Poor little Uruguay is scrunched in between the two big, badass countries of Argentina and Brazil, whose residents use Uruguay as their own private playground. We only passed through Uruguay because it was in the way of getting to Buenos Aires, but we did spend one night couchsurfing with a super friendly family in Montevideo and another night in the quaint coastal town of Colonia. Overall, we found Uruguay to be very clean, organized, efficient, and … well, a little dull. Maybe we didn’t give it quite enough time.
The most fascinating thing about Uruguay is their obsession with mate - a green tea-like drink made by pouring hot water over dried holly leaves in a gourd and drunk through a special metal straw filter (the bombilla). The Uruguayan is not complete unless he has a thermos of hot water cradled in his arm and a gourd full of mate in his hand. The extreme mate drinker might even sport a leather satchel to help them carry their mate kit wherever they go.
Chris demonstrating the typical Uruguayan look. Even on romantic walks through the park, the Uruguayan will have their date on one arm and their mate gourd-thermos combination in the other.
The streets of Montevideo
A plaza in downtown Montevideo
Cultural Center in the town of Colonia
The town of Colonia is cute, but this car with a plant growing out of it is pretty much the most exciting thing to see, especially with the World Cup going on and all the shops closed.
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