A Recipie For Uruguay

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Greetings All...

After having spent bang on 3 weeks in Uruguay, and loved every single minute of it (bar a 2 hour period of mild annoyance), here is your easy way to produce a country as epic as Uruguay...

Step One: Acquire a plot of land. Uruguay is approx 176,000 sq km, so a little larger than Englands 130,000 sq km, and bears a strong resemblance to our home lands country side. We spent many an hour riding buses through the country side, and each time its difficult not to think "so English". Green hills, pine trees, and New Forest esq forests fill a large part of this little country in South America, yet here it has the added bonus of 30'c sunshine and cool summer breezes. But its not just limited to English greenery, Uruguay is also home to sierras, or low lying mountain ranges, which can be accessed after blundering your way through thick overgrown forest, scrambling up rock faces and sweating your way up and over mini waterfalls (despite being told there was a fairly easy path to follow up the side, but wheres the fun?) to arrive on an open, dry expance of land. Doesnt sound too exciting, but with birds that look like condors (but proably just vultures) swooping over head, and hundreds of grasshoppers making way beneath your feet, its still worth a visit.

Uruguay also has some pretty incredible beaches. Our first beach was in a place called Punta del Diablo (Devils Point), and altho the main beach wasn't overly inspiring, with the exception of the nice Uruguayans tanning themselves on the beach, take a walk round a rock, walk down the next beach which is long and sandy, around another lighthouse and fisherman adorned rock point, and come to everything a beach should be, deserted. The lack of people on the beach also allows for the possibility for a spot of skinny dipping, if you so choose... Other beaches include those around Cabo Polonia, again few people, good sea for body surfing, and a good "mountain", or small hill, which gives good panoramic views of the area. Cabo Polonia was also home to a little bit of magic, but thats for later...

For a finishing touch, add some thermal springs with water reaching 30'+ (a little unnecessary in 30' heat) and the foundations for your country is set.

Step Two: Find some of the nicest people you will meet, and add them to the mix. We had heard from numerous people that Uruguyans are chilled out, friendly, and generous, but we really weren't prepared for what we came across. Out side a random Gaucho (beret wearing cowboys of South America) town called Tacuarembo was a camp site called Valle Eden. We sauntered in and pitched tent next to a dad (Oscar) and 3 kids, who we said hello etc to. Later on, as we were cooking a rice salad in a small metal tin over an alcohol burner, I went over to see if we could borrow something. The difference in camping here is huge, and one example is compared to our rice salad, Oscar and co had an assado on the go. Basically a huge bbq, with unbelievable amounts of meat on it (a quid fifty for a kilo of lamb ribs helps things along) and cooked over logs not coals. I went over for a knife, and came back with a knife, a plate, a chopping board, and half a rack of ribs, a "welcome to Uruguay" present from our neighbours!!! From there we chucked his kids about in the river, drank mate (a Paraguayan, Argentinian, and Uruguyana speciality, similar to tea, but drunk through a bombilla (metal straw) and shared between the whole group, and visited a museum dedicated to Carlos 'Tango'Gardel, the man who made tango music what is is today.

Another example of Uruguayan friendliness was found in another campsite near Minas. On our first day we got talking to guy called Angel who then invited us over to his campsite to meet his family and have something to drink. Turned out to be a good call cos he and his family were genuinely nice people. They shared with us their booze, red wine mixed with coke or lemonade (not the worst thing we've seen, Beer and Fanta...seriously!) and as the evening progressed, we decided it was time for some food. In the campshop they had a huge meat counter (obviously) and in it was a prett hefty Tatu, same familly as the armadillo, complete with shell, legs, head and tail. We bought the whole thing, along with plenty of wine and went to cook. As it turns out tatu is a very nice meat (a cross between chicken and rabbit), but the preparation of dismemebering the animal is best left to the experts. Long story short, we got hammered and had a great time with them. The only down side to the evening was discovered in the morning, when we noticed someone had entered our tent and nicked both our cameras! (Hense no photos from Uruguay at all) Thats the second one I lost on this trip, and the first for tait. Spent the morning fairly pissed off, but made all the better by a miss translation from the police officer, who was talking about "dos negros professionales" - not the suspected professional black people who stole the cameras, but infact the cameras themselves! I suppose you need one bastard in a country to make the others seem that much better.

We also met a nice guy in Montevideo by the name of Manu. We decided to give this couch surfing thing a go (check on line if anybody in the next city has a sofa to crash on, send em an email, and go and crash in their house) and yeah, it worked. An 18 year old actor, who has appeared in various adverts, including Cornetto and C&A. He was a great host, ordering in beers when we arrived (yes the do have home delivery service for booze), cooking us huge steaks, and taking us to a Dub Fire night in town, despite the music not being to his taste. Speaking of which, what a blinder of a night, a 5 hour set from Dub Fire was just what we needed after having spent 4 months listening to Cumbria, Reggaton and Salsa.

