We are ready for a new adventure, most likely temporary but we don’t know. All signs are pointing us toward San Carlos de Bariloche,  Argentina. We plan to be there for the low season of October through December. If you don’t know Bariloche, it is a very different type of place from Montevideo. Located in the mountainous area of northern Patagonia, spring is the low season there with skiing being the main draw in winter and hiking/water sports in the summer.  Since we have never lived in the mountains but would like to, this area really appeals to us.  There are other towns nearby such as San Martín de los Andes and El Bolsón that we plan to explore and the variety of outdoor activities in this mountain/lakes region is incredible.

One challenge with our plan is how to live in a more rural area without a car.  The Bariloche area has a great bus system that runs a loop from downtown to the main roads, with other buses running long distances from Bariloche. While we explored living within the city proper, we were told in no uncertain terms that while the city has all the modern conveniences, the city is not why people come to live in Bariloche. Now we are researching temporary rentals on the main bus loop or within a decent walking distance to the city center.

Our flight is booked for September 25th, our current landlord is notified of our lease termination and we are starting the purging process all over again.  There is no turning back now!

Our list of things to sell will be coming shortly. It is amazing how much you can acquire even when you live in a furnished  rental and never really purchased much.  Alas, we have plenty of housewares, toys, clothes, books and cloth diaper supplies that we will be selling.  The plan is to come back to Montevideo during/after high season 2011 but we don’t want to store all our extra stuff, so away it goes.

Wish us luck!  This extended vacation will hopefully be just the thing we’re looking for.  New things to learn and explore within a beautiful, restorative environment.  You can’t forget the great German architecture, handmade chocolates and artisan beers produced in the Bariloche region!  Sounds like my kind of place!!

You can read the whole article here.  A big thank you to Make It And Mend It for the fabulous site with so many amazing articles and resources. You can also follow them on their Facebook page for all the latest updates.

On Friday evening, we rented a car from Thrifty.  When considering the name, ironically, it was the most expensive portion of our road trip.  Vital, though, as you can’t really have a road trip without a car.  It was a Hundai Sonata-type which was new, but without some of the features that I would consider standard- like airbags. Eeeek!  It did have a great Pioneer stereo system, though…

We took off early on Saturday morning. Our daughter was thrilled to get the chance to sit in her car seat, so luckily we had a very eager traveler (She doesn’t get much of a chance to ride in her car seat here in UY since we have no car.)  After a quick stop at Montevideo Shopping’s McDonalds to get coffee and medialunas, we were on the open road

Without a set plan, but a few key places we wanted to see, we drove east along la Rambla to find where it would take us. Saturday was a beautiful, sunny morning and we felt a great sense of adventure for what was our first tip into rural Uruguay since August.

La Rambla turned into Route 1, which brought us to Atlántida and we couldn’t pass it by without at least driving though. What a sweet little beach town, and only about 30 minutes from Montevideo! It was obvious to me why this relaxed but upper-end town is a popular vacation spot for both Montevideo-ans as well as Argentines.  It was well groomed, cute houses and hotels, a nice mix of city and beach amenities and beautiful sandy beaches with rolling dunes.

We continued to drive for as long as we could along the coast while dodging dunes that had blown into the road.  It was becoming more rural as we drove and a we had a fantastic peek into these beach towns at the very end of summer, while the weather was still warm, but the crowds had already gone back home.

The road eventually brought us back to Highway 9, just outside or Pan de Azucar. We’d been to nearby Piriápolis twice, so we decided to stay on 9 and keep driving past Piriápolis.

Next on our list of things to do was a visit to a very under-appreciated beach with a unique claim to fame in UY, called Playa Chihuahua.  More on that in a later post.

Since we were on the road to Punta del Este, and we were craving Thai food, we drove into town to see what we could find. Our wireless modem was giving us a few options for food, so we drove but unfortunately found nothing. Punta was still surprisingly busy and was slow driving through the main shopping streets. I can’t imagine what it is like in January!

Back to the ocean drive, this time on Route 10 to La Barra.  I thought la Barra was a very cute little town, with a bit of the glitz and glamour of the upscale shops of Punta, with a beachy, small town feel.  It reminded me a lot of Santa Barbara and Montecito, CA.

Still driving and getting increasingly more hungry, we decided to stop for a late lunch in Jose Ignacio.  This was a very beach oriented city with very few restaurants or services.  A beautiful setting, as the whole town in on a hill away from the coast, it felt like the type of place you went to escape and be at the beach… with very few interruptions. But Jose Ignacio still had some inklings of Punta del Este, and not nearly as bohemian as day 2 of our adventures.

We found a good-sized restaurant that was open at 3 in the afternoon and had a great combination of a Waldorf Salad (Brad) an Chicken sandwich (me) and milk/random condiments for our two-year-old.  Being very much a toddler, she decided that she didn’t want what we ordered for her so she ate the ketchup and mayonnaise.  The kid likes condiments.

On the road again with full bellies and somewhat happy to be leaving the beaten path a bit, we drove on.  We detoured into Rocha and after an initially poor view of the cemetery coming into town, we found a few cute tree-lined squares, beautiful cobble stone streets and some charming traditional Spanish-colonial architecture. We decided to press on and spend the night in la Paloma.

We stayed at a nearly empty hotel in La Paloma called Hotel Trocadero.  The hotel was nothing special but comfortable, two blocks from the beach and for UY$900/night, including breakfast, we couldn’t complain.  La Paloma is on a peninsula, so it’s very easy to find beach there.  Also due to its location, it has some AMAZING sunsets over the water. We just can’t get that in Montevideo, at least not on our side of the city where the sun slips behind the buildings and you can never see it hit water.

