On our way from Santiago, Chile to Montevideo, Uruguay we had to fly over the Andes Mountains and the girls had a window seat to capture the view.
In Montevideo we met up with another WVYA and his family. It was a little different this time as he was from the year before Julia so this was the first time they had actually met in person. However, one of the few pluses from our trip being delayed by COVID was the reconnection of YAs from all years over Zoom so we had connected on some Zoom meetings a few times prior to coming.
Montevideo itself is a pretty modern city, very clean and has a lot more beaches than we realized. I’m pretty sure if we had been here during their summer, the beaches would have been much fuller!
Our new found friends were so gracious and generous in letting us stay at their house, eat their food, and integrate with their lives for a week. A few days before we were to arrive, they messaged us to say that their church was doing a games night the night we arrived and asked if we wanted to go. That definitely put a smile on our girls faces and we enthusiastically accepted. Their smiles grew even larger when we arrived and they recognized quite a few of the games, including Dutch Blitz! They had no problem jumping in.
We also attended their church with them on Sunday. It is an international church and most Sunday services are in English but of course, this Sunday, it was going to be Spanish! Thankfully, since they have lots of different nationalities attending, they had translation through headsets.
The girls had a delightful time with the girls from the other family. They had many things in common: playing instruments, playing games, and doing crafts. They also attended a bilingual school and our girls got invited to attend their English class for a few hours one day. I think they got quite a few questions about what school was like in Canada.
Their oldest two girls sang in a youth choir which was asked to participate in the national opera (as some of the towns people) and they invited us along to see the opera. Later in the week they also took us to see the ballet!
They also introduced us to some wonderful food, both in their home and out in restaurants and food stands. Our hosts are actually Brazilian and introduced us to a bean and pork dish that is common in Brazil. We soon learned that a very common snack before bed was tapioca flour that they cook as a kind of pancake/tortilla and then add cheese and ham and roll it up. The tapioca needs no binding fluid and goes in dry and then sticks to itself as it cooks.
And oh my did we ever get introduced to so many delightful sweets, almost too many to list!. It started with a walk to an ice cream shop with introduction to various versions of dulce de leche ice cream which was a big hit. It expanded to tortas fritas (with dulce de leche) and churros (filled with dulce de leche) and alfajores (two cookies with dulce de leche in the middle). See a theme here? On their recommendation we also got a Te Completos Para Dos which is tea time for “two” and feeds way more than just two. And that wasn’t even all of it!
In between all the fun, culture, and food we did also have a chance to explore Montevideo a bit. We got into the downtown core and after a bit of a struggle with the hours, we went up the city center tower for an overview of the city. We then walked the main street downtown past a few plazas and then to a pedestrian only shopping area.
A blog post about Uruguay wouldn’t be complete without at least a mention of yerbi mate. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that almost half of the people in Uruguay drink mate and take it with them everywhere! They have this special cup and straw with a filter on the bottom of the straw. They fill the cup with a special herb that is kind of like chamomile on steroids. It is about 10 times stronger and slightly caffeinated. To me it tasted like a cross between chamomile and coffee. Most of my family was okay with it, but I enjoyed it. Uruguayans fill their cup with the herb and then carry a thermos with them with hot water and keep topping the cup up through out the day. You often see them with a carrying case with both the mate cup and the thermos in it, or they hug their thermos and walk with their cup in hand. They have it at the parks, walking on the side walks, sitting at the beach, riding the bus, even church. That being said, it was interesting as an outsider to see how social it was. You would see people just sitting in the parks on the grass or on rocks talking and drinking mate. They sang a fun little song at the church in Sunday called “Modo Vida” about putting your phone in “Life Mode” (vs airplane mode). In other words, put the phone down and just talk. I think the Uruguayans are much better at this than North Americans and the mate is the grease that keeps the social wheel spinning.
Julia’s foot continues to improve with the worst bruising remaining being on her toes. Compared to her other foot, her range of motion is still limited and she can’t point the injured foot like her other foot, but she has permission from her personal physical therapist to move from simple stretches into some strengthening exercises (thanks dad!).
We had an amazing time in Montevideo and felt spoiled by our hosts. Our only regret is that we couldn’t spread out our visit between Chile and Uruguay. We go from two weeks of spending time with wonderful people who have children the same age as ours to being on our own for a while.
When asked what their favourite part was, Annika replied “meeting new friends”. There are many amazing places and things to see in the world, but sometimes it is the people you meet that really make it memorable.