Hecho Aca (Made Here)

Last year, Wally and I enjoyed an Artisan Expo featuring Arts and crafts made by Uruguayos, hence the name of the show "Made Here" or as truly listed "Hecho Aca"!

Why mention this now? Well you guessed it! It's back again this year 2010, though it is being held in a different month than last years was, so you really have to keep track of these types of events. We went last year in August, 2009, this year it is being held this month (November). The Expo started Friday the 5th and runs till (and including) Sunday the 14th. It opens at 3Pm and closes down each night at 10Pm (22 hs, they use military time here) The cost for entry is $80 pesos.

While we enjoyed last years show, this one seemed a little bit smaller? I thought last years had 4 buildings worth of displays instead of this years 3, I could be wrong (Me??? haha). We bought a large picture there last year and still love it! This year we were on a similar mission to look for and hopefully buy some artistic bar stools. We are trying to bring our kitchen to a complete end by tying up all the nitsy little pieces/ends still left undone. I was hoping to see some cool tile pieces for our stove back splash area, but no! Nothing, was really practical for such a large scale project, so we concentrated on the bar stools instead. We sat our 'tushies" down on seats at three different vendors' stalls and almost made a purchase. We discovered, we have North American rear ends still (read wide or in Spanish, muy gorda- I, Denise am writing this article, so Wally's in the clear). Some of the stools were little round things that just didn't keep it all together if you know what I mean? One square bottomed metal stool almost was purchased but we would have had to wait until the fair's end and two days beyond that to get the order, as these metal chairs are individually made. So after walking around some more and taking photos of the show, we found a guy selling regular height metal chairs and asked if he had bar heights also. He said no, but could make what we wanted. That got us thinking, why not make some with the slightly (Hey!, only slightly!) bigger sized bum seats, beside his prices were way lower! We will get 2 chairs for the price of 1! So Wally and I have come home and are designing 2, to be made, "made to order", Or as Goldilocks said, "This one is just right!" We hope, that is what, we will say too! We'll let you know, how it turns out! (Whether, you want to know or not, sorry)

We have been impressed with the quality of the products shown each year and enjoy the different displays. Food, original style clothing and jewelry are just some of the items you'll find at the Hecho Aca Expo. As seen in one of the top photos they even had a demonstration showing how to stretch out and dry an animal skin (cow???) The photo above, (on the left) is of a Marble stone and Olive wood table, highly polished. The article/art piece on the right looked very Asian inspired to me, so there is something for everyone's taste at the show.   

Oh, you will be pleased to know at the food booths they offer free samples, kind of like Costco does in their warehouses. This is particularly great for an expat still learning what different foods taste like in Uruguay. Be aware though that they also offer little tastes of their specialty liqueur. Some are really potent, but so goooooooood! just kidding (NOT!)  for example, I learned the other day that we have a fruit tree called a "Nispera Tree" in our back yard. Wally says, "it's a Loquat tree". The fruit is the size and color of an Apricot without the fuzz and tastes kind of like a firm yellow plum. Well, they were giving out samples of whatever you wanted to try and they had NISPERA liquor. So naturally I had to try that, I will now be guarding my Nispera tree and trying to find out by next year how to make my own liquor! So you can see how important our going to Hecho Aca this year really was! I hope others will enjoy the expo as well.