Misiones, near Rincón.
Category: Travels
Bike lane in Montevideo
Rincón, near Plaza Constitución. Horrible street (like most of them), but this is pretty cool.
Bright spot in city sidewalk
Nice.
Church sculpture, Montevideo
I took this photo in Montevideo, as Tex was dying. I didn’t know it then.
Fig update [spoiler: none]
I have been asked more than once by a certain person. With no expectation of figs, I haven’t paid much attention to our tree in the country. Low and behold, leaves all gone, and any ripe figs destroyed by the parrots.
Flasher frog in Parque del Plata
OK, I’m just guessing. Maybe I should say “secret agent frog.” Or maybe it’s not even a frog. When I first saw it, I thought it kind of tacky, then realized it had a constant flow of people having their photo taken with it , with the lovely river Solís Chico in the background. Good idea!
Update 20170202: “One of the most striking features of [Parque del Plata] is the monument to Sapo* Ruperto, character of children’s stories created by the Uruguayan writer Roy Berocay, who tells us from his work that his birthplace is precisely the stream Solís Chico. The person responsible for the sculpture was Nelson Capote and the monument was placed there within the framework of the 75th anniversary of Parque del Plata.” (source)
*Sapo means toad, and yes, he’s a detective.
Fig report
My friend Mike has written about the weirdness of his garden this year, and asked me about our figs tree in the country. I frankly don’t pay much attention because I have no expectation of every enjoying figs from it, given the voracious wild parrots.
Alas,
the fruit is very small and the leaves are turning brown and dropping off.
¿Cambio climatico? indeed.
Géant — bargain shopping in Uruguay!
In case you hadn‘t guessed from my last post, I‘m being sarcastic. But that horrible restaurant‘s location in Carrasco does provide a key to bargain hunting: it‘s near the airport,* where you can catch a flight to Miami (or ironically cheaper, New York).
Though I don‘t normally talk about ridiculous prices in Uruguay (but yes, occasionally), even after five years I still find myself amazed by things like this (I trust you‘ll recognize the first as Amazon):
This is Géant, the French WalMart in Carrasco. I have pointed out the stupidity of their shopping cart system, then mistakenly praised them a few days ago(for something that was probably there all along, though I hadn‘t noticed it).
Yesterday I parked near the front end of the shopping-cart area, thinking I‘d be helpful and do as they say, taking a cart from the parking lot and returning it.
But no — apparently LIFO is still alive and well at Géant: you have to back a cart out from the other side. This is how people think here; people regularly “back out” carts at the local Tienda Inglesa, disrupting everyone in the store‘s worst checkpoint (on average; restocking employees regularly block aisles), rather than walk four meters further and take one from the front.
The good news: these carts with the chain through them will probably be in great condition ten years from now, having never been used!
* As we left the horrible “Chinese” restaurant, we saw the plane overhead carrying our friend to London, giving whom a ride to the airport was the reason for being there in the first place 😉
Drive UY: those pesky lines
“And no, everybody knows what to do in a rond [sic] about and everybody knows that you must use only one lane.” This comes from a comment on this post. Amongst the numerous examples I will show that the second half of this statement is false, I did go through the airport roundabout on this trip without someone turning right from the left lane. However, inevitably it will happen again and I’ll get it on video 😉
Chinese food in Uruguay! (just kidding)
I think some friends recommended this “Chinese“ restaurant in Carrasco. Well, the friendly purveyor appeared Chinese, and spoke Rioplatense Spanish so fluently that obviously she knew that real Chinese food would hold no appeal for the Uruguayan palate. Unfortunately, that expounded to no taste other than soy sauce, and food that seemed to be leftovers, especially believable considering we were the only diners.
Consider this a “must miss” when in Montevideo. Oh, did I mention ridiculously expensive?
I used to taunt expats in Uruguay: what‘s your favorite Thai restaurant in Montevideo? It was a Schrödinger‘s-cat kind of thing, except that the cat was metaphorically dead. In reality nonexistent. Ditto Chinese.