A Botanical Garden in MVD

For those of you who don't know it yet or need a reminder, the seasons down here in South America are the reverse of what's happening up North. While my calendar says, the month of October, normally Autumn/Fall in the USA, it's really only just hitting springtime here, think April.

This last month has been rainy, windy and cold just like a chilly March in Seattle. I did have some daffodils come up a month ago, which I enjoyed looking at but personally, I can't really enjoy gardening or being in one when it's cold.  The good thing about Uruguay is that just when you think you will develop a permanent depression from the lack of sunshine due to overcast days and chilling winds, along comes a hot and sunny day thrown into the mix. We get several of those each month and then you are surprising wearing shorts during the day, when just the night before you went to bed in your robe and wearing a knit hat to keep warm.

I was hoping for such a day to show up because a visitor was planning to come to Uruguay for a vacation trip. Well, after a week of cold and rain, I at least got a slightly warmer but overcast day to play tour guide with. I traveled by bus down to Montevideo and we met at Tres Cruces, a shopping mall and bus station combo in downtown Montevideo.

There, we hoped on a bus, across the street from the mall, on Avenida Artigas and caught the # 187 bus to travel up to the Botanical Garden/Jardín Botánico. It's located in the area called the Prado.

Avenida 19 de Abril, a beautiful neighborhood called El Prado

Beware that there are 2, number 187 buses. You have to take the one that says, 187 Paso Molino (molino, means "mill" and paso can mean, "passing/passage" among other things), otherwise you'll end up in a slightly different place. From Tres cruces the bus fare was only 21 pesos. My friend had studied horticulture with a one time idea of becoming a landscape architect, so a trip to a public garden seemed appropriate. Besides, you know me, the entrance to the garden is free!

Notice the cool artsy mail box on the first house, it looks like an African mask

The Prado neighborhood has some beautiful grand old houses in it, many of which have been converted into schools and other such things because of their size. The neighborhood is well-treed.

After asking everybody on the bus when we should jump off the consensus was to pass a grocery store called Tienda Inglésa and that we would then be at the backside of the garden on Avenida Atilio Pelosi, located at address 11700 (in MVD). After a little old lady kept saying get off now! We jumped off the bus and walked 1/2 a block to the entrance.

The garden was established by Professor, Atilio Lombardo. On arriving, I just had to have an obligatory picture taken of myself, to show I was there. I often don't get included in my blog because I am the photographer in the family.

Mono means one; I was told that the rest of the sign means; the first leaf/s showing on an emerging shoot.

The second photo directly above is not a monument to Professor A. Lombardo but rather that of       Dr. Albert Boeger, a German Agronomy engineer (study of crop production) from Westfalia, Germany.  In 1911/12 the ROU (government of Uruguay) contacted him to come and start a program for the betterment of principals of cultivation. In 1914 he founded "La Estanzuela" near Colonia (Uruguay) later called (1919), the National Seed Institution... to investigate the study and selection of seeds, particularly wheat seeds to cultivate in this country. In 1918, his research team released the first Uruguayan wheat varieties. He continued in the forefront of this research until his death in 1957. He has a plaza named after him near Colonia.

The Wikipedia says that a botanical garden is a well tended area displaying a wide range of plants labeled with their botanical names. It may contain specialized plant collections ..., plants from particular parts of the world and so on. There maybe green houses and shade houses again with special collections such as tropical plants.....

This botanical garden has divided itself into regions like Uruguay, Africa and Asia along with their plants, so you can essentially walk around the world during a visit, plant-wise.



According to this wiki definition, the garden that I visited in the Prado neighborhood is a true botanical garden, although many of the plant labels are sadly worn or missing. Even if you are not into plant identification the garden is just nice to walk around in. I would recommend waiting until better weather to do so.

The last photo shows what's called Cypress trees' knees. When the roots need to breath they send these up in wet soil.

When you get tired of strolling through the garden it's also a great place just to sit in, especially under a grand shade tree.

The wiki article talked about green houses and I found one, knocked on the door and asked if I could go inside. There was a man inside and he said, he didn't think so. Then a beautiful little girl about 7 or 8 years old, said she would run and go ask her mother, if we could come inside. Sure enough a lovely lady came to the door and said yes, I could come inside. So guest and I started wandering around the hot house. We asked, if it has to be heated during these cold months and she said yes, they have a heating unit to do so. It's naturally hot in summer.

At first, the greenhouse looked pretty no nonsense but as we were allowed to explore on our own, it became quite magical. We stepped through an old interior doorway and the elegance of the structure showed itself.

