Exploring Uruguay Blog

Did You Know That Blogs Have a Carbon Footprint?

We didn’t. At least until we received an email from a German company suggesting that we could make our blog carbon neutral through their “My blog is carbon neutral” initiative.

You wouldn’t think of blogging as having a carbon footprint, but I guess it makes sense that it does with all of the servers and computer equipment involved that use energy.

We’re always looking for ways to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, so we went to their website to learn more about the “My blog is carbon neutral” initiative.

The initiative was founded by kaufDA, a company whose goal is to help reduce the online world’s carbon footprint by raising awareness of the severe environmental damage caused by carbon emissions.

The program basically works like this:

• You write a blog post about the initiative
• You send them an email about the blog post
• Their partner, the Arbor Day Foundation, plants a tree in the Plumas National Forest in Northern California
• The tree offsets the carbon emissions created by your blog

If you have a blog, check out the initiative to learn how your blog can be carbon neutral too!

Exploring Uruguay Pictures’ Photostream Updated!

We haven’t uploaded pictures to Flickr for a few months (okay maybe longer). Over the last couple of days, we’ve uploaded hundreds of pictures from Uruguay.

So, if you haven’t checked out the Exploring Uruguay Pictures’ Photostream on Flickr recently, now is a good time!

Of course, most of the pictures are of Zoë… how can we resist with how cute she is? But there are plenty of other pictures of our life in Uruguay and our travels to places like Punta del Diablo for you to enjoy.

We’ll try to keep our Flickr page updated much more frequently in the future.


 

Amazon Ships to Uruguay!

Zoë received several Amazon.com gift cards for her birthday last year. We had asked for them as one option for gifts for her since we didn’t want to haul any more “stuff” with us on our move to Uruguay (her birthday was the day before we left for Uruguay).

We got an excellent tip from a member of the Exploring Uruguay Forum that books and DVDs are exempt from duties and taxes so we decided it was time to place an order with Amazon. So, we ordered Zoë some new books and a DVD of her favorite show Shushybye Baby(we lost her copy on the trip down to Uruguay).

We weren’t sure how the delivery would work, but it went very smooth! I placed the order on October 14 and received two packages on October 29. They delivered the boxes directly to our apartment. It didn’t even look like they had been opened and one of the boxes was quite large (we spent around $100 on books and the DVD).

You can see Amazon’s shipping rates and transit times to Uruguay here.

If you’ve been wanting to get some new English books or DVDs, we highly recommend ordering from Amazon.com.

The Exploring Uruguay Forum is Now Live!

Thank you to all of our blog readers for asking so many great questions about Uruguay. The number of questions we’ve been getting has increased significantly, so we decided it was time to create the Exploring Uruguay Forum.

We’ve been working hard on getting the forum ready over the past several days and we’re excited to announce that it’s finally live.

So, come by the Exploring Uruguay Forum today and post a question about Uruguay. Or, share your experiences with living in Uruguay, or visiting Uruguay.

Thanks in advance for contributing to the community!

New Content on Exploring Uruguay Website

If you haven’t visited the Exploring Uruguay Website in a while, you should check it out! We’ve added a bunch of new information about the following topics:

• Health Care in Uruguay – including the types of insurance available, a list of Uruguay hospitals and ambulance service providers.
• Electricity in Uruguay – including recommendations on what types of converters and adapters you’ll need to make your electronics work in Uruguay (and help figuring out if they will work).
• Montevideo Hotels – We’ve built out a list of over 60 hotels in the Montevideo area alone. We’ll be adding other Uruguay cities soon.
• Uruguay Facts – like the history of Uruguay, politics, weather and much more.

We’ll be adding more new content in the coming weeks, so don’t forget to check back regularly.

Adapting to the Metric System in Uruguay

We constantly find ourselves trying to convert inches to centimeters, pounds to kilograms, Fahrenheit to Celsius… and vice versa.

