From June through half of August part of the Joy Us garden office was moved to Uruguay…Uruwhat? Yes Uruguay – the second smallest country in South America known for its soccer team, oodles of happy cows and for the longest carnival in the world. Its larger and much more well known neighbors are Brazil and Argentina but Lucy, the oh so creative lady behind the camera and computer, went there to enjoy some time with her family and snap the best moments to share with you. How lucky!
First, I’ll give you a short description of the place. This tiny (only 68,037 square miles!) subtropical country is home to 3.3 million people who drink hot Mate every morning with no exemption. High humidity is a normal occurance due to all the rivers, lagoons and 410 miles of Atlantic coast. If you are a rock climber then you’d better take up surfing as the highest peak here is just 1,686’ tall! For us garden lovers, you must know that the surroundings are mainly grasslands with lots of Argentine Pampas. Things grow easily here due to the mild climate and abundance of water.
We’ll begin this tour with a couple of places you may have already heard of. Montevideo is the capital city situated on the shores of Rio de la Plata. Punta del Este is considered to be one of the most luxurious and glamorous beach cities in South America - even Ralph Lauren was sighted here! Below you will find a few pictures of these places but not too many as we need to get on to the greener pastures. Opposite to us, August in Uruguay is middle of the winter – that is why you will see quite a few cloudy and cold images. Aqui vamos!
Now some images from Santa Teresa National Park. This gorgeous and expansive park has different beaches, a cultural center, a small museum, a bird aviary, various gardens and this large stone and glass greenhouse.
The pictures below show the typical Uruguayan countryside. Typically it is greener but this year there was a bad drought and everything is a little more “toasted”. As you will see, cows run freely in a vast extension of land. Red meat is the mainstay of the uruguayans diet – they eat it every day! When you ask if the beef is grass fed you’ll get a weird look: “of course it is, what else do cows eat?”
And for all the gardeners / surfers … here you have the last pic. The waves are not as consistent as on our West Coast of California but if you are lucky to time it right, you are going to have plenty of uncrowded fun!
Wow – I learned quite a few things about Uruguay and I hope you will too. Thanks to Lucy for this great post and all her beautiful photos – you rock girl!
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