Upon leaving my first Diplomatic assignment to the American Embassy Mexico City, where by the way, I was assigned to the same office as Aldrich Ames (America's biggest and most damaging spy in history but we didn't know that at the time), we transferred to Montevideo Uruguay.
Until that time, if you had asked me where Uruguay was located..I would probably have thought it to be somewhere around Ireland. We learned very quickly however, several things in short order. Uruguay is on the East side of South America..between Argentina and Brazil. Secondly we learned that air travel is more difficult/expensive to South America simply because it is not nearly as traveled as the European Routes.
Montevideo Uruguay is located on the north side of the River Platte and the river Platte, at this point is very wide..probably 70 miles across because it is at the outlet into the South Atlantic. We extended our tour in Uruguay to almost 5 years because it is a lovely tour. My youngest son Todd was with us then, in his Junior Year of High School. He in fact Graduated high school in Montevideo, class of 1986 along with 8 of his classmates..that's right 8. He attended the "American School", a small school which in reality was a College Prep school, where influential (rich) citizens of Uruguay could send their college bound children so they would study alongside English Speaking students (Mostly from the American Embassy) in preparation for College or University in the United States. What a beautiful life. After WWII, many of the high ranking Nazi's fled Germany to Uruguay. Hence, there is a large percentage of European Blood..lots of blond blue eyed people.
Uruguay is a "Meat-eating" society...no beans or potatoes...just meat. It has the highest rate of colon cancer in the world. No matter where you go, you can't get away from the smell of roasting meat..it's everywhere..They use the Arabian style grill..no charcoal..but big logs. Each block will have several "Parrilla's (grills). When you walk inside, you will see a huge fire with 2 ft logs roaring away. The meat is not over the fire however..In front of the fire..there is a huge custom made grill, similar to a chain-link fence but with a smaller mesh. The meat is placed on this, then with a long poker with an L-hook on the end..the parrilla Master drags hot coals from under the fire and positions them below the meat. In that manner..the heat never fades as it does on our grills because he simply drags more hot coals forward when needed. As each piece of meat is finished cooking..he moves it to warming trays higher up and close to the crackling logs to keep warm.
But this is supposed to be about the Love Boat!
As mentioned above, Montevideo is on the north side of the River Platte. About 70 miles south, on the other side of the river is Buenos Aires Argentina. There are 3 basic ways to visit Buenos Aires. You can fly..takes about 20 minutes. You can take the Hydrofoil, takes about 2 hours, or you can take the Love Boat.
The love boat departs Montevideo at 8 PM daily. You check aboard and are assigned to a stateroom with a nice double bed. Once unpacked in your stateroom..you generally go to the bar..(Couple of pictures of the bar at the top of this blog). There is a dining room..and there is a disco. The idea is to spend a lovely evening at the bar, where you can meet very interesting people. For example, you will notice a lady sitting at the bar beside Janey. We didn't know her at the time this pic was taken...but later she was joined by her husband, and we enjoyed a beautiful dinner together, and later dancing at the disco..It would be weeks later when we became aware from the news media that her husband was a very high official on the President's Cabinet (Argentina).
We retired to our Stateroom about 2 AM and had a good nights sleep, waking up about 9 the next morning...looked out our porthole..and we were docked in Buenos Aires!
Buenos Aires people are called "The French of South America". Janey found it disgusting to watch Argentine men, sit in bars/cafes, and preen and primp..just like women folk. They try to accomplish all this without the use of a compact mirror however. Like Uruguay, they are meat eaters and Argentine Beef is famous the world over. I will post a couple of pics of our favorite restaurant in Buenos Aires. The entrance to the Estancia is flanked by two stuffed bulls. The "mostrador", the big window in front exhibits a fire inside with about a dozen entire carcasses impaled on swords surrounding the fire (picture). Inside, if you come a little early (Argentine s don't eat until around 9 PM..so we go in about 8 PM. You will find yourself in a restaurant that will accommodate a hundred or more, and often, we are the only ones here (Pic).
My 18-year old son liked to accompany us, and our favorite order was to ask first for a grilled Provolone "entremeses" appetizer. It is a 2 inch thick slice from a whole Provolone, grilled just like a steak, with olive oil and oregano. We call it a cholesterol bullet. It's fabulous! Next we ask for a particular steak..this one steak was a large portion of a cow. It would be about 3 inches thick..maybe 8-10 inches across, and is brought to the table on a earthen contraption which consists of a bowl-like lower portion with hot charcoal in it, and atop that the large iron platter with the Hugh chunk of cow sizzling away. Even as big/thick as it was, it was so juicy and tender you could tear it apart with a fork. The three of us have never been able to get completely through one of these in combined effort..ONE CAN PAY ALL THE WAY UP TO 3 BUCKS FOR SUCH A STEAK! All this is accompanied by fries, of course, and a green salad, and a huge earthen pitcher of house wine.
Yes, it was a rough life...BUT SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT!