After getting ice cream, and before dinner, we walked down Av. N. Solari, which is the main road in La Paloma, directly to the rocky beach to see the sun go down.  There were others gathered, standing, in lawn chairs and even in their cars on the hills. We found a place to sit on a rock outcropping facing directly west with an excellent assortment of shells at our feet.  The sunset was an incredible display of red and orange and was worthy of applause by our fellow viewers when it finally slipped below the horizon.

The sunset was definitely the high point of our visit to La Paloma. After a disappointing seafood dinner and some window shopping (“What? That skirt is UY$ 2200??”), we returned to the modest hotel to get some sleep.

The next morning, we ate a beautiful, albeit bready, breakfast at the hotel, took a quick walk on Bahia Chica, the beach on the eastern side of the peninsula and packed the car for another day of adventure….

More to follow about day 2 in Cabo Polonio and Punta Del Diablo, along with our day 1 adventure at Playa Chihuahua.

Where To Go For a Weekend Getaway?

(polls)

“People who live abroad are more creative; and the more time they spend away from home, the more creative they become. Thats according to a recent study done by William Maddux, an assistant professor of organisational behavior at INSEAD.“

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.

RingCentral

We currently have three VoIP services with our primary service being RingCentral. RingCentral offers a hosted plan. It’s very easy to set up and you don’t need any hardware other than a computer and a headset.  RingCentral has a “softphone” panel that appears on your computer screen, looks like the face of a regular phone and operates in most ways like a regular phone.  You can use the softphone from a laptop on the road over WiFi or 3G wireless card. It also allows you to send and receive faxes from your computer by either attaching a file such as a pdf or scanning your page right into the program to be sent off.   Like many VoIP services, you receive your voice messages and faxes via email.  I have tried Packet 8, Vonage, and efax. They are all fine service, but RingCentral blows all of these out of the water.  It is comprehensive. You can route calls to various extensions if you have staff or contractors in other parts of the world and can all have US, Canadian, UK or other global phone numbers. It has a very simple interface and even works on your iPhone as a calling app. My clients can call me from anywhere in the world and have no idea that they’ve reached me in Uruguay unless I’ve told them. I called a client in Kazakhstan the other day on my RingCentral line to his Vonage line dialing a local US phone number. Call quality was great. I have yet to drop a call with anyone (I actually had more dropped calls in the States than I do here…weird).

There are many plan levels for RingCentral.  The cheapest starting at US$9.99/mo.  I have opted for a middle of road plan that includes a Linksys IP Phone.  It’s a regular business class phone that sits on my desk.  The call quality is excellent.  It’s more stable than the softphone that I mentioned earlier.  If you’d like to order the phone from RingCentral, you’ll pay anywhere from Free-$100 depending on which service plan you go with.  They also have a plan that includes unlimited use and four business IP phones with individual numbers for $99/month.

RingCentral comes with my highest recommendation if you’re an expatriate that requires a business class solution. If you already have business numbers you’d like to keep, you can port them over no problem. Would you like an 800#?  You can pick between 800, 866, 877 and 888 for free.

Skype

Of course many people know Skype.  I use it regularly to call vendors and clients in other countries. If you’d like to give it a shot–you can download Skype. With Skype I can have video conferences or simply use it as a phone (again you need a headset with microphone or a WebCam for the video features).  There are Skype Cordless WiFi phones that you can use in your house as well and can be purchased through various online and retail outlets.  I’ve not purchased the cordless but had considered this option.  Skype phones come in several versions. Some require a computer and some do not. Check the details.

Skype is a fee based service to call regular phone lines and a free service to have video calls and/or voice calls with other Skype users.  If you never need to call a regular telephone–you won’t pay a cent for this service.  Just get your family, friends and clients set up with a camera and show them where to download Skype and you will be up and running in no time.  For the younger set this is very easy to set up.  If you are not exactly best friends with your computer, you might need a hand from your 11 year grandson or granddaughter.  I referred this to one gentleman that has 90+ year old family members in various parts of the United States.  They can’t travel as easily anymore and Skype has allowed them to see family across the country and around the world with the free video chats.

MagicJack

Finally, now that I know the service, a MagicJack.  The commercials and the website are really cheesey and it seems too good to be true, but this little thinga-ma-watchit really works and is a perfect solution for someone that needs a cheap solution that works great.  You just plug MagicJack into your computer–it installs some software–you type in your confirmation info, and then plug in a standard corded or cordless phone and you’re set.  It dials like a regular phone.  Once you pay your initial $30 or $40 bucks you have free calling to anywhere in the US, with inexpensive calls around the globe.  We opted for an additional 5 years of service so we paid about $100 in one shot.  Now we have free calling to family and friends.  We also use the MagicJack in case one of our other services not working.  Your voice messages can be picked up from your phone or via email since a small VM file is emailed to you.   I have also set up an email rule to forward to Lisa’s email as well so we both get messages on our computers.  We treat the MagicJack like a land line with no payments in our case for 6 years.  It’s free for family to call and they don’t need anything special to do it.  Just your new phone number.  At the time, I’m writing this you cannot move a current phone number to the MagicJack, but I understand that feature is coming.

There is so much more to say about phone and VoIP technology.  I’m not covering many different other possibilities.  Just know that you can communicate with just a little additional cost.  In fact, you are probably going to pay less than you were at home, because you’ll be ditching your land line and expensive cell phone plan in favor of one of these simple and inexpensive services.  VoIP is one of the greatest, and most important tools to any expat.  Shoot me some questions for anything that you’d like me to expand on.  I’ve tried to keep this simple.