Montevideo

The Sociedad Zoologica del Uruguay hosted a meeting at the Universidad de la Republica from Thursday to Saturday and we returned to Monetivdeo for this event. I went to one day of talks but knowing that I couldn’t communicate much with anyone, owning to my lack of Spanish skills, I didn’t hang around much. Instead I worked on my manuscript, went to the neighborhood feria with Griselda (Mati’s mom), walked at the beach, etc.

The ferias are pretty cool here. There are many different types of ferias but all are open air markets set up in the street or in a park. Some last for weeks at a time (such as the artisan feria I mention later) but others are open for only one day. The latter is usually the case of the neighborhood ferias that mainly sell fruits, vegetables, cheese, meats, cleaning supplies and little bit of anything else you might think of. Each neighborhood has a feria of its own but the cool thing is that if you miss the one for your neighborhood you can visit the feria of a nearby neighborhood later in the week. There is only one day, Monday, that there are no neighborhood ferias. Each of these neighborhood ferias is open for one day. Each vendor pulls up by whatever mean they have (very old VW vans are common), opens shop, and then closes down at the end of the day. I assume that each vendor works a series of different ferias on sort of a rotation. In any case, I like these and wish there was something like it in the states. The closest thing we have is a farmers’ market and as you know these don’t travel to your neighborhood, you travel to them and they are usally open one day per week. So if you don’t have transportation or you are busy on that day, forget about it. Here anyone can go to a feria any day of the week (except Monday or course) and buy their food and other goods from local folks and enjoy the walk, too.

Saturday was the birthday party of Mati’s niece (Paulina, 2) and nephew (Mateo, 4) at La Casa de Kien, a place made entirely for children’s birthday parties (Kristen you would like this place!). The kids played in an indoor play area, dressed up in costumes, batted at a piñata, opened gifts, and danced all afternoon. All of this was as orchestrated by two folks whose job it was to entertain the kids so the adults could hang out themselves. What an idea! Do these places exist in the US?

After this, Mati showed me around the Cuidad Viejo. We visited the Mercado de Puerto, a famous old building that was renovated into numerous restaurants under the same roof that target tourists. After witnessing the Brazilian drummers and dancer and many intoxicated people, we strolled along the streets, enjoyed café and happened upon the Uruguayan Navy Band giving a performance in the Plaza Zabado. We walked through the Plaza Independencia, where a huge statue of General Artigas celebrates Uruguay’s liberation from the quarreling countries of Brazil and Argentina. Eventually, after much waiting at a bus stop and a little more walking, we ended up at the Feria de Ideas, a month long outdoor arts, books and music fair. It was a little pricey (by Uruguayn standards) but worth the unique items found. Maybe one will end up in your hands when I return;)

To round out the night, I enjoyed fireworks as part of the Festival de Las Luces held every December. Think of it as the 4^th of July in December. No Uruguayans aren’t celebrating their date of independence per se however it is summer and there were fireworks.