hola chicos!
i am in Uruguay. and, despite the fact that Uruguay is not New Zealand, *sad face*, life is still managing to be pretty damn good.
i was in the capital city of Montevideo for ten days to study spanish, staying at a fantastic hostel in the city centre called El Viajero (my recommendations). and apart from my four hours of lessons each day, i barely needed to leave the hostel. the people there, staff and viajeros (travellers) alike, are some of the most friendly and welcoming i have ever met. i instantly felt comfortable and at home (horrifying all the uruguayos by walking around barefoot!). we all passed the evenings together in the hostel courtyard chatting, drinking mate, making asado (uruguayan barbeque), and smoking legalised dope until the early hours of the mornings. i got them all rolling with dried eucalyptus leaves, told them it was an Australian thing!
after three months in New Zealand of not meeting a single australian, i met a gorgeous chica called Emma on my very first day, who went to high school in the same suburb of Sydney as me. we had a ball hanging out together; it was fantastic to have someone from home with whom i could relate to, making my first few days in a new country much more relaxed and full of laughter. i made friends with a super lovely uruguayan called Jeronimo who worked at the hostel. He took Emma and i to the gorgeous old town of La Colonia Del Sacramento, and has been so kind in showing me the sights around Montevideo.
For the most part, Montevideo is a big, colourless, noisy city covered in car exhaust. Layers upon layers of grey cement in varying shades and textures; chipped and crumbling here and there, dotted with graffiti and opportunistic flora that clings to the cracks in the walls. I’m quite liking these grey landscapes at the moment, from the beaches back in NZ, to this city, and the ceaseless gloomy and drizzling skies that seem to be following me everywhere i go.
every sunday is the enormous Tristan Nervaja markets. hundreds of market stalls sprawl across the residential backstreets, with everything from fruit and vegetables to antiques, power adaptors, handmade jewellery, fishing nets, and “tortas fritas”. apart from the pets for sale, that are trapped in cages so small it makes me sick to the heart, i’ve enjoyed endless hours wandering the markets.
one of my favourite things here is the Candombe, which is a typical kind of Uruguayan drum rhythm, with origins going back to the african slaves. each neighbourhood has its own candombe group, and, one evening a week, drummers and locals gather together in a big crowd and parade through the streets of the neighbourhood, dancing to the rhythm.
i am loving my spanish classes. half of the time we just chat in spanish and it’s immensely exciting and gratifying to be speaking a new language. i’ve impressed myself with how rapidly i am learning. i have never studied spanish before, but i must have subconsciously processed something growing up listening to my dad speak spanish to his family, and it’s finally beginning to surface from the back of my brain. i cant tell you what it feels like to be able to make friends now and converse with someone who doesn’t speak english. as my dad was born in uruguay i am also attempting to get a uruguayan passport, which will enable me to travel south america visa free. my one family friend here, Franco, has been invaluable in helping me settle in and get started on all the complicated processes towards obtaining citizenship.
i’ve just spent the last week workawaying on a farm in Minas, two hours from Montevideo, i shall tell you all about it soon!
lots of love xx
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