Fracking in Uruguay

country house, Uruguay

All of the trees are disappearing from across the road from our ‘little piece of paradise.’

A neighbor tells me a lawyer in Montevideo owns 35 hectares (86.486884 acres, but you knew that) he is turning into a fraccionamiento (sub division) of 3.5 hectare lots. That seems like a pretty clever idea. Many newcomers here would love to have 8.5 acres with easy access to beach, town, etc.

I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other. Yet.

Ya veremos. We’ll see.

Meanwhile footings have been added, floors torn up, walls getting repaired, and a concrete beam (visible) cast to stabilize an old and bouncy flat roof.

SDQ

Since my early days, I’ve embraced the challenge of leaving a country with the least possible amount of the local currency – unless I plan on returning soon. Not the case in the Dominican Republic. I left a tip for the housekeeper, bought us lunch at Quizno’s in the airport, bought a bottle of water for $2 (80 pesos), leaving me with exactly four pesos (USD .10), which I left on the janitor’s wagon in the men’s room.

Ciao DR!

But one last puzzle…
Tightly parked planes in hangar, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
…what the hell is this, an airplane rookery?

PTY

View of Panama City, Panama
Because we’re in and out of Panamá twice in three days, we stay closer to the airport, leaving the recently-grown stalagmites of Panama City comfortably distant. And 150 pounds of luggage parked at the airport.

For the first time in a while, we fly cattle class for this two hour flight – ‘free’ with frequent flier miles and a couple hundred ‘Federal‘ ‘Reserve‘ notes. But check it out – everyone has a personal screen, with a selection of movies (12? 16?) available to start, pause, fast forward and replay at will. Really, it hasn’t been that long since ‘we’re showing the movie now’ – ?

Amazing, really.

But is anyone happy?

JFK

Sitting in the Business Class Oasis Lounge at JFK Terminal 4 – great little spread of food and beverages, after dropping our rental car and taking the wonderfully efficient free AirTrain elevated shuttle. Then on to security which was delightfully un-obnoxious. No cancer radiation scanners. One person patted down; the agent explained to her very carefully what she needed to do, and they shared a laugh as it was in progress.

Being a little bit of a plane buff, I was awestruck with the sight of this Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-800. Watched another of these double-decker jumbos from Korean Air lumbering down the runway towards rotation (takeoff).

Wow.

Connecticut: comfort

For the wedding, we stay in the house of a friend of my sister. Lush, monogrammed towels, a couple of large-screen TVs, tennis court and swimming pool. Though no expert, I find no difficulty imagining the property selling for $4-5 million.

Open garage full of bikes, tools, kayak. House full of amazing artwork collected from around the world. Security briefing: just walk in, the door is open.

Of course we were welcome to do laundry. The laundry room also houses the guts of the heating system.

heating system, expensive Connecticut house

With a total of 14 heating zones in the house, safe to say you’ll be comfortable. As long as you can afford heating oil.

So if comfort were all that mattered….

New York City: convenience

	Uruguay	Manhattan
Great meal	30 minute drive to Solís, open weekends only 9 months of the year	Greek restaurant a few doors down as good or better than best we know in UY

Buy new blazer	30-60 minute drive one way to Montevideo. Unimpressive quality, limited choices, $200+	7 minute walk to Macy’s. Third floor, nice quality, $225 marked down, then additional sale price, total $137 (but overnight tailoring $40)

Ship via Fedex	One-hour drive to Montevideo or Punta del Este (the latter ridiculous in the summer because of traffic)	Two minute walk to FedEx

Basic office supplies	Manila file folders, hanging folders not sold in Uruguay	Two minute walk to Staples

Consumable coconut oil*	Unavailable	5-minute walk to Vitamin shoppe. (What brand/size do you want?)

*Food grade coconut oil became available in Uruguay within a year or so

A surprisingly pleasant experience, coming from a place where ‘getting things done’ is a sort-of kind of proposition.

So, if convenience were all that mattered….

Shots from the Highline

Alongside New York’s Highline park, a friendly neighbor – painted on the window.

Very cool building treatment by Yayoi Kusama, currently exhibiting at the Whitney.

New York’s incredibly awesome Highline

Some creative citizens spearheaded resistance to destruction of the ‘visual blight’ elevated railway built to eliminate rail traffic from the meatpacking district of lower Manhattan that produced so many accidents as street level that it was called Death Avenue in the early 20th century. By the 1960s it was abandoned, and over the next decades plants grew and soil developed.

Now it has become a totally impressive, totally awesome ‘back yard’ for NYC residents, almost a Frederick Law Olmstead (creator of central Park, the ‘lungs’ of NYC) redux.

Here’s a treat, view of a Frank Gehry condo building from the Highline. Even more impressive, we’re told, illuminated at night time.

We’re not in Uruguay anymore

The Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Uruguay

Yes, there is one. It sits high stop a hill (400 meters altitude; highest point in Uruguay is 500-something) on 600 hectares (almost 1,500 acres) of beautiful barren hills. Inspired by a vision of a visiting lama, started a dozen years ago, it sits basically in the middle of nowhere.

We went in a minivan with a local tour company, at the suggestion of friends with whom we did a bus trip to northern Argentina a couple years ago.

Interesting way to spend a day. Not something I’d be in a hurry to do again, nor necessarily recommend as a must-do. But different – which alone gives it points in a country that is, for the most part, anything but exotic.