About Uruguay: What's It Like There?

In our continuing Saturday series on Uruguay, today I'll cover what it's like in Uruguay, focusing mostly on the capital city of Montevideo.

Despite that many people think Uruguay is "a small, obscure country in South America" (actually, that's me - I'm always teasing Leo that he comes from a "small, obscure country in South America"; it's a running joke at our house), Uruguay is much like a European country.

In the interior of the country, I'm told there are some forests, where one can find tarantulas, which should explain quite clearly why I've never ventured inland. ;) In the developed areas, however, Uruguay is a lot like any other city with a long and rich history.

In particular, Montevideo, with its multi-cultural architecture, intriguing sculpture, and monuments (several of them dedicated to important figures in education), multitude of restaurants, and copious boutiques and shopping malls, seems, in most ways, like any city you'd find in Europe. There's an older part of the city, where one can find a street market where artisans sell jewelry and handmade goods, and a newer part of the city, where one can buy the same electronics and name-brand merchandise you'd find anywhere in the States (albeit at a premium, due to import taxes).

But look a bit more closely and you'll see evidence of the country's not-too-distant dictatorial history; the Uruguayans suffered through military leadership from the early 1970s until it was overthrown in the mid-to-late 1980s. And if you look a bit beyond the mouthwatering cuisine and the stunning seaside views, even beyond the bit of political protest graffiti that remains here and there, you'll discover that the toll of the dictatorship on the Uruguayan people themselves still lingers just beneath the surface, making them fiercely independent, proud, and maybe even a little rebellious.

Which of course brings me to the next topic in this series: the beautiful temperament of the Uruguayan people. Tune in next Saturday!