While I’m sure the change to the metric system will come naturally to us soon enough, we constantly find ourselves using technology to help us out. Whether it’s using the metric converter on our iPods or computers, or simply trying to get a rough estimate in our heads, it’s something we deal with daily in Uruguay.

I’m sure we’re not alone here, so we decided to add a metric converter to our Exploring Uruguay Website in addition to the currency converter. Click here to visit the page where they’re hosted.

We hope that these converters will be helpful for you!

Getting Your Mail While Living in Uruguay

Mail forwarding is something we considered before moving to Uruguay. Of course we have an address here in Uruguay, and we do receive mail here… BUT… We soon found out there are several reasons to forward mail through a mail forwarding service.

The biggest reason we decided to use a mail forwarding service is that our US Banks require a US physical address for our accounts. In addition, various other businesses we work with require a US address on file as well.

The second reason we decided to use a mail forwarding service is that we quickly found that many websites we love to shop on don’t ship to Uruguay.  The ones that do ship products to Uruguay tend to have an excessive charge (I was quoted $320 for FedEx to ship a case of Agave Nectar to me! It was “only” $90 for the USPS slowest of slow shipping methods).

Before we decided on moving to Uruguay, neither one of us had ever used a mail forwarding service, because we never had a reason to forward our mail.  The most we had ever done was put a in forwarding slip at the post office.

We researched a couple of different mail forwarding services. What we were looking for was for a mail forwarding service that was easy to use and transparent. The mail forwarding service we decided on using was Earth Class Mail.

The mail forwarding service we chose, Earth Class Mail, lets us check, manage and forward mail from anywhere in the world, via our computers. So whether we’re in Uruguay, or on a weekend adventure somewhere else in South America, we can access our mail and have it forwarded to us as long as we have Internet.

So we’re going to review the plan we chose to use with the Earth Class Mail, mail forwarding service. Getting started with Earth Class Mail was pretty easy. We first picked the plan we wanted. There are three options: Essential mail forwarding plan, ValuePlus mail forwarding plan and Professional mail forwarding plan. We use the ValuePlus mail forwarding plan for a few reasons:

•  There are three of us (the Essential mail forwarding plan allows only 1 recipient; ValuePlus mail forwarding plan allows up to five)
• The maximum amount of mail pieces received and scanned per month is 100… that is plenty for our needs (you pay a per piece fee if you go over that)
• We got a discount by choosing a longer subscription (12 months; you get an even better discount for 24 months)
• And, as with all of the mail forwarding plans, we get unlimited shredding, unlimited recycling and free storage for one month

We then had to choose our address. You can either choose to have PO Box or a physical address (or both, depending on your needs and budget). PO Boxes are available at no additional cost. Physical addresses require an additional monthly fee (ranging from $9.95 to $29.95, depending on location). UPS and FedEx won’t deliver to a PO Box and our bank requires a physical address, so we chose to have both.

After that, we had to have a form notarized to give Earth Class Mail permission to receive our mail. And, of course you have to remember to provide your address to friends, family and businesses you work with. After that, we were all set to go.

Once the mail forwarding kicked in and we started getting mail, we realized how easy the service is to use. When Earth Class Mail receives a new piece of mail for us, we receive an email. We then login to our account to see the scanned image of the envelope and can choose to have them:

• Scan the envelope’s contents so we can view it online
• Have the envelope/package forwarded to our location.
• Forward the electronic document (PDF) to anyone we want
• Shred personal information
• Recycle junk mail
• Have the originals archived with Earth Class Mail

We’ve found that by Earth Class Mail’s mail forwarding rates are reasonable. We pay about U$S 50 to have a FedEx Priority envelope forwarded to us in Uruguay. And, we paid as little as U$S 6 for a small package to be Forwarded down to us via USPS

If you’re a European citizen, I also noticed that Earth Class Mail could get you set up with a street address in various European countries and cities.

