June 15, 2006 During the past month I have had the pleasure of getting to know a gentleman from Switzerland who is moving here and has just gotten his residency approved here.  The information I am writing here largely comes from his experience and feedback, before, during and after his visit here (he having decided to enjoy summer in Europe before moving here in time for Spring here when Autumn falls there). CELLPHONES:  If you are particularly emotionally attached to your cellphone (you must really have a problem), but you can bring it along to Uruguay and use it here, if it is a GSM phone that works on one of the frequencies used here.  CAUTION:  each of the three cellphone companies uses different frequencies.  However, if you insist, you must register it at the airport with customs, either when you arrive or within 48 hours.  The fee is 130 pesos or less than US$6.00.  With that registration you can buy a local prepaid GSM card with nothing more than your passport and cash. HEALTH INSURANCE:  What a winner!  This is probably the only civilized country in the world where I am insurable!  Somehow a brain tumor, back injuries, and recurring Staph infections scare insurance companies away in other places--obviously not here. Let me relate to you a few of the costs connected with top level private insurance here through the British Hospital. Insurance that provides for a private room ranges from US$48-86 per month for an adult.  BUT, the co-payments are equally staggering.   US$3.75 for a doctor's consultation or lab work or radiology, a mammography is about US$8.40, MRIs are the biggest expense at US$50.00, an Emergency room visit is US$5.50-7.50, and a home visit costs a whopping US$11.25.  Ambulance service is under US$9.00, and you can add a US surgical option for US$10.00 per month with travel benefits at US$5.00 per year.  Prescriptions are half-price at certain pharmacies--almost all of which deliver 24/7/365.  And there is a prescription option that costs US$5.50/month which limits your prescription drug co-payment to US$5.70. It might be worth it to move here just for the medical care!!! NOTE:  All of these figures were correct as of the beginning of April 2006. Taken together, it costs less to live in Uruguay than to eat in Switzerland. June 16, 2006 This is great!  I have been looking for a good map of Uruguay and found something really neat online from El Automóvil Club del Uruguay - an interactive route map of the whole country.  It is online at http://www.acu.com.uy/maparutero/.  If you want to find an address within Montevideo, or the best route to go between two points in Montevideo, you have to try this interactive map:  http://200.55.6.87/es/a2.asp?vista=MDCA&pais=Uruguay.  It will even tell you how far it is by road between two points. Maybe now I can find the Confederate Embassy... June 28, 2006 CAVEAT EMPTOR!  Let the buyer beware! This maxim applies to the privately owned side of internet industry here in spades.  The people that run at least two of these companies make the carpetbaggers look like philanthropists. Let's start with the ISP NG for no good  (name withheld until I hire an attorney to tell me how badly I can be sued-but I will make private suggestions to people who need them). Following a terrible piece of advice we contracted with NG for ADSL service.  Fortunately, since we didn't fall off the cabbage truck yesterday, we also contracted with the State company, Anteldata, as a back up.  Their service is excellent.

