Julia In Montevideo

 We first met Julia in Chile where she was traveling with her husband Konstantin in a Sprinter van from Seattle.

We chased penguins with them in Argentina and crossed Andean mountain passes together. 

They went home and Konstantin got his dream job working as an RV mechanic but Julia wanted to travel so they split and she’s in Uruguay with temporary residence, checking the country out. So we met for lunch. 

She traveled with two cats who hated each other (!) and she now lives with one while the other is happy in Seattle. But she understands Rusty’s needs and she got us a restaurant where he was welcome.

He wasn’t alone. Uruguayans love their dogs and this is not a country littered with strays. 

We had fish for lunch, cod which I love, as does Julia which was a great score for us. 

Layne had paella which wasn’t as good, overcooked seafood and no crusty rice on the bottom. A bit so-so. 

We talked about our plans to circle Patagonia one more time with the expectation we’d come back next year to check up on her. She’s renting an  apartment in a nice neighborhood, one bedroom unfurnished for $750 a month but she has to buy her own water heater for the shower, and her own fridge. The internet provider took four visits to get her hooked up with the building’s electrical system…so we all agreed we miss the customer service ethic in the States. 

We had a strangely grainy flan for dessert with delicious smooth dulce de leche caramel sauce. Rusty wanted a walk and the women wanted to talk.

It turns out Julia wanted a hand checking out water heaters at SODIMAC the hardware chain found in Chile and Argentina as well as Uruguay. What does this place remind you of?

Randomly some items are marked in dollars not pesos. The exchange rate has been fixed at 40 to one for years so why appliances are sold in dollars baffles me. 

However I have never seen wine for sale at Home  Depot:

I opted out at some point and found a chair in the camping section so I retired to the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Lady Blakeney has figured out her husband’s secret identity and is hot footing it to France to warn him of danger.

I took the selfie after I got the WhatsApp text recalling me to duty. 

Then I joined Rusty for a nap aboard GANNET2 in the parking lot as the bankers went off to shop at the Fresh Market supermarket in the mall. To her credit Layne scored a large bottle of sriracha which I had tried to bring from Florida but which TSA said had to be ditched. 

Layne and Julia made plans to have an Indian lunch and tour the Japanese garden together giving Rusty and I some time alone  which you know we need. 

Montevideo waterfront. 

Julia took an Uber home and we went down the coast to a wild camp on Solymar beach we had visited previously  

It’s listed on iOverlander and it was simple to get there but I was too cavalier and drive interesting my pants and overshot. Team Lost in action of course. 

There were a few cars there before sunset. A recycled vegetable oil diesel powered camper pickup truck:

And a desperately cute Labrador with his maté sipping owners:

Rusty wasn’t interested in a beach walk as it was dinner time. I am his servant of course and Layne too. I stretched my phone camera’s telephoto to capture some island on the River Plate. 

They reminded me of Mississippi’s Gulf Islands that I visited by sailboat decades ago. 

And we were surprised to get some extraordinarily good news from Adrián. Our cabin heater has been serviced and cleaned and is working perfectly. It will be in his shop ready to install by Wednesday. We are delighted and plan to be back on Wednesday. Thus next week we may be in Paraguay getting our cooling system replaced as the parts have long since arrived at the mechanic’s shop and they are waiting for us. 

We are hoping to have a stretch of time with no mechanical interventions as GANNET2 seems to be healthy despite 135,000 very hard miles. We are also very happy with our electrical system with big solar panels and the engine charging systems keeping us in power. The shore power system has been trouble free so far and we can at last plug in and forget it at a campground. We’re looking forward to an austral summer of exploration  maybe including at last Bolivia. Measles some pictures from Uruguay: 

This gas station attendant got in conversation with me when I said how expensive Uruguay is. He said he was okay with it, he has a car, a home, internet access ( he has a second job online) and life is pretty good. I thought that was a hell of an endorsement. 

Citroen Jumpers being delivered. They are one of the diesel variants on which the Promaster is based. 

Sunday Lunch

We awoke Sunday morning to a brisk 50 degrees and bright spring sunshine at our campsite on the bluffs.

We spent an hour zig zagging across country to our  lunch date at a  winery we visited on our last trip in Uruguay. Layne had discovered they were having a lamb luncheon on Sunday afternoon so off we went… .

As we drove they were getting lunch grilled…

The route Google Maps picked zigged and zagged across country from Kiyú to Progresso where the winery is located, an hour’s drive which we did in 80 minutes. From the red dot to the blue, you pick the route…

Narrow back roads all the way.

Grape country. 

We knew we were getting close when the back roads became dirt. Oh well.

Lunch was at 12:30 and there were a few of us. But first a tour of the winery by Omar the owner. 

Omar:

This is the fourth generation of a Northern Italian family that emigrated here.

The winery opened in 1954 and made massive amounts of wine, 750,000 bottles but Omar wanted to reduce production to make better quality wines.

Lunch was lamb. Empanadas to start. 

With a peach and Chardonnay spritzer. 

And grilled lamb sausage with root vegetables. 

Tannat is the national wine of Uruguay, full bodied and not too dry and tannic I enjoyed the bottomless glass. 

Layne fearlessly broke the ice rounding up leftovers for Rusty whom we had left aboard GANNET2. 

He was kind of pissed off as he had been enjoying the grounds. 

I figured he needed to be penned in while we ate as the dining room was open to the fresh air and it didn’t seem appropriate to have him wander in.

Deserves flan and the conversation turned to what we liked about Uruguay. One guy spoke up saying Uruguay is different as the country supports social advancement. He said in Uruguay a young kid from the countryside can if s/he has the inclination, get free education through university with government support including board and  lodging and this change social status. Thats not easy or encouraged in other South American countries. Then he described the completely free health care and no one at the middle class table demurred.

Our lunch with two bottles of wine to go and a chunk of cooked lamb for the fridge came to about one hundred bucks. Thats a very reasonable price in this expensive country. 

We needed a nap after all that. Rusty kept watch. 

Inevitably all that napping got Rusty exhausted and he asked to go to bed early where he had dinner…kibbles and lamb. 

And so to bed.

Tomorrow Montevideo and another lunch and friendship.