Overall, we’re very happy with the Earth Class Mail, mail forwarding service and recommend it to anyone that is planning to live or travel abroad.

How to Watch US TV Shows in Uruguay

We sold our TV and the whole entertainment system that went along with it and shut off Direct TV a couple months before moving to Uruguay. So, we started watching our favorite TV shows on the network channels’ websites (FOX, ABC, NBC)… it was working out great for us. We got to watch the TV shows we wanted and didn’t have to pay for cable or satellite service.

After we moved, we realized that we couldn’t watch US TV shows in Uruguay online anymore. When we try, we get a message that says “This episode is currently only available to viewers living in the United States”…  A similar message comes up on all of the network websites. It’s amazing how “intelligent” the Internet can be in determining your location.

So, we started exploring options that would allow us to watch US TV shows in Uruguay.  That’s when we came across Graboid.

Graboid has more than 100,000 videos to choose from, including thousands of videos in high def. We didn't realize the great surprise that Graboid also includes movies.  In addition to US TV shows, we’ve watched several movies online that are still in the theater from Graboid since we've moved to Uruguay.  

The quality has overall been great.  Every once in a while you'll pull up a video and it's not the quality isn't great, but just click the "back" button and load in a different version.  And the download speed is amazing. It’s good when you’re using the free trial, but we were shocked at how fast the movies loaded once we upgraded to Gold membership (definitely worth it). And, that’s with our slow ADSL Internet connection in Uruguay.

And, so you don’t waste your time, other users vote on whether the movie/TV show worked for them. That way you can see if it is a good copy or not before you use your bandwidth streaming in the video. If you like the movie or TV show you watched, there’s even an option to download and store it to your computer so you can watch it over and over again.

We highly recommend checking into Graboid if you want to watch US TV shows in Uruguay, or any other country for that matter. They offer a free trial that gives you 30 days and 4GB of transfer space to try it out, you have nothing to lose. We think you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as we were.

How We Communicate with Family and Friends While in Uruguay

When we decided to move to Uruguay, one of the first questions we asked ourselves was, “How are we going to keep in communication with friends and family?” Calling long distance is pretty expensive (like $2.50/minute), and we knew not everyone could afford those types of rates. We wanted to make sure everyone could call us whenever they wanted, and not have to worry about money.

We’ve been using Vonage for years, so we assumed once we made the move to Uruguay, we would continue using the San Diego number we had through the VOIP (voice over internet phone) service to communicate with friends and family back in the States. It was always reliable and only $24.99 per month for unlimited local and long distance calls.

When we were in the States, we were on the phone a lot with our business, so Vonage worked well for us. But, we knew once we made the move to Uruguay that we’d be doing a lot of our communication via email, and the phone would only be used for personal calls and the occasional business call.

Brian heard about magicJack shortly before our move to Uruguay. For only $39.99 for the first year and $19.99 each year after that (not to mention, once you sign up, magicJack will send you an offer to extend for an additional 5 years for $60), you get unlimited local and long distance calls to the United States and Canada. It sounded too good to be true, but we decided to order one and try it out.

We got it a few weeks before our big move to Uruguay, tried it with our high speed cable internet service a few times and immediately canceled Vonage. The service worked well, the calls were crystal clear and it was a fraction of the cost of Vonage.  

To use the magicJack, all you need to do is:

1. Plug your phone (any household phone will work) into the magicJack
2. We have a “powered” phone, meaning it plugs into a power outlet, and we have a non-powered phone, meaning it just plugs into the computer… The powered phone works much better than the non-powered phone… Just FYI…
3. Plug the magicJack into a USB port on your computer
4. Pick up the phone and place your call
5. Talk to anyone in the US or Canada for free

It also includes free voicemail, which you can even check from your email so you never have to worry about missing a message. This feature really came in handy when we first arrived in Uruguay and were still staying in the hotel because we couldn’t have our phone plugged into the magicJack all of the time. As soon as someone left a message, we could listen to it through our email.