The glass was dirty but the iron framed window panes were truly lovely. I could see why the little girl wanted us to see what she and her mother get to enjoy.

After the greenhouse visit, we went in search of the museum but sadly the sign said that it was permanently closed for reformation.

I guess that means renovation and repairs. It has been closed, for a while now, since last year (2012), it was also closed. I guess the use of the word "permanente" means, don't bother asking us when it will reopen. I did ask however, if I could step inside and take a photo from the doorway. They said, yes/Sí.

Then we sat on this bench and looked at the lovely planted urn. Since this is early in the growing season, I sadly missed, seeing the outside of the museum in all of its glory. I have seen photos of the ivy covered facade and it was gorgeous! As I was looking at the bare and twisting branches, I couldn't help but think, I will now suggest not coming here until everything is in full bloom or leaf in this case.

In the future I want to go to the (somewhat) nearby Japanese garden behind the Blane Museum, also in the Prado area. I wanted to do that on this visit as well but unfortunately my visitor had aching legs having walked throughout Old town (ciudad viejo) and Montevideo on first arriving here in Uruguay a day earlier. I would and will next time on visiting this neighborhood just hail a taxi cab (quite reasonably priced here) and indulge my longings. Even I, know when to splurge, just a little, to be able to stroll down a garden lane.

Quinoa!

Truck selling Quinoa y etc...

I don't claim to be a cook but sometimes recipes find me and I feel compelled to pass them along.

That's what happened when I was introduced to the side dish Quinoa at a dinner, the first of this year.

Despite it's being hailed as the new "superfood" back in the USA, I had never heard of the stuff. I wasn't sure if it was a grain or a very fine pasta similar to couscous, or what? Nope! It's a seed!

It's grown high up in the Andes mountains, right here in South America in Ecuador and Bolivia. It can be cultivated at altitudes of 10,000 feet. Unlike me, the Incas knew its value all along calling it, "Chisaya mama" (the mother of all grains), as mentioned in "Mother Nature Network".
Obviously, it's not new at all, but has been enjoying recent popularity.

Click on the above "superfood" link for this and other information on it's nutritional content. It's considered a "superfood" because of it's high protein content and 8 essential amino acids, thus it's great for Vegetarians as an important part of their menu. It contains no gluten or wheat!

What does this have to do with Uruguay? Well, it's sold here in grocery stores and at the feria. After that dinner party, Wally said that he liked the dish and felt we should add it to our home cooked menu. Something other than mashed potatoes or rice or pasta as a starch would be nice. I looked in at our little neighborhood "mom and pop" store (almacen) and sure enough there was a bag of it, 500 grams for 70 pesos (about $3.75). Still, since this was the first time that I was going to make it or try to cook it, I cheapen out at the last minute and didn't want to spend that much for an experiment. How surprised I was to find out that it was also available at the feria, our local weekly farmer's market.

As I was waiting in line at the "Truck" that was selling it, along with the dried prunes and peanuts that I usually buy there, several women saw me peeking at the product in the glass case. Many didn't know what it was either. One woman (also in line) seemed to be in the know and said something in Spanish, to the effect that it could be used, whatever way, you wanted to use it, meaning sweeten or used as a salted dish. I chimed in that someone had served it to me as a side dish instead of rice. So since you can readily buy it here and yet many people don't normally use it, I thought I'd share what I learned on how to prepare and cook it.

Since I hadn't bought the store package but had bought it loose (suelto) in bulk at the feria, @13 pesos for 100grams, I had no idea or directions to follow on how to cook it. I had bought 200 grams of the stuff (about a full cups' worth) for 26 pesos (about $1.40).

 I obviously," Hablé por teléfono" (I called up) the person who first served it to me. Well, that person had used his up and no longer had the package hence the directions. Still, what is great is watching the expat connection spring into action. He emailed another expat and soon I was emailed the directions by that expat! Thanks, Tim!!!

It is vital that you rinse these little seeds again and again! I did it 3 times! The seeds don't look dirty but they have a bitter tasting coating called Saponins which makes it unpalatable.

Cover it with water, then slosh it around to remove the bitter saponins. Rinse and repeat.

The interesting thing is that, in North America this coating is usually already rinsed off for the consumers but here in South American countries it's left for you to do that. If you don't rinse it, enough times, the taste is like earthy green slime without the slickness, I was warned about this. The Wikipedia link is really interesting about it's history etc... just click on the link "Saponins", located above in brown.

The seeds start out light colored but the end product (after it's cooked) takes on a golden color. The result is light and fluffy. I think it needs some kind of seasoning though (perhaps a little bit of butter and more salt) because totally plain it has (to me at least) an earthy taste/quality but then again I feel that way about natural brown rice and whole wheat. It's definitely good for you and keeps the menu varied!

