Day 2: Montevideo, Uruguay

Im here in Uruguay with 17 other teachers (and their guests), who all travel with students like I do. 90% of them are high school Spanish teachers, so they also love languages. My people! The fun part is being with people who like what I like (travel, teens, adventure), who are from Tennessee and Colorado and Pennsylvania and all over the USA. We are in an unprecedented time in America, as Biden just dropped out of the presidential race three months before the election. I’m in heaven talking to people of all different viewpoints. I love hearing why people think the way they do. Being with people who think differently than I do is a great joy.

Jim and I arrived a day earlier than the group so we had a free morning. We took a long walk along La Rambla—a 22 km boardwalk. Machines clean the sand every day, so the beach is especially pristine

We took the public bus to the old town and poked around.

I have a new favorite artist: Juan Torres Garcia. With just a few strokes he communicates deep thoughts. His message in the following picture encourages people of South America to turn their values upside down because our time is short (the sun and moon), and turn to values of travel (ship), faith (the cross, where Uruguay is), love of family (the Xs), and food (the fish.)

We had dinner with seven new teacher friends with lots of laughing, good stories and amazing food. The steak here is so flavorful and inexpensive. There are four cows for every person in Uruguay. This time we knew to order one small steak to share, and it was plenty. Uruguayans apparently have a lot of health problems because of the amount of beef they eat, and also because they eat it with big servings of fries.