Our Day at the Uruguay Stock Show

I know we have mentioned several times how the locals keep telling us how cold it is and it doesn't strike us that way at all.  We have mentioned how most people are bundled up as though it really were cold.  This is a day when all I was wearing was a long-sleeved shirt and I was perfectly comfortable (actually I would get a little to warm after walking for a bit).

Notice the only green thing in the tree above are the wild parrots since it is winter here and the trees haven’t leafed out, although we have noticed many more are beginning to leaf, or have leaves, since we first arrived three weeks ago.

There are flocks of these wild (and very noisy) parrots in the parks and some trees are filled with their large nests, which look like gigantic mud dauber nests.  You can see the outline of a nest in this not-very-good photo taken against the backlight of the sky to the right of the Parrot silhouettes.

Speaking of trees, they are a little different here as you can tell by looking at the trunk of this tree. Someone told us they say there are more trees in Montevideo than people. So many side streets are lined with them (not like the one above) and they are so tall and look like they will be very full so I can hardly wait to see how it looks in the spring and summer.

There are some very nice parks. This one was near our hotel and it features this little lake (you can rent paddle boats) with this cute little island that has large rabbits living on it.  I almost expect to see Alice showing up anytime!

The park also features some of the kinds of ducks I have seen at the zoo, but could never imagine them actually living in the wild. Meet the origin of the saying "an odd duck"!

Here come the rest of the mutated clan!

No blog from a foreign country can be complete without a picture of a poor restroom facility.  In the restroom of a small restaurant I was reminded of my old days in Spain. In the restroom was what we missionaries referred to as a “bomber”.  However, most places have modern facilities, although in many cases the tank is attached to the wall several feet above the toilet. In our home we have one of that type (tank above the toilet- not the bomber!) and another of the standard type we are accustomed to, so no need to fret when you come to visit us!  I won't mention that the concrete wall on the left serves as the urinal and there is a trough that runs along the bottom of the wall with a drain in it because that would be very crude and crass, which I am not!


Well, let's get moving on to the stock show.  No foreign country blog is complete unless it also has a McDonald's picture, so I snapped this one of a cute senora at a McDonald's.

  No it is not a double exposure, it is just the reflection in the glass of everything behind me!  It was run just like a McDonald's, but a definite upgrade on some of the products.

 

 

 

On the left is our new friend, Suzie Archer, the Australian sheep farmer.  She met us at McDonald's but before heading to the stock show, she had to take us around the corner to introduce us to Selene a local artist who makes jewelry out of silver, copper and bronze.  Suzie is trying to figure out how to help her market her stuff more successfully than on a street corner.

OK, let's get to the stock show!

As luck would have it we managed to arrive at the stock show just in time for the parade of champions so we got to see all the different animal champions of all the different classes.  Above are the two main sheep champions which happen to be Corriedale which is the breed Suzie raises in Australia and is introducing into other Latin American countries.  Sheep population in Uruguay is the largest in Latin America and sheep products such as wool, sheep meat, sheepskins and breeding stock make up the majority of Uruguay's exports.  In fact, Uruguay is the second largest exporter of sheep products in the world.  Not bad for such a small country.  Oddly enough, very little sheep products are used in Uruguay so almost everything produced is exported.  BTW, the first place champion sold for $10,000 dollars, and, oddly, the second place champion sold for $15,000. 

 

The Corriedale sheep is a sheep which not only produces massive quantities of wool, it is also good for eating.  You can see above how thick the wool is on the champion.  As for the quality of meat, we had a Uruguayan Corriedale lamb "chivito" (a hamburger with steak as the meat).  All I can say is yum, yum!

 

This is how far my hand goes in with the fingers fully extended before I make contact with the actual sheep underneath all that wool!