RESOURCE LINKS FOR URUGUAY Art, Music & Culture in Uruguay The richness of the art and culture of Uruguay is surprising.  Considering the size of Uruguay, the second smallest nation on the continent, the quality and dimension of it's art surpasses that of nations many times it's size. About Moving to Uruguay Resources for relocating to Uruguay - articles - links - resources. Business, Economy & Real Estate in Uruguay Real Estate, banks, Free Trade Zones and some select business links. Country Information of Uruguay Government, Country, Weather and much more information about Uruguay. Embassy Resources for Uruguay Embassies in Uruguay and Uruguayan Embassies & Consulates worldwide. Embassy pages for Oriental Republic of Uruguay on our sister site EmbassyWorld.com Maps of Uruguay A large number of differing Uruguay maps, including city maps News & Media in Uruguay We've tried to include enough unique sources of Uruguayan media without burdening the surfer. There is also access to some of the classified directories of the local newspapers. Find an apartment, sell your house in the U.S. or UK and go. Forty years from now you'll have grandkids who will think of you as a genius Real Estate In Uruguay Current real estate listings of properties in Uruguay. Travel & Tourism in Uruguay Paul Theroux makes the remark that one could travel the rest of one's life and never see the same place twice. Most people visit the same old boring places. Uruguay is anything but boring as our index page on Uruguayan travel will quickly prove. It would be difficult to imagine a more agreeable destination. Previous articles on Uruguay: Uruguay: Diary of an Ex-pat - After living in the West Indies, former Yugoslavia and Costa Rica, Uruguay seems normal.  Montevideo is a city of about 1.5 million people.  It is a combination of old and new, rather like Florida's St. Augustine.  It is at the same relative latitude as the North Carolina Capes - the climate is perfect for me.  On average it goes below freezing about 2.5 days/year and above 90F/32C only 6 days per year.  As we all know, the Good Lord did not intend fat men in wheelchairs to live where it is hot! Uruguay: Ex-Pat Diary Part 2 - Uruguay: A Southron in the Deep, Deep South Part 2 of a three part series on Uruguay - Yesterday, one of my readers asked a particularly sanguine question: "If Uruguay is so nice, why aren't more Expats living there?"  I was tempted to retort that the lack of too many Expats might be at least one reason for Uruguay's "niceness", but I refrain--though, like another ill-starred president, "I sinned in my heart". Buying Ranch Land In Uruguay Europeans first arrive on holidays, attracted by sun and beach. Slowly they discover that there is more than sun and beach as they explore the country side, and the natural beauties of Bañados del Este, a Natural Reserve designated by UNESCO. Increasing numbers of nature and ecotourists and bird watchers are coming, mainly from northern Europe to discover miles and miles of lonely oceanic beaches and, as they say, a grasslands “paradise” full of fresh water and pristine nature. Uruguay for Retiring, Investing, or Just Good Living  Montevideo is a old-world European style city with a cultural scene second to none.

When asked about the bandwidth issue their response was that even though you buy bandwidth based on the maximum you might theoretically get (for two minutes before the Second Coming), there is NO Guaranteed Minimum, so even if it doesn't work at all, you are obligated to pay!

Even worse, we could not send email, even to our own mail servers, because the IP addresses they were using were SPAM Blocked!  (When confronted with this problem we only got the Spanish equivalent of "duh".)  Later, of course, it turned into our fault - I'm not sure how, but it must be our fault, after all, we're paying for the service and not getting it.  Makes sense somewhere to somebody.

So we told them we want to cancel the service, and despite my better judgment, we allowed as we were willing to pay the 2 months cancellation penalty.

"NOT GOOD ENOUGH ESTUPIDO EXTRANJERO (foreigner)!" Everybody here knows you pay whether we perform or not!  We want all the money...

They actually expect us to pay for the entire contract plus two months despite the lousy incompetent service.  After at least milliseconds of judicious consideration, I sent them the famous Mark Twain response: " F**k you!  Strong response to follow!", but it may have lost something in translation...

They are not backing down, nor am I, so I guess you will get to find out vicariously how the civil lawsuit system works here...  (The Outcome in Part 3)

The other ISP I will refer to as Dead, as in dead beats.  They advertise that unlike every other ISP in Uruguay, the guarantee the bandwidth you are paying for.  But the problem is, when you read the contract, THEY DON'T.  When confronted with this contradiction, they tell you in very polite tones that it is their very best intention to guarantee the bandwidth. 

But when it comes right down to it, their contract says the same as NG's - they guarantee nothing!  They may not know how to provide internet, but they have the "bait and switch" maneuver down pat!

This makes my poor free market heart sad.  But I have to tell you that, as of right now, the safest and best ISP is to one owned by the government.  Adam Smith, Forgive me!

July 3, 2006
Links to the phone company, power company, weather, consumer protection, emergency services, ferry and plane terminals, bus routes, passports and visas, currency conversion and much more can be found at www.uruguaytotal.com/info_util/. 
You won't want to be without this link.

July 7, 2006
I am not an expert on Winter.  In fact, compared to people from New England, or Moscow, or Tierra del Fuego, I am a rank amateur.  My encounters with Winter have been mostly half-hearted and fleeting.  True, I spent 8 of them in Washington, DC, but as winters go, they hardly count (except of course for the year to Potomac River froze).  Even then, when faced with Winter, I brushed aside its acquaintance and rudely avoided it as much as possible.