We’ve been using magicJack regularly now that we’re living in Uruguay, and overall we’re satisfied with the service. We do lose the occasional call during the early evening hours due to our sometimes-slow Internet connection. But, that’s because we have ADSL Internet service, and the phone lines can only carry so much bandwidth (when we had cable Internet in the States, the sound was crystal clear and we never lost or even had interference in a single call).

For $20/year, we really can’t complain. We will definitely continue using magicJack and don’t plan on going back to Vonage anytime soon. I’m not so sure the service would be much better with any other VOIP service anyhow since they are all dependent on the Internet connection (We’ve heard similar concerns about dropped calls with Skype and Vonage in Uruguay), and our only choice here is ASDL.

If you’re living or traveling outside of the US, or planning to do so sometime in the near future, we highly recommend checking into the magicJack.

Packing to Move to Uruguay

When we first decided we were moving to Uruguay, we thought we would ship our household down with us on a container… until we started looking at the headache of trying to find a good shipping company and the shipping costs. It would have cost us at least $20K. Not to mention, all of the “stuff” we owned would only weigh us down.

So, we decided to go ahead and sell everything and only bring the necessities with us to Uruguay. It’s amazing what is actually important when you get down to it. We knew we could only bring 15 suitcases on board, so we really had to do some research and evaluation to decide what to bring.

We made the decision to rent a fully furnished apartment, which is absolutely the way to go, so that eliminated the need for many things. From what we’ve found so far, in addition to the basics like clothes and such, you’ll want to bring:

1. Quality pots and pans. I can’t stress this one enough. We brought our full Calphalon One set and couldn’t be happier. If you’re renting a fully furnished apartment in Uruguay, pots and pans will be provided, but they are very flimsy and cheaply made. And, they cost a pretty penny if you need to replace them (we haven’t even touched the ones included with our apartment for fear the Teflon will come off in our food). Even if you just bring a few good pots and pans, you’ll be happy you did.


2. Good knives. If you already have a good set, bring it with you to Uruguay (we brought our CutCo set). Even if you don’t own any, you may want to consider purchasing a few good knives to bring with you. The quality of the knives here is similar to the pots and pans… poor quality and high price. Steak knives (that were part of the cheap silverware set) were included in our fully furnished apartment, but no other knives so we’re very happy we brought our own.


3. Linens. You can definitely find linens in Montevideo, but they’re pricey. We didn’t originally plan on putting Zoë in a twin bed, so we didn’t bring twin bedding with us. We picked up a set of twin sheets for around U$S 30! And they’re nothing fancy, just 180 thread count. I probably could have gotten the same set in the States for U$S 10. We got her a cheap comforter as well for about the same price as the sheets.


4. Spices you use regularly. You can find the basics like oregano, basil and rosemary in Uruguay. But, if you use anything spicy like cayenne pepper, or anything beyond the basic basics, bring them with you. If you use sea salt, I highly recommend bringing that with you as well. The only salt we’ve been able to find in Montevideo is not only iodized, but fluoridated! I don’t know about you, but we don’t want to consume fluoride. Unfortunately the box of sea salt we brought didn’t make it through the travels down to Uruguay (it’s amazing at how a little box of salt can cover the entire interior of a suitcase). So, we’re now in search of more.


5. Hot sauce. This goes along with the spices. Tabasco is readily available in Uruguay for no less than U$S 10 a bottle, but if you want anything like Tapatio, Cholula or Louisiana Hot Sauce bring it.


6. Reusable shopping bags. We only brought two; we should have brought more. If you’re going to shop at the open-air markets (ferias), it’s really nice to have these to carry all of your produce in. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a couple hundred plastic bags by the end of your first month. They also work nicely with our stroller.