It's just like cooking rice!
Recipe:1 part Quinoa to 2 parts water

Start by
Rinsing and draining. Rinse and drain and rinse and drain!
Bring your water to a boil
add salt to the water (to your liking)
add the drained, washed Quinoa
Bring to a boil again
then lower the heat.
Cover and simmer for 15 minutes!
Eat and Enjoy (it's really fluffy and light)

Note: I cooked 1 cup of the Quinoa in 2 cups of water with a little salt. After it was cooked, I added a little butter and more salt (to my liking). That amount can easily serve 4 people as a side dish.

I'll try and be on the lookout for anymore interesting foodstuffs being sold in those feria trucks and stands.

I would normally say right now, that it just goes to show, you're never too old to try new things, except that today, I went to an Asado/ a BBQ, given by some friends and I "passed" on eating, not only the cow's tongue but also on the salvia glands of a cow! So, instead I'll say, you're never too old to "learn about" something new! Quinoa, you don't have to be daring to try it. Enjoy!

 

RESTORATION !!!

In my blog, I often write about once beautiful buildings here in Uruguay that have fallen into disrepair or have been completely abandoned.

So you can imagine, how "thrilled" I was, to finally see an impressive historical gem of a building restored! The Mercado Agricola was declared an Historical National Monument in 1999. This century old space was restored by investing some 11 million dollars (US) into renovating it. This building was newly re-opened to the public on June 29th, of this year (2013). It is now, a "must see" place to visit!!!

In the barrio Goes, near the Palacio Legislativo (Legislative Palace) is the newly restored Mercado Agricola (Agriculture Market). The foundation stone for this historical structure was laid on December 30th 1906. Work continued in ernst on it in 1910 and it was completed on November 30th 1912. It was officially inaugurated in 1913. It was designed by the architects Antonio Vázquez and Silvio Geranio.

The restoration included reconstruction of both the decorative and functional elements of the building including the facades. The original metallic braced structure with columns of iron and roof truces was modeled after the Mercado de Les Halles in Paris. This metallic design allows room for grand spaces underneath with few supporting points impeding the vast space.  This is a similar style to the Mercado del Puerto built in 1868 also in Montevideo, near Ciudad Viejo (old town).

The iron (hierro) roof structure is 5,867 sq. meters and had once belonged to a structure from the Great International Exposition in Brussels, Europe. It was obtained for this Mercado (market) in Uruguay by the then President José Batlle y Ordoñez after a visit he made there.

The entrance facade that faces the street called José L. Terra was done in ceramic work after the European style of the day. The date 1910 is also in ceramic. That date reflects when the work was fully involved.

Credit for the revitalization goes to the City Hall or the Intendencia de Montevideo!

I must say that the attention to detail and the quality of the restoration impressed me and I can be hard to impress at times!

Inside is a grand market place as the name Mercado suggests! It has a food court, restaurants, vegetable markets, spices and etc.... There are 107 businesses inside.

It also has a coffee enterprise that sells and grinds beans for expresso and coffee. The important thing for people who live here to know is that 3 of the whole bean offerings are not only your choice of mild, medium or strong/fuerte taste but those beans are NOT GLASEADO!! That means the beans were not roasted with sugar as is the custom here! Three other beans choices also in mild, medium and strong flavors are roasted with the sugar.

Beer on tap. The Choperia Mastra sells speciality made beers.

A friend named Syd wrote in TripAdvisor about the Choperia Mastra. An artisan chop or beer house serving 10 beers on tap! I was attentive to his description of an Amber beer he ordered called the Del Mercado that had hints of apple and cinnamon flavoring (notar un sabor a manzanas y canela).

A cute vignette set up. Detail of the cobblestone pattern. 

The inside of the Mercado has wide aisles with beautiful cobblestone floors, the original market had cobblestones inside too. There are many interesting and cute places to look and eat at .

The prices are reasonably competitive. Unfittingly, there is even a Falafel place in the market called Bárbaro (Barbaric), which is a term of admiration here. You can take a peek at their prices and menu. Foreign food is a rarity here, so anytime you can get it, it's a treat. Just don't expect fast service.

If you are ever in Montevideo and want something to do under cover then by all means stop in at the Mercado Agricola and enjoy this newly restored gem! The hours are from 8am to 10pm (8 a 22hrs.).

Through My Window!

One thing that I enjoy about having a blog is that it gives me an excuse to tell people what's happening in my life and in Uruguay. This last weekend, July 28th, was our 40th Wedding Anniversary!!!
Thanks to our Amigos, I had a nice time that day.

