Monthly Archives: June 2009

Our Trip to Hospital Britanico

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Geneva has had a cold for a few days and we were told by her Jardin (daycare) that she may have conjunctivitis (pink eye). We kept her home on Wednesday but by Thursday morning it was worse so off to Hospital Britanico (British Hospital) we went. It is located at Av. Italia 2420, just a short cab ride from our house.

one entrance to Hospital Britanico

My impression was very positive, as it should be. Britanico is the premier hospital in Uruguay.  Modern buildings, very clean, organized, friendly.  We’ve heard very good things about this hospital with the only major drawback that they, ironically, don’t speak much English at the British Hospital.  Understanding all of the new medical terms in Spanish wasn’t easy at times, but we managed.

There were several waits and stops during our houspital adventure. It took us approximately 4 hours round trip and our visit went something like this:

  1. Find the emergency “window” which is unmarked
  2. Wait in the emergency waiting room
  3. Wait in the shared pediatric exam room
  4. Exam by doctor #1 with prescription for eye drops
  5. Wait in Emergency waiting room for referral to ear specialist
  6. Walk about 2 blocks to specialist building
  7. Check in and wait in specialist’s waiting room
  8. See ear specialist to confirm ear infection (Dr. Suarez spoke perfect English!)
  9. We don’t know Geneva’s exact weight.  Go downstairs to pediatrics to have her weighed (13 kg)
  10. Back upstairs for prescription for antibiotics
  11. Pay for specialist visit UY$2000 ( US $83) Wow, look who gets the big bucks!
  12. Back to main hospital to pay bill for emergency visit UY$599.62  (US $24.98) and show proof that we paid the specialist.
  13. Stop at the front to get information about joining Hospital Britanico
  14. Stop to the pharmacy to get the 2 prescriptions UY$485  (US $20.21)

Brad at the emergency windowWe currently have long-term travel insurance which has covered our first few months here, but such a small cost for our appointment Thursday is not worth making a claim. If we had private health insurance through this hospital or a private insurer in Uruguay, the out of pocket costs would be GREATLY reduced, including prescriptions. The coverage at Hospital Britanico is a cafeteria plan, where you can choose to add on ambulance service, coverage in the USA during travel or any number of additional services. For our family of three, the basic premium for Hospital Britanico is:

Child: UY$1395/mo

Adult age 30-39: UY$1974/mo

Total:   UY $5343   (US $222.62/month for the three of us)

Once we add other services on to this, which I am sure we will, cost will go up, but it is a far cry from being on an individual plan in the US and paying $1100/month for just Geneva and me (plus prescriptions and copays).

There are many other options here for insurance which we will explore in the coming month. Between Mutualistas, an individual hospital membership (like Britanico) and the public health care system, I am sure there will be an option that will fit our needs.

Find a Bus in Montevideo

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Our friend Scott told us about a great way to find your way around the bus lines in Montevideo. MontevideoBus is a website based on GoogleMaps that you can use to set your origin, destination and how many blocks from both you are willing to walk. The site will then track the nearby bus lines for you.

It does not give you the bus schedules or when to wait for your given bus line, but the city is well covered and many buses come in 10 minute intervals.  MontevideoBus will even tell you how many stops are on each line so you can find the quickest route, if needed.  I am excited to try out the website.  We like the bus system here but it’s been kind of a crap shoot if we’re going to get exactly where we want to go. I feel like the city has just opened up a bit… Montevideo, Here we come!

Singing while bracing myself and the stroller on a moving city bus

Rocco Resto- A Restaurant Review

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Rocco Resto We’ve been to restaurants in the area, but a  place called Rocco Resto always met with a bit of reservation.  It claims “We Speak English” in the window and has seemed like a tourist trap to me since first seeing it last year.

We were invited by friends who frequent the place and in fact the husband plays guitar there every Friday night.  The food was great, service was extremely friendly and Geneva and her new friend were able to run around freely (with mommy being the only obstacle for Geneva).  I am looking forward to going back for a proper meal as this one was strictly apps and drinks.  Maybe on a Friday night so we can enjoy some great live music.  Just not too much GNR, please!

