Odeliza Life of a US Expat in South America

Mahalo,

Mosquito attack! Yesterday my other half and a buddy went to Cerrio (neighborhood in Montevideo, Uruguay) for some golf. There are two golf courses in Uruguay Cerrio and Punta Caretas.

He told me that they were swarmed with mosquitoes. He came home with mosquito bites on his limbs. At least one limb had over twenty bites, he stopped counting the others. It seemed that bug repellent did not work, the pest did not go away.

I took Midori (our Labrador) for a walk in the beach. It was the first time I ever ran away from any bug. I was swarmed like no tomorrow from these mosquitoes! Everywhere! They even penetrated through my clothes. Unfortunately for me, I have severe allergic reaction to bug bites of any kind.

The area bitten swells up to the size of a hockey puck and turns red to brown and itches and stings badly.

These mosquitoes are so big that they don’t appear to be mosquitoes. I was told that they are named ‘Argentina mosquitoes’. And they come out during the fall, which would be right about now.

We have all our windows in our home closed and refuse to go outside.

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Mahalo,

Normally it takes a few easy steps to cancel a cell phone contract.

1. Go to the business and tell them you want to cancel your contract.

2. Pay a cancellation fee if it’s necessary.

Simple right? Well, almost everything in Uruguay requires lots of paper work and procedure even for the simplest things. Like canceling a contract.

My back story, I signed a contract with Claro a year and a half ago. Recently I decided that I wanted to cancel my contract.

Well, I went to the same place I opened my contract and the rep. told me this;

1.I must write a letter stating why I want to cancel my contract

2. Then fill out one of their forms and then send it out to a completely different address than the place I opened the contract.

3. Finally, I have to wait up to 4 weeks or more in order for my request to be ‘approved’

Well, I was floored.

Tired.

Not surprised.

*For the readers that are die hard fans of Uruguay, I am not trying say anything negative about the country its self. I am merely stating my honest to goodness truth about my experiences with the way things are here. So there.

It’s really tough living in a nice country that have people that make really stupid rules.

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Mahalo Chico,

I’ve been on a search for free weights, olympic bars, benches, and more in and around Montevideo, Uruguay. I’d ask locals where I could possibly buy said things and get nothing but “No Se” -I don’t know-. Its frustrating!

In my search I have found no sporting good stores, used sporting good stores, and no classified ads in-regards to fitness equipment. I mean, its just so depressing. 

Finally I scanned the local yellow pages and found 4 companies in the whole of Uruguay that sells home and gym equipment. I picked the one and four just to gage what type of equipment they sell.

The number four sent over prices and pictures of gym equipment. There were two qualities to choose from. ”Home” and “professional”. He was asking for  USD65.00 for one free weight bar without the weights and USD2.50 per kilo. His benches were USD100 and up for ‘home” and USD385 and up for “professional”. His “universal gym” home goes for USD700 and I did not even want to ask what the “professional” priced at. 

I had him send some pictures to me and to tell the truth I was not shocked by the poor quality and over price of both types of equipment. I am very familiar with the overpriced items in Uruguay from food to bad quality clothes to 82% tax on-top of cars.

If you or anyone you know thinks that Uruguay is an inexpensive place to live, I must tell you from almost three years of living here straight through all seasons, it is not. I feel like I am always paying high prices for everything. You can compare how much you pay in your country to the worth and quality of what you get to how much one would pay to the worth and quality of what can be purchased here.

Its a big difference. 

Its really upsetting.

You know even things that are marked as “good quality” end up breaking or falling apart quickly.

This is not an exaggeration. This is the truth.

Why do I live here?

There is the good and bad in any country, this post just happens to by one of the bads.

Ciao,

Odeliza