Lunes

Buenos noches mi amigos...

First, we´ll start with a few items I´ve forgotten to post:

When we arrived at the Montevideo airport and were passing through customs, guess who was there greeting all the arrivals? Cruz Roja Uruguay! Two gals in their RC vests were handing out pamphlets about swine flu and what to do if you came down with a fever, etc. I quickly whipped out my Red Cross business card and showed it to them. You should have seen their faces light up! Unfortunately, there were people behind us and we had to move quickly, so after a very brief introduction, we had to move on. It was really fun to see their presence so quickly.

Next, here are all the modes of transportation you may utilize on the roads here:

walking
running
bicycling
bicycle pulling really gigantic mound of stuff and multiple people
a three wheeled car-bike hybrid
motorbiking
horse and cart
car
car pulling smoking car
bus

It wouldn´t be out of the question for all of these options to be speeding down the highway at the same time. There will also be dogs running at breakneck speed down the side of the road/sidewalk and they will dart in and out of the traffic occasionally - as do bikers and people - and none ever seems to get hurt. It makes for high-blood pressure driving if you aren´t used to it, but it certainly seems to work out for everyone here.

Last night we met Carlos and his friend, Andrea, and went to dinner at a small, quaint, family owned bar-b-que restaurant tucked into a little neighborhood off the beach area. We would never have found it without them and we wouldn´t have had a chance navigating the menu without Carlos either. Steve had steak and I had an egglant/mushroom/cheese dish that was fabulous. We enjoyed an excellent bottle of tannat wine and the special apple pancake dessert and then, before we knew it, Carlos ordered lemoncella liquor treats for all. Dinner began at 10:00 p.m. and we went till 12:30 a.m. It was delicious!

This morning Carlos met us at our hotel and we went to Sauce to see the vineyard that we traveled all this way for. The drive there was interesting as my two navigators worked off approximately five maps and had many discussions with each other. We only stopped for directions once; again - thanks to Carlos as we were definitely not where English was spoken!!

We made it to Sauce and for some amazing reason, the two men we were meeting pulled up behind us.. we have no idea how they knew it was us. I had to use the banos, so one of the men personally escorted me to the farmacia on the corner, had a brief conversation and handshake with the owner about the only blonde senorita in town, and suddenly I was being escorted to their employee potty. I had a recollection of when I was at Hurricane Katrina and the National Guard guys escorted me to a bathroom and then waited outside the door for me!

We followed the men to the vineyard - we were definitely out in the boonies! The vineyard looked just as rough as in the photos on the internet, but the longer we walked through it the more it grew on us. We bought it on the spot!!


ha! gotcha! Just kidding. We´re totally laughing now imagining your reactions. :)

Anyway, we did spend a fair amount of time there and Steve took pictures, checked out the soil and talked about what he would do with the vineyard. I checked out the building on the property and other than having a tree inside of it and no roof, it was very quaint. Not too long ago, cows were using it as a bano. Steve came up with a winery name: Bodega de Cow Bano

Gotta have a sense of humor! Following our visit to the vineyard, we went to Las Piedras and then to Bouza. Our dinner just arrived, so those adventures will be in another post.

Having a great time!