Hi! I've been thinking about this next post, and it hit me. In order to let you into my life, we should start at the beginning! Therefore, welcome to Uruguay, the place where I was born and raised. Jump on board while I share my experience from both the tourist and resident view.
-A little bit of history -
Being conquested by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, it didn't took long for their own decedents to declare their independence. Fed up with the broken promises by the Monarchs, feeling unprotected and threatened by their Portuguese neighbours, the citizens rose in arms against the crown and claimed their liberty.
Opposite to what happened to indigenous populations around South America, there where no established tribes here, just nomads. In addition, tribes came to this lands after being expelled from Argentina by the Spanish Monarchy. Uruguay became the land of the rebels and undesired, with vast lands of green and free cattle (brought from Europe) roaming around. The perfect place to make a living.
Years later due to WW1 and WW2, the country was flooded with immigrants running from Europe, in the hope of a better future.
The following pictures have been retrieved from wiki
Immigrants traveling from Italy to Argentina
Immigrants traveling from Italy to Peru
-To live in a third world country-
Being outside my country I've been asked the following questions, and I'm not kidding:
- Do you live in a house or a tipi?
- Do you have electricity where you live?
- Do you know what television is?
I thank those people, because they made me value all that I've. What I took for granted.
Uruguay is an expensive country with massive debt, subsequently work opportunities (the ones that serve ourselves to grow) are scarce, therefore the market is fierce. It appears the amount of stress makes the population, in a whole, a gloomy one.
Nevertheless we don't have any kind of natural disasters. In addition health and education are public, that means it doesn't matter in which social-economical class you were born into, only where do you wanna go and how hard are you willing to work for it.
Above all, we have SPACE. And that is something rare in a world where population is only rising.
As an example, a population of 3 million inhabitants makes it possible to go to the beach and have it all for yourself, can you imagine that?
See it for yourself
And it's not just sand, the land varies to the deepest greens in the countryside
Summarizing Uruguay ain't that bad a place to live, I just hope we evolve quick enough as the markets do, so it's sustainable to live here.
Thank you for reading and till the next post!
Ps. I never though this post was gonna be this long, actually I erase a lot of content, thus to make it shorter. The tourist guide is the next one! (promise)
Ps2. I'm sorry in advance for the spelling mistakes
Ps3. Please leave your comments below, every critique is a good one.
Ps4. The five last pictures are mine