I just thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself and my family since we will be moving down in late January. Actually, my husband and youngest son, Nathaniel (13), will be traveling down in mid December to look for a place for us. My two older sons, Jayson (17) and Christopher (15) will remain in school until the semester ends Jan 15. They attend Parkland HS in El Paso, Texas, where I am an ESOL teacher. I just turned 55, and the great thing about that is that I'm eligible for retirement. Additionally, I will complete 90 days of teaching on Jan. 15, which makes for 25 years in the public schools in Texas. Right now, we live on a 15-acre ranchette outside of El Paso, which we are getting ready to sell. It's a lot to tackle, so we're very busy here. We've been reading about many countries for about two years now, and have come to believe that Uruguay is the best fit, so we're looking forward to the trip. Of course, we'll be renting for a while before making the final plunge. I have written in the posts that I breed Beagles; actually, I mostly show Beagles, and will be bringing 3 Champions with me; I occasionally breed. We've simply had these dogs for so long that we can't imagine being without them.
Well, nuf said; I'll see y'all (This is my favorite, and only Texas phrase, and I love it) soon.
Hola, We are a family of 3 who just arrived in Montevideo 2 days ago. We want to stay for at least a year and put our 12 year old daughter in a private bilingual school, not the American or British schools. We are staying in the Punta Trouville apart-hotel, but it's kinda pricey ($150/day inc. full breakfast for a 2BR, 2 bath suite). We started looking for 3BR furnished apts. in Pocitos/Punta Carretas the first day and have seen 3 very nice ones. We plan to put an offer on one today. Next order of business is getiing Madeline immersed in some conversational Spanish so she can keep up with the locals in March when school starts. My husband and I get along fine with our Spanish and will probably take some classes when we have time. I am an instructor with many years of experience teaching ESOL in a community college and other settings in CT. All the blogs and websites that we studied before arriving have been indispensable, but it's nothing like actually being here. We're finding MVD to be gorgeous. The weather has been spectacular, the people are exceedingly good-looking and polite, the rioplatanese Spanish is way different but not as difficult as I imagined, there is more litter and graffiti than I'd expected, and most of the people don't pay any attention to us, ie., we don't stick out like sore thumbs as we do in Mexico or Cental America. We'll have a lot more to say after we've settled into an apartment, but so far, so good!
Welcome guys... you got here at just the right time... The weather is just starting to get beautiful.
The staff at Punta Trouville are great... I'd recommend renegotiating your price with Punta Trouville... If you offer to pay cash, they'll give you a better price... If you get rid of the breakfast, they'll give you an even better price. (Actually, "should" is the operative word.) We paid right at U$S 65 night there, and that was with the breakfast and in hindsight we would have got rid of the breakfast and ate out and about... If we were to have done a 2 room suite with breakfast, it would have been less than double that... but, we did pay cash. Another North American I know stayed there, paying cash and no breakfast and he was at U$S 50 per night for a 1 room suite (hence why in hindsight we would have gotten rid of breakfast.) I would speak with Cecilia at the front desk... I'd start off by, "So Brian said we might be able to get a better rate if we paid cash instead of using our card, is that true?"
For a light breakfast of great postres, I'd recommend McCallientes on 21 de Setiembre... If you walk out of Punta Trouville go to your left, the first street you come to is 21 de Setiembre, go right. McCallientes is on the left hand side of the street about 2 blocks up from Fransisco Vidal...
Rocco Resto is there on the corner of 21 de Setiembre... Gerardo and Ali own the place, they are great people, the food is beautifully presented there... If you go, ask for Fede to be your waiter and be sure to ask to see his tattoo...
While you're staying in that area, one of our favorite restaurants in all of Montevideo is Montecristo... If you go left out of Punta Trouville and walk about a half a block past 21 de Setiembre you will see it on the left side... It's absolutely fantastic food and the service is great.
Thank you for your welcoming replies. We tried renegotiating our rate at Pta Trouville to no avail, I'm afraid. I guess it's high season now and they're digging in their heels. We're going to have to move to the Marti because we only booked here for a week, thinking we could find an apt. Silly us! The Trouville was featured in a NY times article about a month ago, perhaps adding to it's popularity. We really need to wrap up an apt. deal soon! We unfortunately had a bad experience at Rocco Bar, which the Pta Trouville had recommended to us. First, the waiter shortchanged us by 500 pesos when he brought us change. So we then scrutinized the bill and found that he'd added items on it that we hadn't ordered. On both occasions, the waiter didn't apologize ; he knew exactly what he was doing! It was an inauspicious introduction to UY, as this happened the night we arrived. Needless to say, we won't be going there again! Other than that experience, our restaurant meals have been pleasant, but certainly not as inexpensive as we'd thought. With the dollar tanking recently, perhaps prices are on the rise?
Wow, that sucks about Punta Trouville. We stayed there for about 3 1/2 weeks before we found an apartment. Luckily they were able to extend our reservation for a few days (we booked for 3 weeks). I can imagine with it being high season that it could be more difficult.
But that sucks even more about Rocco - can't blame you for not wanting to go back! Glad you went before we recommended it
Yeah, the value of the dollar has fallen about 20% since we arrived about 7 months ago. It definitely affects the cost of living. Luckily we negotiated our rent in US dollars. But I can imagine with the decreased value of the dollar, some people will be asking for higher rents (in US dollars) to offset the fall.
We know of a place for rent just outside of Montevideo, 12 miles from Plaza Independencia (Ciudad Vieja) and 9 blocks from the beach in an easy going neighborhood. It's a small 2 bedroom house with a utility room in the back. Air conditioning & heating. 42" LCD, cable, DVD, microwave, refrigerator/freezer, washing machine, cookware, furniture, etc. Everything is only a few months old. It's available for 2 months minimum, 6 months maximum. 1 month deposit. Cable included. Electricity not included. U$S 700 per month.
It's a friend of ours' place. He rented a place near Punta del Diablo for the summer. If you're interested, let us know and we'll put you in touch with him.
-- Edited by Chrystal on Saturday 5th of December 2009 11:15:07 AM
Yeah, what the owner is asking for the place we are very interested in on Pereira has gone up $100 US since the dollar is tanking, at least for now. We're going to stay for 2 weeks in a furnished short term 1BR near Madeline's language school, in the hopes that we'll have a deal cut within that time. We REALLY want to be in our own place by Christmas. Perhaps we'll see you at the expat meeting at Fellini's? Ciao
We didn't see you at the expat lunch... We got there close to 2pm today, and boy it was packed... I guess as the summer months come forth you will see the expat meetings in MVD packed... It was cool though, saw some people we haven't seen in a while and others we haven't met before... Private Message me by clicking on my profile, then you will see "send message" next to "Private Messaging" and I'll give you the info you need...
