Things are different, but are they really...

For those of you who are following our adventure blog you know that we got broken into and the robbers took the safe. In that safe was our passports. For us to replace our passports we had to get new ones by going to the US Embassy in Montevideo (1.5 hour drive). On our drive to Montevideo we thought we would make a day of it and catch some sites around town and Karen joined us. ( Thank Goodness) So, we all fit into our little red car and started on our journey. Cory was driving...along just fine. Driving here is interesting, they drive fast sort of in their lanes sort of not. The cops parol the roads by sitting in their cars and a few of them are besides the road with whistles. They are very aggressive when they whistle you over. How do we know this...well Cory ran a yellow light just like you would in the states. Actually it would of been worse if he would stomped on his brakes because the car behind us would of probably rear ended us. Anyway, try explaining that to a police officer who just gives you the citation and then tells you to go down the road 3 lights take a left and there will be a white building where they will tell you how much it is and you can pay it there. Before we get into that, keep in mind we don't speak Spanish and the policeman doesn't speak English except "you go"! Luckily we had Karen with us who speaks and understands Spanish. She tried to talk our way out of it, but nope. "You Go" to the blanco building. (okay that is my Spanglish, buy also his bad English). Anyway...we get the "citation" we have to go figure the rest of it out. We find the white building and when we walked in I felt like I had just entered a DMV in the States. The ones in the States are better organized believe it or not. So, we wait in one line to find out the cost of the citation by a young girl at a computer who consults with 3 guys behind glass who give her the amount $3000 ($120usd) and that is with a 20% discount if we pay today. But, we don't pay her she issues us a number and we have to go stand in a huddle of people who are all waiting for their number. Amazingly enough the mood was calm considering they were 50 numbers from our issued number. Oh, yeah this is all just written down on a piece of paper; the amount and our number. Karen tells her we need to get to the US Embassy by a certain time to get our stolen passports replaced. The lady was nice enough let us go and told us we could come back whenever and pay it. So, we leave with a citation in a foreign country on a rental car we are turning back in tomorrow. Moral Dilema! The whole situation was funny...because Department of Motor Vehicles are really the same everywhere. We also decided this is how they have such nice roads here. Toll roads and hight citations. I am also convinced that red cars do get more tickets, since we have been pulled over 2 times in 1 month here. We only got a citation one time. The first time he was just doing random checks to see if people had the correct paperwork. Which we didn't have and he was nice enough to let us go back to the house and get it.
Chow

Our list of sites to see!

Hola Familia and Amigo's
We have had quite a week exploring Uruguay. As I mentioned it is a beautiful country filled with alot of culture. It is more than just nice beaches where rich Argentinians go to vacation during their summer months. Below are pictures of what we have been doing. The weather has been really hot the late part of last week, 88ish with high humdity of 94% or so. Great days to spend at the beach. The other days we have been exploring.

A little exciting news. Last Friday the 13th we went to Carnival in downtown Punta Del Este and Karen went with us. So this was the first night where we were all gone at the sametime. Well...we got broken into. They were smart robbers. They climbed up the backside of the house onto our master bedroom balcony, used a crow bar to break the lock (french doors), the alarm goes off, they pry the safe off the wall in the closet, throw it down, and leave with the entire safe! They did nothing else. Well, they didn't have time with the alarm blarring and they new the police would be on their way. They were looking for money. I just put $200 in the safe of US$ because I didn't want to take it with me. However our passports were in there as well. So, now we have to go to the US Embassy in Montevideo and get new passports! Crazy! Not a good feeling to get home at 2am and have your landlord waiting for you. I guess this is what happens when you visit high tourist areas. I don't want to just accept it, but what are you suppose to do. Thankfully we did everything right. Didn't keep alot of cash in the house and I we carry copies of our passports with us. On the good side we get to go to Montevideo!

Enjoy the pics!

Tambo el Sociego Farm

Ava feeding a baby cow.

Kai feeding a baby cow.

Ava milking a cow. She got to drink the milk she got from the cow. Amazing it was chocoloate! (they put chocolate in the cup)

Kai milking a cow also!

Ava eating a pancake with Dulce de Leche! Yummy! We will be bringing home as much as we can pack in our bags. I actually made myself sick!


