Happens all the time

Judy. I have no idea why it should come as a surprise that, upon landing in Buenos Aires from Bariloche, we should run into Christina and José Mari at the baggage carousel. We were on different flights—they’d gone on to visit one of her brothers after our bus tour in Bariloche—but I saw a guy dashing around in florescent orange trimmed sneakers and orange florescent sunglasses, and knew it had to be José Mari. Sure enough, when I turned around, there was Christina’s smiling face recognizing me the moment I saw her. Of course we ran into friends. Happens all the time.

Holy cow--it's Christina!

After hugs and laughs, we sat down at a café to catch up before they had to fly on. Christina filled us in on another brother, who had been friends with Ché Guavera (what else did I expect) and the very un-socialist mansion he lives in. Life is funny like that. Before we left, we made plans to see them in Barcelona in October of 2020 before our repositioning cruise back to the US. Just another happy experience for us…

The next day we took the ferry down Rio de la Plata to Montevideo, Uruguay. The trip was pleasant and uneventful, and we disembarked prepared to locate a taxi and head to our hotel.

But when we stepped off the ship, we saw a beautiful young woman holding a handmade sign that read “Ted & Judy.”  Lucia had met us at the ferry to take us to our home for the week!

A fine welcome to Montevideo

 We met Lu and her husband Rafael two years ago on a beach in Malaysia, and swapped email addresses.  “You should come to Uruguay,” Lu had told us, “and look us up!” Between her invitation and the advice we found in a travel guide:  “The best beaches in Argentina are in Uruguay,” we had decided to give the country a try. We’d emailed with Lu to get input on good, reasonable hotels in the country, as well as some suggestions of places to visit, but we never expected to see her waiting for us, welcoming us to her country.

Lu and Rafa both work, and have a nine-month old son, Facu, as well, so their lives are pretty busy. Still, Lu checked on us through WhatsApp daily, suggesting restaurants or places to visit in Montevideo, and which places were safe or unsafe. I can’t begin to tell you how much it means, when you are in a new country, to have a friend making sure all goes well. José-Maria did the same for us in Gran Canaria. We can go about our lives, but have help when we need it.

And then Rafa and Lu invited us to their home for an asado.

This, my friends, is a real treasure. To have a barbecue in a restaurant is fine, but to go to someone’s home to see the way it’s really done is a gift.

Back in Johannesburg, Kobus and his son had made a braai, a South African barbecue, for us, and now we’d get a chance to not only spend time with new friends, but get a Uruguayan cultural immersion as well.

We rode via Uber to a suburb where Lu greeted us and opened the fence surrounding their home. Fences here no longer surprise us, as we see them often in Punta Carretas, the neighborhood where we’re staying. She reinforced that it’s necessary here: “We were broken into twice.” Evidently, the economic stability we thought we understood is not so much. All the other houses were fenced as well. This is how we learn.

A happy welcome from Facu

Lu walked us through their home to the back yard where Rafa has built the Man Cave Ted talked about in his last post. Wow! A huge parilla (grill), a bar, and his beer kegs (he makes his own). There’s a pool table, a full bathroom, a room upstairs (which he says will be for Facu when he’s a teenager). And there’s a tv for futbol, which Rafa tells us is a religion in Uruguay—not so different from SEC football in the southern US!   

The Parilla master at work

Between servings of grilled sausages, morcilla (blood sausage), sweetbreads, grilled provolone cheese, pork, and more kinds of beef than I can ever remember, we sipped on home brew and learned more about Lu and Rafa and about Uruguay. Lu is in marketing for Johnson & Johnson, and Rafa is a software engineer. They’re solidly middle-class. As in so many countries we’ve visited, this group is being economically squeezed. They work hard to maintain their lifestyle and still find time together, as well as finding joy in their family, their work, and their home. Rafa’s family lives nearby, so the tug of home is strong, and thoughts of moving to another country, which they could easily do, get pushed to the background.

While Ted and Rafa shot some pool, Lu and I finished off our dessert of dulce de leche ice cream (dulce de leche is a way of life here) and chatted some more. Periodically they checked on Facu, who was not the least bit interested in sleeping, till he finally fell asleep.

 

Lu and Rafa at home

Eleven o’clock came far too soon, and we headed back to the hotel so they could get some sleep before work the next day.

A couple of days later we took the bus to Punta del Este, the famous seaside city in Uruguay. Thanks to Lu, we had a great hotel. The weather was perfect, and, as she did in Montevideo,  Lu checked on us to make sure all was well.

We’ll be spending the next six weeks in Santiago, Chile, with side trips now and again. We’re both looking forward to settling in for a bit and calling it home. Still, we won’t run into new friends meeting our ferry, giving us travel advice, or helping us understand the culture. Yeah. We’ll miss Lu and Rafa and Facu.  But then, out of nowhere, we ran into José Mari and Christina. Of course we run into friends. Happens all the time.