When I was young and foolish (perhaps more foolish), I remember driving into North Florida because I heard it had snowed and I wanted to see it - I didn't - it had melted before I could get there.  That being said, I do have a good deal of experience with winter-time months in which winter never deigns to appear.  Living in Florida for so many years, I had become accustomed to having Summer and not-Winter.

It is now officially Winter in Montevideo.  What that means has yet to be entirely revealed to me.  Thus far it seems to mean 3-5 days of clouds and drizzle and then a like number of days with bright sunshine.  Today it is bright and will be in the 70s Fahrenheit and the 20s Celsius.  They call these days the Veranillos del San Juan  -  the little summers of Saint John, probably because the birthday of St. John the Baptizer is in the last part of June.

There have been relatively cold days.  One Sunday, on the drive to Church I saw thermometers that read 4C (39F) on them.  But that was a one day affair.  We have also had a few other mornings when the thermometer was in single digits Celsius (less than 50F), but not many.  It is really humorous to watch the Uruguayos on these colder days - they dress up like Eskimos and generally act as if the world was coming to an end.  But thus far, there have only been a few of these cold days.

I am told that the "little summers" do not extend into August, when we will instead be smitten with a two week long torrent of wind and rain known of la Tormenta de la Santa Rosa - Saint Rose's storm.  Then we will have Spring.  Thus far at least, no frosty mornin's to sing about, no snowmen to build, no windows to de-ice, no salted roads...

On second thought, I really don't care if I ever get to know Winter...not-Winter, thank you kindly, will do just fine...

July 18, 2006
This past week I finally broke down and agreed to go to the doctor in order to deal with a recurring medical problem.  As a general rule, I prefer chewing broken glass.  Nevertheless, pain and badgering from my colleagues forced me into a small surrender, a la Appomattox Court House.

Putting a good face on it I went to the Hospital Militar - the Armed Forces Hospital in Montevideo.  That was not a typo, the Military Hospital takes private paying patients as well.  I went to them because they have a very advanced wounds treatment unit which includes a hyperbaric oxygen chamber that I hope will finally do away with a 6 year old wound with a Staph infection.  The hospital was huge!  It filled a double city block.

There were lots of people waiting to be helped under the traditional egalitarian "take a number and hope you don't die first" system, but as I was a paying customer, such mechanisms did not encumber my progress.  We went directly to the wound unit and were immediately ushered into the consultorio - the consultation room.  Within a few minutes a doctor came in.  He had should boards indicating his rank - I later found out he was a lieutenant colonel.  He spent 30 minutes with me, taking my history and examining me.  He then told me he wanted me to consult with another specialist before deciding upon the best treatment.

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The equipment was exactly as you would expect and the x-ray table was still as hard as a burial slab.  That process took about an hour.  We returned for the third time to the consultorio with the x-rays (here all reports and records are your property and you take them with you).   Within 5 minutes the Major Doctor was back and took the x-rays to examine them.  He returned and told me that he and the Lt Col wanted to bring in another specialist - this time a specialist in infections.  I thought this meant another trip, but that doctor, of unknown rank, appeared within about 5 minutes.

He examined me and took a swab of my wound.

Then we had a grand meeting with all three doctors. I was told what course of action they proposed and that we needed only to wait for the lab results so that they could precisely target the anti-biotics.

At this point I have had a total of 5 doctors meetings total plus 5 x´-rays.  Total cost to me $800.00.

That's 800 pesos - only about 32 Yankee Dollars.  That is cheaper than any co-pay I know about in the States.  It's so cheap I could almost use Confederate Money...

August 4, 2006
We have had a few days that looked like they might produce snow, but the most we got was heavy fog.  In fact, early this past week, the fog was so heavy that the airports both here and in Buenos Aires were closed, as was the seaport on Montevideo.  If I were to send you photos of the local walking down the street, you might think you were in Boston, Yorkshire, Hamburg, or many Antarctica.  Anytime the weather goes below 50F/10C, they act as if they are in Siberia.

