Feb. 24/25 – Uruguay
Wednesday, March 8th, 2006Day 207/208 – We started off early in the morning to get back to Montevideo before the sun was scorching down on the car, and also to return Orlando’s rental car. The drive went really fast through green fields of grass that rolled along, with a few rock outcroppings appearing here and there. It was what I have been told Ireland might look like, not counting the bushels of trees that would pop up once in awhile. We also drove by a lot off of the side of highway that had about 15-20 ancient cars, which would be considered classics in the States. I love all the old cars down here, and how they keep them running. In Colonia we saw a Model T with wooden wheels, and it looked like it was in working condition!
A big storm blew in during the afternoon and dumped walls of rain on Montevideo. The wind gusted through the streets with such force it caused a few trees, and old trees at that, to be torn from the roots and crash down on the street! I hope no one got hurt, it seemed like no one was around when it happened. Our day was mostly spent working on the computer and watching cartoons (Tom & Jerry was a favorite) and playing soccer, of course. It was a good chance for me to catch up on writing, and for us to relax our sun soaked bodies. That night we watched a movie that Marcela´s boyfriend, Diego, helped produce, called Whiskey, which is the equivelent of saying ‘cheese’ in the States. It won the Prix du Regard Original and Fipresci International Critics award at the 2004 Festival de Cannes. I really enjoyed the film and thought it was a really well shot. It is about the life of an average Uruguayan who owns a sock factory; his brother comes to town to visit a year after their mother had passed away. Since he was still a bachelor and a bit embarrassed about not being married, like his brother was, he hires one of his workers to pose as his wife. For all I could tell there seemed to be some good dry humor and a great story line, though we only caught what we could because it was in Spanish… I am going to re-watch it in a year or two when I can understand Spanish better.
We spent the next day exploring Montevideo. We walked around downtown and the old part of town. We went to lunch at a superb restaurant with the family, Marcela, and Diego. It was an amazing meal, with a champagne type drink that is called ‘medio y medio’ (half and half), half sparkling wine and dry white wine. It was a delicious and refreshing drink on a hot day. Lyndell and Orlando treated us to the lunch – Thank you guys so so much; it was really good!!!! After wandering the streets some more, and looking at Museo Torres Garcia, (a great artist and if I was rich I would have bought a bunch of stuff from the gift shop), we headed back to the apartment and did some more computer work and watched more cartoons and movies.
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