We went to a local farm who is famous for the Dulce de Leche. To best describe it is as YUMMY! Kind of tastes like carmel, but not as sweet. Well it is sweet, but...hard to explain. I don't think I have met a person down here who does not love it. While we were at the farm there was alot for the kids to do. They got to milk a cow, feed a baby cow, see cow's hooked up and milked automatically by the machine, and we all go to eat a pancake (crepe) filled with YUMMY Dulce de Leche. It was a very nice afternoon. See below about the farm....

Tambo el Sociego is a dairy farm, founded with the goal of combining the rural countryside with the culture of the land, and have this be accessible to tourists. The farm provides free guided tours. Children can pet and bottle feed baby domestic animals; adults can observe the traditional ways of the Uruguayan people of the land. Horseback riding is available. They take wonderful care of their animals here on the farm. Tambo el Sociego produces a variety of milk products, which you can enjoy. They are most famous for their Dulce de Leche which is a delicious, thick, spreadable caramel. You can try it on their pancakes (panqueques). It's awesome!

Casa Pueblo - Punta Ballena, UR

Casa Pueblo

View from where we had a cup of coffee.

Another view from one of the balconies in the museum.

A picture of one of his original paintings. It was standing in front of a window and the sun was shining thru it. I think this one cost over $20k

Casa Pueblo has all these great windows that frame the beautiful views. It was fun to explore and see how the different views were framed thru these windows. Just amazing!

____________________________________________________________________

Cory and I went to Casa Pueblo which is in Punta Ballena. (South of Punta Del Este about half an hour) Punta means point or pennisula in Spanish. What a beautiful place. We took the turn into Punta Ballena and drove along the ridge you could see both sides of the water from the ridge. It was a gorgeous day. Breath taking views. We visited Casa Pueblo which is a hotel, spa, and art Museum of Carlos Paez Vilaro a famous Uruguayan artist who built Casa Pueblo and displays his lifes work there.

A visit to the local ZOO!

Black Swan!

Baby Monkey!

Monkey just sitting there. It looked like he was watching TV.

Beautiful Parrot!

Some sort of mountain cat.

The kids, Karen, and I went to the local Zoo. It was a small zoo that was clean and well kept animals. It had a large variety of cats, monkeys, local animals, and birds.

We are coming home!

Hola Familia y Friends,

This has been such an amazing journey and we have learned so much about other countries. We have learned to cook everything from scratch because you can't just go to the grocery story and by pancake mix, hummus, pasta sauce, salsa, etc. You have to buy all the ingredients and do it yourself. Which I am having alot of fun doing. Having the time to do it fun. We have met amazing people along our journey we will be freinds with for a long time. But, even with having a fabulous time we are homesick and can't wait to sleep in our own bed, sit in our own house, and play with our dog. We will be arriving back in the States on April 15th! We have decided that with all that is going on in the World it is not the time to start/buy a business bases on Tourism. So back to the States we come with an amazing adventure under our belts and time with the kids we will never forget! Remember this is the Streeter's talking we could get back and really miss Costa Rica or Uruguay and figure out a way to come back. But, after talking to several people about Portland and Oregon in general we realized we live in an amazing part of the World ourselves.
See you all soon!

Museo Del Mar 2/12/09

The kids getting eatin' by a shark!

Seashell collection at the museum! It was amazing they had sea shells from all over the world of all shapes and sizes.

Skeltons of sharks!

A real fish! Actual size. I forgot what kind, but amazing!

Skelton of a hump back whale!

Yesterday we took the kids to "Museo del Mar" (Museum of the Sea). It was an amaizing place filled with actual skeltons of whales, sharks, sea lions. All kinds of birds from all over the world that live near the sea. The history of seashell and how ancient they are, before the dinosaurs. There was also an area dedicated to the Pirate history of Uruguay. I have attached some of the pics I took. ( I took 35) Click on this link and you can see the website of the Mueseo.

http://www.museodelmar.com.uy/en/index.html

It was started by a young man who collected sea shells when he was a boy. He wanted a place to display them to share with others. He would charge a small fee to cover his costs. Then it has grown into an amazing museum of the sea!

Around Punta Del Este, UR

Family Picture - so much fun!

Punta Del Este Lighthouse - Still working!

