Author: doug

In Uruguay? This app’s not for you.

We bought a Kindle Fire from Amazon. Turns out to be useless for much more than reading books, but that’s OK because it’s good for that. And it promises more, like Android apps you can download for free.

It occurred that it might be useful to have a little note-taking app on the Kindle. You know, waiting for 50 people in front of you at the bank, reading a book, get an idea…. You can find plenty of free note-taking apps ready to download. So I tried.

It told me it couldn’t download because I didn’t have a credit card on file (which I do), then it wouldn’t allow me to enter a credit card.

So I tried on the computer – sorry, the Amazon app store said, your region can’t buy apps from us. No problem; logged in through a USA VPN, only to find it wouldn’t accept a cookie that Amazon requires.

So where to find Android apps? Google! Alas, Google and Amazon do not play together – the Amazon Kindle is sort of a bastardized Android device, and to keep the price low they didn’t get a Google license.

So this morning I delved into a murky world of Android dead-ends and non-starters, rapidly realizing it was not the best use of my time.

The original note-taking app

And realizing as well that I already have a perfectly functional note-taking app. That even works when the Kindle’s battery is dead.

PELIGRO GAS INFLAMABLE

gas tank delivery truck, Uruguay

The obstructed store to the right is the Supermercado de Carnes – yes, the Supermarket of Meats.

Uruguayans are the world’s largest consumer of beef per capita. ‘Meat consumption in Uruguay is on the rise reaching 94.7kg per person per year in 2011,’ says the Meat Trade News Daily. Just five years ago, the per capita annual consumption was reported as 54 kilos, and five years before that 40.

At some point, enough is enough – and too much is too much.

It’s March – autumn returns

autumn_sky

Cool wind this morning. Time to wear shoes and socks again after happy months of flip-flops.

As a kid, I loved autumn crispness, new clothes and return to new adventures in school. Now it seems more a chore: order firewood, figure out how to clean the stove pipe, clean up garden. Stay warm. Wear shoes to the beach.

Autumn in the months that ~should~ be spring — still weird, the third time around.

Frogs, toads, and bees

At times here, you’ll hear a frog chorus sounding like the ‘mew, mew’ of cats. Confuses newcomers used to croaking. Last year we had many, many frogs – but also many, many mosquitoes. This year less. On the decline, or just an off-year?

Yesterday, our friends’ afternoon asado of suckling pig turned to evening with fat toads hopping around the parrillada.

This morning, the honey bees are busy on the basil plants I’ve let go to seed.

Good to see the indicator species – and the bees – thriving. From what I understand, that’s not the case elsewhere.

Will kill for food

All my life, so disconnected with the meat part of my food supply that I’d never killed anything other than a fish to eat. Yesterday changed that. The three boys of friends’ seven suckling pigs were destined for the parrilla.

Click (or don’t) to enlarge images.

These three pigs brought their total to five so far. With experience and other adults the process went faster – but still very time-consuming. Removing the bristles is a lot of work.

Fresh pig ears and tails for the puppy.

From anus to windpipe, everything must go. Weird at first; by the third, I was used to it.

Liver and heart examined by kids. Quite an education.

Not curbside, but yes, they recycle

recycling center, Uruguay

I got inspired to cut bottles, but so far have ended up only with a bucket of broken glass. Dumping that that into the trash seemed a dangerous idea, so I took them where the garbage trucks go.

There, huge plastic bags lie as far as you can see, awaiting their turn to be clasificado – sorted out. Yes, there’s a person who goes through everything, finding and sorting the recyclables

Asking to take a photo, I got a tour instead. Unprepared, it didn’t occur to ask about the most ubiquitous item of all: plastic shopping bags.

Next time.

I expect a few more broken bottles.

plastic bottle crusher, Uruguay
They were proud of their plastic bottle compactor.

Connections

The retiring executive we bought furniture from in Montevideo a couple years ago, whom we introduced to our town and who now lives a few blocks away, mentioned to my wife the other night a book he thought she’d enjoy.

A couple days later, I saw written in her calendar, A Deadly Affection, by Cuyler Overholt. That’s not a name you forget, but I hadn’t thought about it in probably four decades. We went to junior high school together in Connecticut a third of the way around the planet from here, even hung out with the same kids. She was cute. 😉

I left after 9th grade, and didn’t stay in touch with anyone at the high school, but someone from my prep school and her college connected us. Delightful to make contact – turns out later in high school she and my 8th grade girlfriend became best friends, and in their calendars is a trip together next week to enjoy Anchor Steam and sourdough bread in San Francisco.

The Argentinian we met in Buenos Aires through friends in Hawaii told us that our house name ‘Caviahue’ (houses here have names, not numbers) refers to a small town in Patagonia with ski resort and thermal baths. She used to have an apartment there. For all the mentions of Bariloche, also in Patagonia, I’ve never heard anyone mention Caviahue – oh, except for the owner of a excellent nearby winery – who also had a house there.

It looks like a cool place to visit. Unfortunately, the government’s latest plan to destroy the Argentinian economy tempts me to wait before thinking about it.

Culture, language, and cooking

Yesterday, we spent a pleasant afternoon and early evening in the campo, at the chacra of friends, having an asado on their parilla.

campo = the country
chacra = ranch (in their case a bit less than 30 acres (11 hectares)
asado = traditional BBQ, also called parrillada, also the name of various cuts of  grilled meat, including carne de asado, which is ribs cut the ‘wrong way.’
parrilla = grill, adjustable and relatively elaborate cooking part of the parillero, which, when enclosed, is called a barbacoa. (Got it?)

You build the fire in the grate to the side. As embers drop below, you rake them underneath the meat, which cooks slowly. Very slowly.

The wrong way to cook meat, according to South Americans
The wrong way to cook meat, according to South Americans

Key point for Norteaméricanos::

If the flames touch the meat, you’re doing it entirely wrong.

 

 

Tiny Coke bottles

When I was a kid, a ‘Coke’ meant a six-ounce returnable glass bottle. Recently, these 200 ml* returnable glass Coke bottles showed up here. Hard to imagine a kid these days being satisfied with a drink that small, but somebody bought them.

Behind them is a 2-liter bottle, plastic, also returnable, meaning that all three have a deposit paid on them.

Beer bottles half-liter and larger, and wine bottles 1.5 liters and larger, all have deposits and are re-used.

I like that.

*approximately 6.762805 fluid ounces