Confiscated motorbikes behind the Intendencia.
Judging by the tree growing, they’ve been there a while.

How things work (officially) in Uruguay is seldom the same as how they work in reality.

When I realized, in 2012, that I’d forgotten to renew my driver’s license (doing the homologación from a foreign license is easy, but they only gave me two years), I researched and discovered that 1) if you miss renewal by under two weeks, no problem, 2) between two weeks and two years, you have to take the written and driving test, and 3) after two years you have to take driving school.

In my case, the two weeks had passed, and the two years would come next October, but my foreign license—from Mexico—expires two days from now.

Today was my appointment. I was a little nervous about taking a test in Spanish, though I had studied the Manual de Aspirantes and found nothing daunting. I figured the driving part was no problem. I’ve gone 40 years without an accident (other than bozos running into me).

The whole process took over and hour and a half: present required paperwork. Wait. Name called. Take paperwork to cashier, pay $1,000 (USD 45). Get in line. Give receipt. Wait. Name called. Photo taken. Wait. Name called. Sign here; here’s your license.

But officially ….

Wandering around Carrasco

Hotel/Casino in Carrasco, Montevideo, Uruguay

After a delicious lunch inside this splendid pile of rock yesterday, we wandered around Carrasco.

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I know what you’re thinking: Look at those buildings! We must be in South America!

Building in Carrasco, Montevideo, Uruguay

Amazing dwellings seem to be the norm.

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carrasco

And look at this—a fixer-upper! Some paint, a little TLC, and …oh. Actually, I don’t like the look of the vertical steel “I” beam outside the front door. Maybe we’ll pass on this one.

Lunch in Carrasco

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Lovely day to have lunch with friends at the refurbished casino in Carrasco, the closest part of Montevideo for us suburbanites. Also a lovely neighborhood, a place I’d find desirable if I had to live in the city. (And wanted to spend a lot more than I do.)

Hotel-casino, Carrasco, Montevideo, Uruguay

After seeing this building empty for several years, it does my heart good to see it alive again.

Delicious meal, and we got the full 22% tax knocked off when I used my US Visa card, and paid  in USD as priced on the menu, so no need to exchange to pesos. Sweet! The little things ….

Hotel-casino, Carrasco, Montevideo, Uruguay>

Plus we got to see not one, but two, full-sized plastic horses. With lamps sticking out of their heads.

Tell me it gets any better than that.

Chimney Sweep

Guy shows up at the door. He was here a year ago, but we had just replaced our wood stove and stove pipes. Clean it? Why not. Gives me a price of $2800 (bit over USD 125) to do it three times this season. Turns out it’s pretty clean right now; he ended up treating rust (with stuff I happen to have) and sent me to the ferretería (hardware store) to get stuff he mixes with Portland cement and patches cracks and gaps on the bricks inside the stove.

By the time he finishes, he’s invited me (well, just about) to go dorado fishing in the western part of the country, made a mutual connection through the owner of the butcher shop in Estación Atlántida, en route to our chacra (country place a few km out of town), and told me exactly where he lives (three doors from it) in case I should need him. And I already knew he cleans the chimneys of our neighbors.

They always say in Uruguay—well, everywhere in Latin America for that matter—that you shouldn’t pay in full until the work is complete. I gave him $2800. He’ll be back.