Uruguay

Before I start on Uruguay I want to show you the Intercontinental Hotel we stayed at in Santiago, Chile, affectionally know as the "Green Building" Two sides were cover in live green plants.  I'm not sure how they did it, but there was wire grid and maybe moss and then the plants.  Inside the hotel there was a large curving wall covered in ferns and ivy.  Stunning!

You may remember how fond I am of building reflections.  Here's the green hotel reflected in the building across the street.

I really knew nothing about Uruguay, this very small country. We flew to and stayed in Montevideo, but toured around the area.  We visited Colonia Sacramento, one of the oldest colonial settlements.  It had killer cobblestones on those streets going down to the water. Apparently they just used any old leftover stones to construct it and boy, was it hard to walk on!

A typical open air restaurant in Colonia.

One of the highlights of the tour was a visit to an estancia ranch. It was owned by a charming  young couple, he from South Africa and she from France.  They had vineyards and were making their own wine, which we got to taste at lunch.

They had several ostriches, lots of ducks and these capybara, the largest living rodents. I had never seen one in person. 

They also raised sheep for meat and wool.

 If you were so inclined (I was not) your got to tour the ranch on horseback. The rest of us got a wagon ride. Lunch was included which included huge platters of barbecued meat.......beef, lamb, chicken and sausage.  We ate a lot of meat on this trip, more that I probably ate in the last two years, not that I'm a vegetarian, but I hardly ever cook meat at home anymore.

This is a picture of a typical barbeque restaurant, not the one at the ranch.  Notice all the meat grilling behind the counter.