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.
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.
Embassies
in Uruguay and Uruguayan Embassies & Consulates worldwide. Embassy
pages for Oriental Republic of Uruguay on our sister site EmbassyWorld.com
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
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.
Montevideo
is a old-world European style city with a cultural scene second to none.
Anyway, back to
the carpetbaggers, I mean NG. From day one the bandwidth was seldom
close to what we were paying for, which supports a wide spread rumor that
they oversell their bandwidth. (From my experience with it,
they oversell like to characters in the movie/play "The Producers".
In fact, to completely belabor the point, their corporate anthem well could
be "Springtime for Hitler".) But I digress again. Sorry. If
I don't make jokes about it I will curse.
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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Very early the
next morning I was back at the hospital. As a courtesy to me, the
Lt. Col Doctor from the wound unit arranged to have the specialist come
to the wound unit as it was easier for me to get there than find a new
office. The bone specialist was a Major. He spent about 20
minutes examining me and then sent me for x-rays. As usual, the x-ray
department was in the bowels of the hospital one level away from the infernal
regions.
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:
Max temp
Avg
Max
Avg Min
Min temp
July
77F/25C
62F/16C
49F
1C
August
55F/12C
53F/11C
39F/3C
33F/0.5C
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?
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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
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