Step 3: Add a good dose of magic. Cabo Polonia, a small (200 residents), unknown beach town on the South of Uruguay, known by us only from recommendation by our friend Oscar. To get to this place, you need to catch a bus for a couple of hours, then catch a large beach jeep over sand dunes to the "centre" of the village. Up unti 10 years ago, this place was a hippie town, no tourists, no electricity and a very relaxed way of life. Now, the tourists have stared trickling in, but there is still no electricty, and every body is still very relaxed. We found ourselves a little place to stay, literally on the beach, 15m from the sea, a perfect location to sleep listening to the crashing waves and the stillness of the night. As I attempted to poison Tait the night before by cooking a paella with South American prawns, he spent the day in bed feeling crap. This feeling crap extended into the night, so with him in bed, I went out with our dorm mates, Salvador, Octavio, and his lady friend whose name i cant remember. We ate empanadas then had a look around town. The wierd thing about this place is that there is no obvious bar to be found. A walk around the streets would reveal nothing, which is why I was glad to be with locals, cos we basically entered into someones house, that they had converted into a bar...candle lit, few tables, and a swiss guy with his Chilean girlfriend playing hang drums. These things are amazing, basically like two inverted steel drums sandwiched together and played by tapping various parts around the drum, and the sound they produce is hypnotizing. The two started with a slow rhythm, which gradually built in momentum, and once they started harmonizing the drums, the place just stood still as the sound from these things washed over the whole room. It was genuinely incredible. They stopped playing too soon (as is always the case) and so we left to go to another house/bar, which instead of walls had plants, and the floor was upturned glass bottles. You just dont find that anywhere else. One the walk home we did actually stop in at someones house as there is very much an open door policy there, to listen to a little guitar jam which helped cap an awesome night.

The places magic was completed when the next day, we were chilling on the deck of the cabaña, watching the waves, when the clouds hovering over the sea began to be tinted with the colours of the rainbow. There wasnt a rainbow being formed, the clouds were just coloured that way. This went on for an hour or so, and then I looked up and noticed a phenominon that is apparently common to South America, but i have never seen before and am yet to see since. The sun was high in the cloudless sky, and around it, complete and clear as the sun itself, was a complete rainbow. Unbelievable but true. This is whats at the end of the rainbow, or more accurately, this is whats in the middle of the rainbow...And there it stayed, not just for a fleeting moment, but for near on half an hour, the 7 colours banded round the sun, creating a magical and mystical touch to a place that can only be visited to be truely understood.

Step 4: Give your Country a party atmosphere. As Carnival is not just a Brazillian, Rio de Janiero thing, but a large chuck of South America thing, we found it in La Pedrera. This was recommened to us by our American friend Salvador, among others, and so we rocked up, having just had cameras stolen, in the mood to have it. We found a camp site on the first day of Carnaval, and as it turns out, people from all over Uruguay, as well as Argentina came to this place to party, cos this is where it was at. The first night was a great start. The carnival was kicked off by the 20 strong drumming group injecting a rhythm and a heatbeat into the town as they paraded through the streets. From there we found ourselves a drunk brazillian who drunks cigarettes in beer, and our good friend Salvador, and the 4 of us soaked in the atmospshere. The people of the town were going mad...kid took it upon themselves to arm themselves heavily with water bombs, and any passing car came under attack, all the more hillarious when you've got 4x4s loaded with people on the back, or a bad tempered guy who slams on his breaks, gets out of his car to have a word, and for his efforts get soaked to the skin. The second night was a tad more chilled out, and by that I mean there was still a party til dawn, ample amounts of booze to be drunk, and the streets packed with people, however, the build up was all for the Monday, and what a day it was. Salvador decided to hoast an assado party, and we were invited. Being the millionaire he is, he bought some incredible cuts of meat, lots of it, and employed Tom Selleck to cook it. Drank booze, ate meat, got merry, then went back to the tent as we were told today was fancy dress day, and to be a part of the carnval, you need to be in fancy dress. I opted for Taits incredibly multicoloured swim shorts and a rain jacket (remember we are back packing and dont happen to have ready made cow suits in our back packs as some people seems to have done) and tait opted for thermal trousers, jumper, balaclava and gloves. Our story as something to the effect that I was a sailor, and tait my arch nemesis...but after a couple of cups of cashasa, that was forgotten and the night was lost in a blur of colour, parading, dancing and drinking. No idea when it ended, but for a first South American Carnaval, I think we did well...

And I could go on...I could tell you about the Artesanal Ice Cream which must be the best in the world (I recommend Dulce de Leche and Choc Chip), I could tell you about the ease of hitch hiking, be it on the back of a dumper truck or in the back of a mini van with two stoners, and I could tell you about the plot of land in La Pedrera which overlooked the sea, was in the town which is so perfect - Punta del Diablo and Cabo Polonia to one side, and Montevideo and Buenos Aires to the other, and so tempting to buy (despite the cash disadvantages), but i wont, I'll just tell you one more thing...

Go. To. Uruguay.

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