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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Life Without Aldo

Well Aldo worked late last night to finish the last bit of Denise's bathroom. He will be gone for 2 months, during which time we are back on our own. But at least we have 2 nicely finished bathrooms to enjoy.

Don't try to adjust your monitor- the color in Denise's bathroom is pink (perhaps the color of her top gives you an idea that she likes pink). Mine is blue, hers is pink and we have custom signs- "Damas" y "Caballeros" being made for the doors. As you can see, Denise had the frameless glass bath enclosure installed that I have in my shower (if I had it, she needed it). We have wanted 2 bathrooms for almost 18 years and we had to move to South America to get them. Perhaps we should have looked into a home improvement loan in Seattle, but it is too late now.

Denise just came back from the farmer's market (feria) and bought all kinds of vegetables, fish and cheese. She spent $30 (US) but came back with a little wire cart full of groceries. And great quality, too.

The weather today is the best in weeks. Sunny, warm- so even though we are going to have to cope with things on our own, perhaps it will work out well, after all.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wally, Ray wants to know how the cost of living is down there, and I like everything you have done to your new home, it looks great.

Wally said...

I'm glad you enjoy the improvements. We have just begun- the bathrooms are the very basic necessity.

Cost of living. Hard to say. It costs and we are living. But seriously folks, it is hard to pinpoint. Electricity is expensive ($120/month), other utilities are cheap. Cable and internet are as expensive is US (and internet not nearly as fast). Gasoline is over $6 a gallon. But food- ah the food is great and seems about 1/3 to 1/2 as cheap, and the quality is superb. Health care is another matter. We are getting full coverage health care for under $70 a month (each). Other people have used this to get hip replacements and many other services- AT NO COST. And reportedly the level of care is as good or superior to the US.

So- we plan to be able to live here on social security and meager savings- something that would be impossible in Seattle. We are insanely happy that we made the move when we did and moved to Uruguay. Cost of living also does not take into account the quality of living- about which we have no complaints.