Some pictures around where we are staying. I cannot deny it’s boring but the work is important. I’m hoping we will be energy independent for a few years ahead. So here we are, mostly cold and damp.
They love to grill (asado) in Uruguay just like in Argentina. We use our Skotti grill.
Gas grilling is frowned upon in countries where they require wood to cook meat. I like our gas burner.
A local customer with a Peugeot Boxer, a common diesel variant of our Promaster, both based on the Fiat Ducato.
Nueva Helvecia the big town nearby, cheese capital of Uruguay. New Switzerland:
Look at that smooth black top…Uruguay has quality main highways. The back roads and city streets tend to be crappy but 60 mph is easy on the main roads.
I don’t know how they do it but most of the dirt streets we’ve driven have been very good quality. Uruguay is known as the least corrupt most orderly country in Latin America. And the most expensive.
Fall is here. Housing stock looks like good quality bungalows but people drive a lot of older cars. We see broken down cars a lot more here than you’d expect in a functioning nation. I get the feeling locals feel the high cost of living more than they might admit.
Montevideo is the main landing port for Europeans shipping their cars to South America. They don’t hang around here much and I think that’s because Uruguay is too much like where they came from. They land on this new continent looking for adventure and mountains and folklore and llamas and all that stuff. Instead they find Iowa, so they head west towards Bolivia and Peru.
If you’re looking for a peaceful secure country with easy tax laws to settle in, Uruguay would be a good choice. It’s not cheap here but for us it’s a nice break from the organized chaos in other countries.
Chile is still my favorite country its spectacularly varied scenery and social cohesion similar to Uruguay’s. Our plan is to fully test our new systems once they are installed by driving around the country and checking it out fully. I’m curious to see what we find. Eventually we’ll be on the road.