 This is a Uruguayan champion of a dog breed called the Cimarron (Spanish for a domesticated animal that has escaped to the wild and is now a wild or fierce animal).  The Cimarron's forefathers were escapees from Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors which crossbred to develop this breed which survived in the wild.  Descendants were later domesticated and excelled as cattle-herders, big game hunters (especially wild boars), and guard dogs.  They look strong and fierce, like they should be very menacing, but, in fact, are very docile, well tempered, and very intelligent dogs.  No worries at all with children or visitors invited to your home.  They are extremely loyal and should someone menace or attack it's owner(s), it will defend to the death.  Interestingly, in the late 1800s the Cimarron's wild ancestors were killing so many cattle the government tried to exterminate them.  Many of the landowners of the Uruguayan province of Cerro Largo, knowing the breed's qualities as cattle herders and guard dogs began breeding the dogs which preserved the breed.  It was only 20 years ago the Cimarron breed was recognized by the Uruguayan Kennel club. Since then it has also been recognized by the World Canine Organization (2006) which is made up of most of the world's country kennel clubs, except the American Kennel Club, which has not yet recognized the Cimarron breed.

 

Look at the sweet, loving face of the second place champion Cimarron.  There are some Cimarrons who are yellow, but it is this striped pattern that is so striking to Bonnie and me.

 Here is the second place champion striking his pose at the command of his very attractive handler.  Unlike champion sheep prices, champion Cimarron puppies may be purchased for $500 which sounds like a heck of a price if anyone is interested in starting the breed in the USA.  Hmm... We miss Lancelot so much, Bonnie wants to plan on going into this business so we can buy a Cimarron now and enjoy him for the time we are here.  I think she is being totally unfaithful to Sir Lancelot!  As for me, well, here is a picture of a great dog!

 

 TTFN.  Gotta hit the hay so I won't have to sleep as much in church tomorrow!

Good Morning!

Good Morning from South America. It is a beautiful day here, 52 degrees (only 5 degrees cooler than it is in Franktown at the moment!), 58% humidity (Franktown is 70%), and hardly a breeze. (4 mph Vs 0 mph in Franktown).

Looking from our front terrace you can see the Atlantic Ocean should be renamed to the Atlantic Very-Mild-Lake-With-Wimpy-Lapping-Waves Ocean. Shoot- I guess that means no surfing for today!

Uruguay won their soccer game against Colombia last night so everyone seems to be especially happy today. I haven’t figured out all the details, but, simplistically, there is a World Cup Soccer Championship every four years to which different continents send their qualifying teams. The top four South American teams go, while the 5th place team plays the North and Central America 4th place team for a “wildcard” spot. There are only two games left (next month) and Uruguay is in the 6th spot, one point behind 5th (Ecuador)and two points behind 4th (Argentina) so Uruguay needs to win their last two games and get some help from Argentina and Ecuador (they need to lose badly!) in order to make it to qualify for the tournament next year.

It’s a bummer when I see kids like these little guys who could dance around me with a soccer ball and I wouldn’t stand a chance. At least it keeps them in shape. I haven’s seen a fat kid yet.

That's it for now.  Gotta get goin'!

Our New Home

This is the view out of the front door of our building.  The road and sidewalk in the distance are the "Rambla" we have mentioned which hugs the coast line around the city.  Needless to say it's only a "hop, skip, and a jump" to the beach!  The guy in the orange vest makes his living watching over the cars on this block.  They are licensed for a specific block and no one else can work that block.  They are dependent on people to give them tips.  On busy streets they are very useful because they will stop traffic to let you pull out (or park).  As you can see the cars are parked very close to one another.  This guy also helps you park, although our real estate agent told us she has had them motion her to keep backing up as if there was lots of room and suddenly BAM!  I guess the more cars you can get parked on your block the more tips you get.

This is the view from the dining room looking over Bonnie's shoulder (she's out on a small terrace) at the plaza/park in front of our building.  Traffic on our small one-block-long street is almost nonexistent which keeps the noise down even though we are sandwiched between two very busy streets (which gives us great bus access).

We also have a small terrace off the master bedroom, but not quite the same view!  At least there's a palm tree!