7. Sporting goods (like yoga mats, tennis rackets, etc.). We didn’t bring ours and wish we had simply because of the cost in Uruguay. In the States, I would usually pay around U$S 8-10 for a yoga mat. I got one here for about U$S 30 (and that was with a 20% discount). The least expensive tennis racket we’ve seen is U$S 85, and it was nothing special.  A Head Ti S5 was U$S 180, ouch.


8. Favorite cosmetics and toiletries. Especially if you use anything in the “all natural” category. You’ll find the basics in Uruguay, but nothing like Dr. Bronner’s, Burt's Bees, etc. I’ve also seen a chain called La Pigalle that carries brands like Lancôme, Neutrogena and Clinique, but they are at a minimum of double the price you would pay in the US.


9. Ziplocs. You can buy Ziplocs in the grocery store in Uruguay… in packs of eight. And, they’re not cheap. If you use them regularly, we recommend bringing some with you.


10. A few books in English if you like to read. You can get amazon.com to ship some items to Uruguay, but if you like to read, I’d bring enough to get you through the first couple months.


11. Space Bags. These were essential in allowing us to maximize space in our suitcases. All of our clothes and linens were packed in Space Bags and it allowed us to fit a lot more into our suitcases (although they were all overweight, so keep that in mind if you’re on a budget).


12. We’ll cover baby and toddler necessities in the next post so we can cover them more in depth.

These are things we consider “Nice to Have,” but not everyone may consider them necessities:

1. MacBook. Our business is on the Internet, so we need our laptops. The MacBooks work great because they’re small and reliable. And, they have built in webcams, which makes it nice for communicating with family and friends back in the States.


2. iPod. We both have the 32 GB model. We downloaded all of our CDs onto our MacBooks so we could load them onto our iPods and eliminate the need to bring our CD collection. You can also download apps to help you with the move to Uruguay, like Spanish-English translators, metric converters, etc.


3. Time Capsule. This is both a wireless external hard drive that backs up your computer automatically on a schedule, and a wireless router. It saved space in packing because instead of needing a wireless router and hard drive, we have both in one. We also noticed back in the States that it sped up our Internet connection; it seems to have the same effect here in Uruguay.


4. Universal DVD Player. We have an extensive DVD collection we wanted to bring with us to Uruguay. But, we didn’t want to be limited to only getting more DVDs from the States so we got a universal DVD player. It allows us to watch movies from our existing collection, and purchase movies here in Uruguay or anywhere in the world.


5. A good phone. We have used many different phone services in the past and have a Packet8 ST2118. Not that you need to get a Packet8 phone, but a similar phone that it is also powered (meaning you can plug it into the wall) is recommended, especially if you’ll be using a VOIP phone service.  In addition, make sure the phone is corded and that it has a speakerphone.  Corded, because it’s reliable. Speakerphone, because it’s convenient. A comparable phone to the Packet8 would be the Panasonic Corded Speakerphone with Call-Waiting and Caller ID (Jensen Adaptor is Necessary).


6. Plantronics CS361N Binaural Wireless Headset. One of the best things for using with the phone. (Jensen Adaptor is Necessary).


7. Jensen Universal AC Adapter. If the AC/DC power supply that comes with your electronic device DOES NOT READ “INPUT: 100-240V- 50/60HZ” you will have to get one of these to make it work in Uruguay… DO NOT GET A STEP DOWN CONVERTER. IT WILL NOT WORK.  Even though it steps you down from 220V to 120V, the US is on 60HZ and Uruguay is on 50HZ (HZ are cycles of current per minute). If you use a Step-Down Converter, your electronics will still fry. Not at first, but within a week or two, tops


8. Plug Adapters. These are the adapters you need for your electronics with inputs that DO READ “INPUT: 100-240V- 50/60HZ” Yes, it says for Continental Europe, but they work here in Uruguay.


9. Flip Flops. We are from San Diego and wear flips on a regular basis.  The selection in Montevideo is a small fraction of what you will find in the US, the quality is different and they are pricey. Our favorite flips are Reef, and we highly recommend you bring yours with you.