Weather-wise, we have been going through a cold spell, as mentioned in an addendum to my last post. Yes, I know that it's winter down here but we have had some "Arctic blasts" of cold air for a week. We have also had surprisingly, 2 really warm days thrown into the mix, I didn't even use my wood stove during them.  I also took advantage of the warm reprieve and mowed my back lawn! Yeah for me, because it was "just in time", as today it's rainy and has gone back to being cold again, burr.

Another thing, that I enjoy about having a blog is that it gives me an excuse to take lots of pictures.

Most of the time my posts are about different situations, I find myself in here in Uruguay. I help describe them visually to you readers by including photos. I try to always take a "positive spin" on the event and include any lessons I might have learned. Sometimes though, I don't feel like wondering what my next post will be about, I just like chilling out at home staring out my window and if an idea occurs to me so much the better.

You would think that in a neighborhood where maybe 1 car an hour drives by that there wouldn't be much to see or photograph but with a blogger's mentality and an enjoyment of taking photos you'd be amazed!

So the rest of this post has no real story, events, situations or any lessons learned but is simply some of the cool things I have seen through my window. I actually have 3 large picture windows in my house so my line of sight has helped me capture these photos without even going outside!

On super lazy days "cloud watching" is enough. I recall as a child trying to see shapes in each cloud. Tropical fish swimming or chickens? Hum, I must be hungry. The middle picture has an actual jet plane flying up high that I spotted, the third cloud looks hungry, better hurry jet.

This double rainbow appeared last year, but I just had to include it here. Despite, its being seen and photographed by many people and even posted to Facebook by others, doesn't it seem to be ending right on the beach in front of my house? My picture window gave me a great view of it!

A cute red fishing boat usually goes about the waters in front of my house every morning in search, I think, for the medium size white fish that I see leap out of the water. I haven't learned what type of fish that they are yet. I'm not a morning person, so I'm glad that I can take these photos of the guys in their yellow slickers from inside. Notice the telephone wires. Most people would have edited them out but I left them in, to show that I didn't bother leaving my living room to get this shot.

Here is a closeup, I took to show the contrast between the little fishing boat and the larger ships.
Notice the large tankers and container ships shown in the background along the horizon. They are lined up and waiting to enter the Montevideo Port some 40 Kilometers (24 miles) away (counting by land).

I hope they're not afraid of birds! Any Alfred Hitchcock fans?

In summer there is a maned lifeguard station about 1/2 a block away. Someone must have gone missing  and others called in the coast guard because this larger vessel appeared. They seem to be searching the waters. I found out much later that there was a poster reporting a missing woman, connected, I don't know.

Most of the "through my window" sights, aren't so troubling. I just have to be quick enough in grabbing my camera to capture them. What a beautiful bird or is it a hawk?

Storms approaching, the water changing color during the day sometimes champagne colored, silver or even pink depending on the light and general sky watching is also enjoyable to see.

Then, once in a while, I am truly rewarded with a photo opportunity! I was so glad that I had my camera available for these shots!

These are also, some of the best full moon pictures that I have ever taken. What a combo!

I have seen these people in their flying machines go by before. They are not hang gliding, rather the sails are being held up by wind created using a large fan. You can hear these motors coming before you can see them fly by, so that gave me the time I needed to grab my camera. The style of each persons' flying machine is slightly different from each other. The person with a red sail sits in a chair like contraption with his little legs dangling in the wind. The guy with the blue sail has more of a dune buggy, car like structure that he rides and sails high in.

Through my window, I have seen horses and riders galloping by. This one seems to be prancing!

I've seen all kinds of birds including humming birds, boats, ships, and people on the beach, some windsurfing and others surf fishing.

There have been, "dogs in packs" running along the beach and at night fire flies, which I will try and capture in a photo one night.

All in all, if I keep my sense of wonder and a camera ready even a day at home, just looking through my window can be blog worthy. I hope you agree.

RUST!

One of the disadvantages of living near the beach is rust, the second is sand, carried by the wind it tends to cover everything. The sand I can take care of by dusting and sweeping daily. The rust that corrodes anything metal is a bigger problem for us because both Wally and I hate to paint!

So, instead of painting our old garbage can, we arranged to have it replaced with a  55 gallon drum (the garbage can style of choice here) with a new one. That project was way overpriced, I feel. A new can from the feria costs about 800 pesos and the Louis pair wanted 2500 pesos. Still, my old can would have to be removed, un-welded from it's stand and a new one installed. I also had upgraded the design years ago by having another Hierro guy add a lip or flat rim around the edge so that the can would close firmly.  This way I wouldn't cut myself on the thin edge having a rim installed. This new Hierro guy said he could use my old rim and give me a new installed drum can with it.