Below is the narrow, yellow kitchen Bonnie has referred to.  You can't see them because they are behind me in this photo, but we do have a small stackable washer and dryer which along with the central heating makes this better than most of the apartments we looked at.  However, Bonnie did comment it was ironic that Tawnya had expressed her relief at no longer having the washer and dryer in her kitchen- and now here we are with the same set-up.  At least when you are not looking at the washer and dryer you have a nice view of the plaza.  If you look us up on Google Earth (Plaza Tomas Gomensoro, Montevideo, Uruguay) practically the only thing you can see of the plaza is trees, so it will be even prettier when spring time gets here and everything begins to leaf and flower out.

I think it is funny that after the landlady showed Bonnie how to use our all-gas stove and range Bonnie keeps looking at it now as though it were a bomb about to go off! 

No dishwasher- so after all the dishes our kids have washed in their lives, they will be happy to know they are really missed several times a day!  We may be washing dishes, but we are really going to splurge and have a housekeeper come in once a week to clean house and iron.  I've always wanted to get Bonnie a housekeeper- but to get one that does ironing is better than I had ever imagined! 

There is a "portero" (sort of like a guard/doorman on duty 24 hours a day, so no one gets into the building without his say-so.  Porteros were the bane of my missionary experience- and now I love having one!  However, in retrospect, I am a little incredulous that, as missionaries, we were able to get past the porteros so many times to knock on doors.  I sure wouldn't be able to do it today without some divine intervention!

After all our traveling and hit and miss with the internet, we are finally back online.  I spent most of the day yesterday trying to figure out how to get internet access and worrying about how long it would take to get installed.  Everything is on a minimu one year contract basis, and, of course, we leave in less than 10 months.

When I checked the wireless networks we were able to pick up on our computers every single one was locked and most were too weak.  Our portero put us in contact with the neighbor above us who has a wireless network and she has agreed to let us on and we will pay half the monthly bill.  No installation, no waiting, no contract, no immense monthly bill- the blessings keep pouring out over us!

All Our Contact Information

We have moved into our apartment as of Monday evening. We only had six suitcases but we still don’t have everything put away. We need Tawnya and Kyle here to help us. I’ve never seen anyone get unpacked as fast as they did. The biggest problem we have is where to put the six suitcases! There is no place. Our apartment came furnished but it came furnished with too much stuff!


Our mailing address is:

Dan & Bonnie Wetherbee
Luis C. Bollo 2925 Apt 102
11300 Montevideo, Uruguay

Our Uruguayan land line phone number is: 011 598 2 710 9495.

May as well publish the rest of our access information here for future use (you know, in case anyone wants to get a hold of us).

United States (Denver) phone numbers which we can answer from our computers are:

Dan      720.310.2052
Bonnie 720.310.2053

If we are not near our computer when you call it will roll over to voice mail and it will send us an email telling us we have a voice mail message.

Our Uruguayan cell phones are:

Dan     011 598 09 716 0250
Bonnie 011 598 09 716 0234

If you have Skype downloaded on your computer our Skype names are:

danwetherbee
bonniewetherbee

After we got internet access yesterday we were calling Tawnya and trying to work out the kinks. Later James called me back all on his own. I’m sure it was a concerted effort on his part to communicate with grandpa, not an accident as Tawnya claims!

Today was a great day. I have tried to start running again and so this morning I took off and ran several miles along the coast and Bonnie discovered at work that since the seasons are reversed here (height of summer is in January) we will be here for their summer break which means she has from December 23 until February 1 completely off!

It is winter weather here and as we have previously commented everyone is bundled up like we were back in Denver in the middle of winter. However the temperatures have only been in the 50s with a few times in the 40s. I did feel a little foolish this morning about going swimming at the beach since I was the only one in the water and the few people walking or running on the beach were all bundled up. I just tell everyone I’m from Canada!

Regrettably our new internet access has been off line all day today so we are sitting in a cyber cafe just a block from home trying to get caught up on our emails.

Gotta go. TTFN