Boarder Jumping to Uruguay

For those of you who don’t know, I am an illegal immigrant. Phew, that feels good to say out loud! I don’t pay taxes which essentially means I have no rights; then again, I’m pretty sure I’m well below the poverty line by US standards, so does it really matter? Hey Obama, can a girl get some bailout money??! Joking aside, I recently passed 90 days here, which meant I needed a visa run to Uruguay to renew my tourist visa.

I picked up the ferry at 7:45 am on a cold and rainy fall day in Puerto Madero. An hour-long ferry ride and 3-hour bus ride later, I was in Montevideo. While I haven’t done much solo traveling, I quite enjoyed it. I won’t get too existential with you, but it’s definitely good to be alone every so often. It gave me ample “me” time, something that I’m sure I’ll have less and less of as I get older.

Right off the bat, I noticed I was actually able to understand Uruguayans; their accent is similar to Argentina, but they speak slower and pronounce their words clearly. What a novel concept!! For the first time in three months, I felt like all the tuition money spent on Spanish classes wasn’t a waste.

The second most visible difference from BA, was the Maté. I’ve discussed Maté before so here’s the short version of what it is; (Yerba) Maté is a type of loose tea that is poured into a round cup, which is typically made of wood. You then add hot water; just make sure the water hasn’t boiled or you’ll ruin the Maté. You drink it out of a straw with a filter so as to not suck up the leaves. It’s common to see people sharing Maté in a circle, as it’s more of a custom between friends and family.

Uruguayans are absolutely crazy about this stuff! They carry around their thermos full of hot water with their Maté cups, and go to town (literally). To me it seemed somewhat awkward to have your hands full when at the grocery store, mall, or street fair. Then again, I may be biased bc I’m not a huge fan of the stuff unless it’s loaded down with sugar.

Moving on. Montevideo is home to approximately 1.3 million people; you would think that they would make some sort of fuss about nothing being open on Saturdays or Sundays. I’ve gotten used to most places being closed on Sundays in BA; just make sure you get your necessary shopping out of the way during the week and it’s not a problem. Uruguay was another story completely; even national museums were closed.

So, what was a single gal supposed to do in this situation??? Eh, give this girl a map, and she’ll figure out something fun to get into! Then I found it…. a CASINO!!!! I had Vegas flashbacks of all-you-can-drink-while-losing-money and booked it towards the promise land. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I put my 50 peso note into the machine and ended up winning 15 pesos or the equivalent to 79 cents… And the cocktail servers were passing out coffee, not booze (what??!). Even the Tropicana would put this place to shame.

Leaving the casino, cash winnings in hand, I grabbed a cab and told the driver I wanted to spend money. I don’t care where you’re from in the world; women and shopping malls are mutually exclusive and fabulous. I typically don’t have time or patience to shop in BA, thus I went a little crazy. It’s always fun using your credit card in other countries, especially when you don’t know the exchange rate. So, with each purchase it was like playing “credit card, Russian roulette.” I still haven’t looked at what I spent and probably won’t until next month…

There are times I wish BA could just stop everything; the noise, the bustling, the madness. Yet, I was surprised at how much I missed the city the second I was back on Argentine soil. Weekends away are wonderful but coming home is even better!