Rocco Resto, 21 de Setiembre 3098 esq. Francisco Vidal

tel: 710 70 07

www.roccobar.com

A new friend and Geneva playing on the step inside Rocco Resto

A new friend and Geneva playing on the step inside Rocco Resto

Why Uruguay?

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While planning the move and telling everyone about it, the first question, as the blog name suggests was “You’re moving WHERE??!?!?”, which was quickly followed by “Why Uruguay?”

For us, this answer was clear after a long list of considerations.  We wanted:

  • High standard of living
  • Relatively low cost of living
  • Similar time zone to the USA
  • Spanish speaking
  • Safety
  • Cultural opportunities/experiences
  • Good infrastructure
  • Good health care system
  • Stable government
  • Positive attitude towards foreigners

That list rules out our favorite place in the world, Spain, because of the time zones and cost of living.  It also rules out most of Central and South America for various reasons: either the infrastructure, standard of living, Portuguese language, governmental stability or safety concerns.

Here you have the opera, libraries and nice book stores (will be nice once I learn more Spanish!), the Louvre exhibit on La Rambla and those are just the few things that we know about.  There is also a dual public/private health care system which gets positive reviews and modern medical facilities.

Uruguay!

There are a few things that we are not wild about Uruguay, but these are minor for our living here:

  • Local wages are quite low.  It can be difficult for those who are coming here to make a good living without having some source of income from the US or elsewhere (or having multiple family members to pitch in for household income).
  • What we have seen of Uruguay really isn’t ethnically diverse.  Lots of Italian and Spanish Immigrants and… well… white people. Not at all like the indigenous population that I was accustomed to in Peru and Bolivia.
  • Along the same lines, there is a lack of international foods.  That is why we have been so excited to find good Mexican food and we know of one or two sushi places around the city (but careful, we’ve heard of some food-borne illness recently!)  We can’t wait to go to Buenos Aires in a couple weeks so we can scope out some Thai food.  I really miss it!!  (I used to have the phone number for Chang Mai Thai in Minneapolis on speed dial).

There is also a recent thread on the Uruguay Connection forum discussing a similar question, “Why Move to UY?”

And these are just our experiences in the three months that we’ve lived in UY.  It’ll be interesting to see how our perspective might change as we settle into life here and learn more about the country.

Do Your Homework

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Our adventure started long before we stepped off the plane at the Carrasco Airport, Uruguay on March 26, 2009. We’ve been planning this move for over a year, with an exploratory trip to MVD in March 2008 (with then-3-month-old Geneva in tow). On that trip, we spent 7 days in Montevideo, two nights in Colonia and 3 nights in Buenos Aires.

mvd2008-blog

During our visit in 2008, we spent a lot of time just wandering the neighborhoods.  We explored Ciudad Vieja and areas around Pocitos, Punta Carretas, Parque Rodo and Palermo.  We also spent two Sunday afternoons at the English Speaking Meetup at Old Maz.  This was a great group to share tips and experiences, and just hear a familiar language.   On that visit, we stayed at the Punta Trouville Aparthotel, which has an excellent location and amenities, but we found their rooms a bit small with baby and their wireless Internet was unreliable at that time. We stayed at Marti Aparthotel this year and loved everything about it.

Back in MN, our research continued with the help of all the great people we met during our visit and one websites in particular: Uruguay Connection.  Uruguay Connection includes a blog, forum and Uruguay news in English.  David Finzer, the blogger and mastermind behind the Uruguay Connection site (among many other ventures) also has an ebook about everything Uruguay which I found invaluable, The Southron’s Guide to Living In Uruguay.  We also visited their Thursday Expat meeting, which was an eclectic mix of people in a comfortable scene.  This meeting has changed locations since our visit but we have not been able to attend at the new location yet.   Since coming back this year, we have also found Total Uruguay, which is an excellent Uruguay compilation website.

On a side note regarding prep: We also urge everyone that is bringing an extreme amount of luggage  and pets with them on an airplane to visit the airport ahead of time for a dry run.  We’ll give more details of why, who we talked to and what we accomplished in a later post.

It all boils down to this: Do your research, check your options, ask lots of questions (to us or others). There is always the good, bad and ugly with any place in the world.