car rentals, Colonia del Sacramento and the courntryside

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hello,

On Tuesday we rented a car. I actually wanted to rent it on Monday afternoon so we could have it first thing Tuesday morning but the guy at the rental office discouraged that and said the paperwork would take only 15 minutes. I showed up at 9:00 am on Tuesday and neither the vehicle nor the paperwork were at the rental office. I had to be taken over to where the cars were to fill out the papers. I did not get back to the apartment until after 10 a.m. then we hit the road to Colonia.

Colonia is a very charming colonial town which was established by the Portuguese and is a UN world heritage site. The trip was supposed to be about 2 hours but we did not get there until about 1:00 pm. We walked around for a bit but being hungry we looked for places to eat. We settled on this one place where a guy was playing a piano. It was not very crowded as it was off season. I ordered a 'complete salad' and a filet mignon with potato puree. Jack had a fondue appetizer and a beef espagniole dish with potatoes. The food was good. We also met a nice American couple from California who were in Argentina mostly and came over by ferry for the day to see Colonia. They were set to return to the US on Thursday on American Airlines.

We then walked around to get pictures of various buildings and ruins. Without a tour guide I was not sure what we were looking at unless there was a sign or plaque. Since it was off season there were no throngs of people crowded into lines. There were walled fortifications, cobblestone streets, and very old buildings. We took our share of pictures.

At lunch I of course did my usual no wheat routine. The waitress said my items were safe. My luck ran out as three or four of the dozen or more vegetables in the salad had been canned and anything canned is a risk. I chose to eat them anyway and while walking about I realized that something in the salad did in fact contain gluten. My walking tour was shortened.

Driving through the countryside we saw a fair amount of smoke coming from fields. I could not figure out what was being burned but it was not wildfires so it had to have something to do with argicultural practices. The drive back took 2 1/2 hours and was about 7:30 or so when we got back to the apartment.

I wanted to make myself something for dinner to try to stay gluten free. I walked over to a carniceria (meat market) and looked for something to eat. Some of the cuts of meat were unfamiliar so I had a hard time discerning what was beef and what was lamb. The guy working behind the counter got a little condescending and pointed out chicken and then flapped his arms as if I did not know it was chicken. I finally asked if a particular piece was beef or lamb and he said 'cow'. I said ok, then he plopped the steak on a counter.

Now there is a product that is very popular in Argentina and Uruguay and that is the Milanese style, which is nothing more than either chicken or veal that is breaded. The butcher had placed my steak on a counter that had recently hosted a Milanese. I tried to explain to the guy that I cannot eat wheat and that he put my steak on top of breadcrumbs. I think he thought I wanted the steak to be breaded which of course is not what I wanted. At that point he picked up a Milanese then had breadcrumbs all over his hands. I concluded that there was nothing he would touch that would not be contaminated with breacrumbs so I left the carniceria. He and a couple of customers thought I was crazy as they were laughing at me. I decided rice pasta was an excellent dinner choice and had a simple home cooked meal.

We then decided that on Wednesday would would drive to wine country.

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