Chau, Uruguay.

My time in Uruguay is coming to a close. I am very, very sad about it. This place not only has been my home for the last four months, it has been a place where I have learned so much about people and about Latin America. I know a lot of the time it seems like Uruguay gets pushed to the side, that they have a hard time competing with popular international destinations like England or France. But Uruguay is a wonderful place. As I reflect on my time here, there are a few things that I want to share that have made my time here in South America amazing.

Some of my favorite places in South America have been:Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is an amazing city. It is right next to Uruguay and has about 12 million people living in the city. It is a very important city in South America because of its size and location. Argentina is famous for its Asado

and for its particular dance, the Tango, whose origins are unkown, but it is known that they have stemmed from Argentinian ports.Tango is an extremely difficult dance to learn, but a beautiful once to watch.

Those are just some of my favorite things about Argentina. One of my favorite things that I cannot post is just the attitude of the people. They are some of the nicest and friendliest people I have met. They are different from the Uruguayans I know because they tend to make a lot more noise and use more handmotions when they talk, but they are just a fun group to be around. They are a very proud people with a rich history and a lot to offer to the world, besides only other countries in South America.

Lo Valdes, Chile
Lo Valdes is not even a major city, or even town, in Chile. It s about two hours outside the capital, Santiago, and we had to take a small, rickety van to drive up the mountains. Once you reach the top, the view is spectacular.From where we stayed, this is what we saw. Because it is not winter here, but fall, we did not get to see the Andes covered in snow. It still was spectacular, they were so big and the rocks were many different colors, like green, purple, blue, and teal. My friend and I hiked to the top of a volcano, I believe it was called Volcan San José. From afar, this is what it looks like.
This is what it looks like from the top, when we finally got there after hiking for 9 miles.
It was a beautiful view.

I do not believe that I have talked about it before, but one of the things that makes Uruguay very unique is a drink called maté. It is very common for everyone to walk around with their maté gourd filled with yerba, which are very similar to ground up tea leaves. They put the yerba in the maté and add hot water from a thermos that they carry around with them. Some people put their maté and yerba in a materia so that is it easier to carry. The tea has a very special, distinct taste. It's sort of bitter, not at all sweet. It is something that every Uruguayan either has tried or drinks on a regular basis.
This picture is a perfect example of how mate works. The maté is filled with yerba and steepin in the hot water. The silver tube is the straw that you drink the tea from. People in Uruguay drink it all the time, no matter what time of the day or night. I learned this the hard way, when I drank some of it late at night and I couldn't sleep for several hours afterward. When I first came to Uruguay, I thought it was an especially strange custom, because everyone walks around with a gourd and a thermos of hot water, drinking something that tasted very different and that had a lot of caffine. But after spending many months here, I have realized that it is something very special and important to the people that live here. I have also noticed that I have not seen as much maté in other countries that I have visited, such as Chile and Argentina.

These have been some of my favorite things in South America. I hope you've enjoyed the blog and I will see you back in the states soon!