More Verbosity

Today is a really nice day. You may not be able to tell it from inside this dark-ish cybercafe, but the sky is a brilliant blue and it´s maybe as warm as 16 degrees. Warm enough for me to only need my jean jacket, and not my flece hoodie and jean jacket.

I have realized that, despite describing what I´ve been doing, I have been describing little of the things that characterize this place. So here´s a list:

The candied peanut vendors on the street make the place smell oddly nice. They candy the peanuts in these little pots, and the process makes a lot of smoke, which is usually dispersed through a long pipe, maybe four inches wide and five feet tall. There are a whole bunch of these guys--one on every block, pretty much. The peanuts are yummy. :-)

There´s a Plaza every few blocks in the downtown area along Av 18 de Julio. They all have at least one statue and a bunch of trees. Some have a fountain. Peter and I sat in one just today that had a really pretty fountain with a statue depicting early independance fighters in the middle. The Plaza Independencia, which is the biggest we´ve come across, has a huge statue of Artigas in the middle, complete with his body underneath it. You can go view it between 9am and 5pm on Weekdays. We haven´t been yet, but I hope to.

There are about 5-10 street vendors per block, in addition to the peanut guys, and almost all of them sell socks. They also sell bags and magazines and cell phone cases and bombillas (more on those later) and lanyards and all kinds of trinkets. As far as I can tell, they´re not focused on tourists, since almost none of them are ¨barkers,¨ and it isn´t anywhere near tourist season. Striped socks in bright colours seem to be in fashion this year.

The government and private employers are working in synchronicity. A third group of people crowding the sidewalks is people who pass out little flyers and brochures to anyone who passes. The people who take them almost universally discard them with ten seconds, and rarely in a garbage can. At this point, the government-employed clean-up people come in and sweep them away. It´s a very simple, very effective sybiotic relationship that keeps people employed.

The palm trees look so very odd against the stone architecture and grey skies. One picture I want to take before I leave is one of the statue of Artigas, photographed at such an angle as to include a palm tree to the side and a domed tower like dozens I saw in Italy in the background, all against an overcast background. That is Montevideo in a nutshell, I´d say. Or, at least, downtown Montevideo.

There´s some really interesting graffitti around here. A surprising amount of it is stenciled. I saw a bit just today that was a stenciled sumo wrestler with Ronald McDonald´s head (also in stencil) painted over its head. I´ve also seen a few toasters with toast popping out of them. Of course, there´s plenty of political graffitti, too. Anarchy symbols here and there, messages about genocide and some general anti-Isreali sentiments. In the old city area, there´s been a bunch of stone walls painted with latex paint in bright primary colours. It seems that a political party or some other kind of well-organized group is responsible for them. They have positive messages written on them (though I can´t remember what they say), and they all feature the number 1001.

Oh, and there are guys with semi-automatic weapons outside some of the banks.

As for what Peter and I have been doing, the answer is panicking some, but not doing much else. We were up early yesterday morning (we had to buy an alarm clock first) so that we could get to the travel agent and pick up our ticket so that we could then get to the Brazillian Embassey to submit our Visa applications. Our Visas will be ready Monday at 11. We have to be at the bus station at 12:30. We already have our schedule for the morning settled.

Today we mostly wandered around, looking at stuff. We made hotel reservations at a different hotel for when we get back from Iguazu. This was the hotel we originally wanted to stay at, but the number Peter had was out of service. It´s a block away from where we´re staying now, but it looks a lot nicer, and it´s at more or less the same price point.

We also went and bought bombillas today. Those are the gourd things for the Yerba Mate tea. I couldn´t remember how to spell them last time. They were kind of pricey--almost $50 Canadian for the cup and the filter-straw. But they´re pretty and will make great souvenirs and we can drink tea out of them. :-)

I´m not sure if I´ll be able to update before we leave for Iguazu, but, thinking about it, I don´t think I will. I´m not sure what internet availability will be like over there, but, at the very least, I´ll be back in Montevideo a week from today (Saturday). Keep blogging--I want to hear what you guys are up, to, too. :-)