I wish I had asked the iron worker if he could have made me a new rim as well but I was trying to save money by having him use the old rim, (it was newer than the original can). I would have liked to have known, what he would have charged me for "my design" totally done up new. Most cans here, don't normally have that type of edge added. I guess I'm feeling kinda of petty right now because although the people of Uruguay are not particularly materialistic in the same way as back in the States (USA) I just noticed that today, my next door neighbor just got a "new trash can" from these same guys and they added "my trim design" to their new can. I don't know what they paid for it but because their can included a new rim, right from the beginning, not a cut out version, re-tacked onto their can. Their can looks so much better than mine does! The edge seams are not as ragged looking as mine. My neighbors also unknowingly have me to thank for another upgrade that I probably paid for them.

A few days after my can was installed, I went to dump my trash bag into it and I noticed, the title of this post, "RUST!" Again! This time the rust was inside the can. If unstopped I'd be right back where I started from. The workers had painted the outside green and I thought that the inside was coated with a silver paint as it was mat-like and looked painted.

I waited for a few days, after some rainy weather passed and bought some paint for rust prevention, a red paint sold here and also a spray can of silver paint to spray over the red paint when it dried. Remember, that I hate to paint! Well, when I went out to finally do the deed, that's when I saw my neighbor's can being installed, the neighbors were at work during the install. Well, I called the workers over, this time Louis the father was with his son and I showed them my rust problem. I said that the same thing would happen to my neighbor's can and that "they should have theirs also painted inside". The workers mentioned that they should "up the price" in the future to include that. I showed them my tiny can of red paint and the father offered to paint the inside bottom of the can with it. I then offered them 100 pesos if they could go and buy a bigger size can of red rust preventive paint and completely paint the inside for me, top and bottom. I mentioned that the neighbor should have their can painted as well. So off the father went to the store. Apparently, the bigger size can and his labor, cost me 150 pesos more (about $8) but it was worth it to get everything done. I asked if they had change for 200 pesos, they said they did, but then, could only find 40 pesos in change to give back to me. Then they painted my can and the neighbor's can completely inside. Something that I know, they had not intended to do for the neighbor as I saw the can installed and it was without paint inside of it, like mine was.

1) My neighbor's new can. 2) My can. 3) A  3rd. neighbor's can, standard original sharp-edge, rimless design. 

It's the weirdest thing how my mind works. I can be oddly generous and petty at the same time! How sad! I don't mind that I actually payed for the inside paint job of my neighbor's can, unbeknownst to them. I am glad I stopped a big future problem for their can. I am only "kind of miffed", that their can is so much more, better looking than mind is because of "my design" being incorporated new from the start into theirs. Their old can did not have this design feature. However, the really "petty thing" on my part is that I'm actually mad that I got shorted 10 pesos or .50 cents! Go figure? However, I guess if I really put things into perspective, it's really all just rust and garbage in the end. I think I'll go to the beach and remind myself of why I enjoy living here in Uruguay!

***July 20th, COLD, COLD, COLD!

This isn't worth adding an entirely new post about, so I'm linking it with this one.

Starting Thursday, July 18th, we were put on "Orange Alert" through Tuesday, because of an Arctic Cold Blast of weather. I sometimes forget, how close we are to Antarctica!  You can click on the link and read the newspaper in Spanish about what's expected to occur each day (Good practice if your moving here). I decided to load-up on my indoor firewood stock, so I wouldn't have to go outside during the night.  Normally, I just keep a few logs under the stove, not on the entire living room floor.

My fire keeping me warm. The sky at 10 am. Saturday!

It's going to be "the coldest week of the year". although 43 degrees F. to 46 during the days doesn't seem cold there will be frigid Polar cold waves. Seeing that it is now Saturday the 20th, I can attest to the fact that the nights are indeed not just chilly but biting cold! The sensation feels like 6 to 10 degrees below 0. Of course, that is 0 Celsius which means only from 24 F to 26 degrees F. Still, If it rained that would mean snow!  Argentina had snow one day about 5 years ago, Which was really big news!

I've used up 1 and 1/2 ton of firewood so far this winter as shown by the empty space.

I awoke to frost on my lawn. Even my cat who dashes out the door to escape whenever it opens decided he didn't need to go away today. He didn't even step on the frosty grass! Even Shila, my dog couldn't believe Nathan wasn't coming!

So this is what's happening weather-wise in Uruguay this week!