Category: Uruguay

:)

Maybe they didn’t forget about installing wiring before plastering.

Maybe they weren’t imitating their great-grandfather, who built his house before the grid reached it, and had to chip out part of the wall to make a run for conduit.

Maybe they just wanted their house to have a big smiley face. Makes as much sense as anything with this crazy built-and-rebuilt no-apparent-design project.

Hot hot hot

Yes, they actually sell a container for freezing lemon wedges. Perfect for my first harvest of hot chili peppers, segregated pending an expert opinion regarding the heat of each. One “wedge” of yellow is probably about right for one batch of salsa méxicana, but red and green/black? Ya veremos.

How they roll

It’s 6 PM on Sunday, January 1st. Normally I would cross the Ruta Interbalnearia. However, it’s time for everyone-at-the-same-time to leave the beach (other side) and return to Montevideo (to the right). I didn’t manage to catch the traffic, but there are lots of cars, also heading to Montevideo, coming from further east.

In this photo there are nine cars in the crossing, one more waiting on the far side of the far lane, and one more on this side, also waiting to turn right.

It was very tempting to wait and watch them all sort out this clusterfuck, but I wasn’t feeling patient.

Quite the flight path

On the dog walk, a small twin engine jet went over quite low, headed northeast, which would mean maybe Porto Alegre as its destination. I thought I might look at FlightRadar24 when I got back, but forgot all about it until the same plane flew overhead, equally low, heading southeast out over the water.

But it’s a Brazilian Air Force plane, so I’m sure everything is completely normal.

No no no no no.

Just as I was heading upstairs to wash up, a faint clapping (the way of summoning attention here) and saw a long-haired 10-11 year old boy with his bicycle in our driveway. This is unusual.

He was selling raffle tickets for Colegio Pinares (a few blocks from here) and he had a nice jacket with the emblem of the school, so I gave him 50 pesos (~USD 1.25) for one. He awkwardly wrote the ticket number with his pencil – his fifth customer, I noted – then squatted to try to write on the concrete in the driveway, finally retreating to the bicycle seat as backing where he managed to complete his data collection – my first name and telephone number.

Only back inside did I look at what I had bought a raffle ticket for: a basket of candies.

For once I am grateful that I never win these things.