Jose Ignacio lighthouse, south of where we are staying. Also still working. Funny story on the way to visit the beach and the lighthouse. We were just driving along enjoying the view along the coastal road and then a cop appears up ahead. I wasn't speeding, but he was just pulling people over to check identification and what not. So guess what...he signalled for me to stop and pull over. He is speaking spanish to us and of course we don't understand it. He says..."American". We say "Si" But, then he just keeps speaking in Spanish. Long story short...we didn't have any ID on us besides copies of our passports. Thru alot of hand signals we told him we would go get it and come back, because he wouldn't let us go any further. So, we turned around went and got it came back and showed it to him. Thank goodness he would of taken the car and arrested me. EEKS! With that delay in our day we missed hiking up the lighthouse 120 steps by 3 minutes. So, we went to the park and Ava fell down and scraped her knee really bad. Just one of those days. We can go back to climb the 120 steps. It is not to far.

Around Punta Del Este, UR

We have had a lot of fun exploring our new home away from home the last few weeks. The kids have had a alot of fun catching small crabs with their nets. We brought 2 of them home, but they escaped. Thank goodness they were outside. We have also expolored the local parks. The 4th picture down is of Punta Del Este from the mansa side (the river side). Those tall buildings are all condo's. Punta Del Este is where all the rich and famous come to vacation from Argentina and Brazil. Google Punte Del Este and you can read all about it!

We are in the Southern Hemisphere!

Below are several pictures that I have taken over the last week. We got into Uruguay in the early morning of January 27th. That started our adventure and our realization that we could possibly be the only English speaking people for miles around. Now it was 5:30am in the morning and we had been up for 24 hours traveling with ALOT of baggage and kids, but it took us 3 attempts to get the paperwork right to get thru customs. "Oh she wants us to fill out 2 forms for each of us". Anyway...we made it! But, it is true not that many people speak English and we are fumbling our way thru. We can order at a restaurant, buy groceries, and do the day to day stuff. However, don't try to have a conversation with me because I don't know what you are saying and you don't know what I am saying. One of our goals on this adventure was to learn more Spanish so we are going to find a language school for us to attend. Last week we just got organized and figured out the lay of the land, where do we get groceries, where is the local cafe, where is the beach...basically how to live. The weather is beautiful this time of year but it was cold and very raining for about 3 days last week. They really needed it because it had not rained here in 5 months. We think we brought the Oregon rain! Big changes compared to Costa Rica - the ocean is cold here! It was about 78 degrees in Costa Rica (tropical) and the water here is about 65-68 degrees. And...it is only about 80 degrees here not 90! But, the biggest of all is that we have a women by the name of Karen (from Chicago) who is the kids homeschool teacher. She has been here for only a day and she is great. She is living with us as part of her pay. We have a "maids" quarter out back which is her space. We call it the "teacher" room! She is fluent in Spanish, so that should also help! That is about all we have been up to this week. Uruguay is a very beautiful place. Beaches, sand dunes, long ocean grasses, pine trees, and crisp ocean breezes. From our house you can be out in the country with in 5-8 min ride. All the development is along the coast line. Oh, also a big change is we have internet at the house! So, you should see more postings from me. Chow!

Ava lost her first tooth!

BIG NEWS! Ava lost her first tooth! We didn't even know it was loose. We were in the car and she said "Daddy I am bleading" and on the seat next to her in the car was her tooth. She received $30 Uruguain Peso's from the tooth ferry! (Rich - A little over a dollar)

Our house in Uruguay!

This is our house in Uruguay. It is only 3 blocks from the beach and we can hear the ocean . The name of our house in "Pura Vida". Which ironically is a Costa Rican motto- meaning pure life. It is commonly said in Costa Rica, but our house is in Urugay. They guy we rented it from used to live in Costa Rica. That is our little red car parked out front. It is very compact, but is fine for what our needs are. It is a great house on a double lot so the kids can play out side! Almost all the houses down here have built in BBQ's which we are really loving. They BBQ with real wood! Such a nice flavor to whatever you are cooking. We don't have a dryer down here, so we use a clothes line! Things you take for granted, dishwasher and clothes dryer! We are really enjoying the house it has 3 french doors that open out to the yard and big patio out back. It is a great indoor/outdoor living house. Home away from home!

Uruguay!

1st picture: Kids eating at McDonald's in Punta del Este. They have not seen a McD's in 2 1/2 months. The fries taste the same, but they didn't have ketchup.

2nd picture: Kids looking out at the water!

Uruguay!

1st picture: Fish market - fresh off the boats!

2nd picture: At the end of the pier

3rd picture: The Yachy Cory and I are going to buy! Someday...maybe?

4th and 5th picture: "The Hand" was done by a Spanish artist. It looks like a hand is coming up out of the sand.