The truth is that the Winter has, thus far, been easy.  The past ten days have been the coldest, and yet yesterday was sunny and warm and about 70F/21C.  We have generally had about 4-5 gloomy days and then an equal number of bright days.  This is much better than some places I remember where one did not see the sun for weeks...

The Stats for July and August are as follows:
 

It should be noted that since sunrise is relatively late here, at 07.34 today for example, the very coldest part of the day is at about 6AM, just before Astronomical Twilight.  What I want to know is how these wily Uruguayans get the sun to sleep in too?
 

eBooks for Expats - International Relocation Reports - Offshore Investment Reports - Reports On Offshore Real Estate, Moving Overseas,  and a wide range of subjects for those seeking to restart their lives overseas.  eBooks are a great idea.  Consider This: If, for example, you are trying tolinder perhaps 2 meters (2.2 yards) in diameter and 6 meters (6.6 yards) long.  There is an entry hatch at each end.  The end closest to the entrance to the room has metal steps going up to it.  On the right side of the cylinder's outside is a control panel, which is linked to the inside by an intercom. There are also three small circular windows on each side of the cylinder. Last Monday our office manager came with me to smooth the path for me.  I think they were taking side bets about whether or not I could get through the hatch without buttering up my sides.  I fooled them.  From my capacious bum to my inflated head is just short enough that I can get in if I sit on the bottom of the hatch.  Since I won't be growing any taller, I think I am safe. The sensations of the hyperbaric chamber are very similar to that of an airplane.  I am sharing the chamber with three other patients and a technician.  We face each other on benches on opposite side.  It is made to hold 8 people, so we are not crowded. One very old gentleman is put into the chamber on a gurney. Anyway, after we are all loaded up the hatches are closed and the air is pumped in.  The sound is very much like that of a jet flying at high altitude.  The pressure increase causes the chamber to heat up a bit.  I was prepared for this so I took off my sweater.  They pump oxygen in until it reaches the equivalent of 3 atmospheres - three times the pressure of the air at sea level.  Then we have oxygen masks put on so that our bodies are being oxygenated from inside and outside for about 90 minutes.  When they depressurize the chamber, the air gets very chilly and the sweater goes back on. When we "land" and get back to normal we pile out of the chamber and head for home. After several days of treatment my primary wound seems to be drying up, and several small wounds seem to be healing rapidly.  They tell me they want to do this for 4 weeks - that is a big commitment of time for me as I have to block out 09.30-13.00 to accommodate getting there and back. One last point I should make is that the staff, at every level has been courteous and helpful.  The cost of all of this: US$20/treatment. In Part 4, next month we will report on the latest immigration rules as we have experienced them.  We will summarize who should, and should not consider Uruguay.  Stay tuned to this invaluable magazine… These are excerpts from the journal of The Southron, an American Expatriate from Florida who has spent the last decade living in the West Indies, former Yugoslavia and Costa Rica.  He moved to Montevideo, Uruguay at the end of February 2006. see www.uruguayliving.com Return to index for this issue - for more articles - .   CONTACT WEBSITE | ADVERTISING | ESCAPE FROM AMERICA MAGAZINE MASTER INDEX (ALL PAST ISSUES) SUBSCRIBE | UNSUBSCRIBE | ABOUT ESCAPE | TERMS OF SERVICE | PARTNER WITH US | Add Url | Home | Contact | Advertising |  Send This Webpage To A Friend | Escape From America Magazine Index | Offshore Real Estate Quarterly | International Telephone Directory  | About Escape | Embassies Of The World  |  Report Dead Links On This Page| Maps Of The World | Articles On This Website | Disclaimer | Link 2 Us | Help | Jobs Overseas | International Real Estate | Find A Country |  Expatriate Search Tools | Expat Pages   | Offshore Investing | International Marketplace | Yacht Broker - Boats Barges & Yachts For Sale | Search Engines Of The World | Information about prices, products, services and merchants is provided by third parties and is for informational purposes only. EscapeArtist.com does not represent or warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information, and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. © Copyright 1996 -  EscapeArtist.com Inc. All Rights Reserved