Sunday in Mate city - an early evening Samba band video

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage)

Mate (Spanish: [ˈmate], Portuguese: [ˈmatʃi]; sometimes hypercorrected as maté in English, but never in Spanish or Portuguese),^[2] also known as yerba mate, chimarrão (Portuguese: [ʃimɐˈʁɐ̃w̃]) or cimarrón (Spanish: [simaˈron]), is a traditional South American caffeine-rich infused drink,

particularly in Argentina (where it is defined by law as the "national infusion"),^[3] Uruguay, Paraguay, the Bolivian Chaco and Southern Brazil, and in southern Chile. It is also consumed by the Druze in Syria, the largest importer in the world, and in Lebanon.^[4][5]

It is prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis, known in Portuguese as erva-mate) in hot water and is served with a metal straw from a shared hollow calabash gourd. 

The straw is called a bombilla in Spanish, a bomba in Portuguese, and a bombija or, more generally, a masassa (type of straw) in Arabic. The straw is traditionally made of silver.

Last evening we walked the 15 minutes to Al Forno a well-appointed small restaurant with good food and service.  A few blocks from our destination loud drumming began a Latin (Samba) rhythm. The sounds echoing through the streets seemed to come from everywhere. We soon came into view of this spontaneous dancing & drumming gathering. Today, February 29th is the end of Carnival. Up until last evening we witnessed fireworks, firecrackers, street dancing and parades. Tonight, to these enticing rhythms, young women undulated in the dark street. There were fewer than 5 onlookers, but it was early.

Click on link or paste it into your browser: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwh2U7d5_V75ZGwyNVFpczR2QVk

Montevideo, Uruguay (Several stereograms) (Tree Class announced)

"Uru" is any wild or domesticated fowl; "guay" is river. So Montevideo is "see the mountain at bird river"?  I''m guessing. Uruguay sports a robust economy, strong currency and a liberal constitutional democracy. I already like this place.  Eduardo Santos welcomed us to "Una Noche Mas" his B & B. Carla keeps the home and lives here. She taught me the art of "Mate". After two cups of coffee and sharing a mate with Carla, I am wide awake this morning!

Montevideo offers endless art galleries which kept Anna busy as I scouted out cafe's serving espresso.  We took the 117 bus for 26 pesos to the city's busy shopping center and later found we had walked 5.3 miles today. Here are some of the scenes we ran across.

The fellow on the left quickly defeated two challengers. They moved so fast I could not keep up. On the busy Calle 18th of Julio they gathered a small but devoted cadre of kibitzers.
An ancient gate now requiring a wall of cinder blocks to remain standing announces the entrance to the Ciudad Vieja (Old City). This view looks back into the modern era. The other side of this wall is unadorned cinder block with only the small spire signalling what we were about to see.

I was told that the Puerto Mercada has a parillia (barbeque-type grilling but
larger) where you can see all parts of the cow cooking. (neither of us care about that...) The Uruguayans and Argentines both claim to have the best beef. There is a law against growth hormones and antibiotics.

Stereogram, below. Initially, focus on bringing the towers together, but General Artigas on his horse will pop out in the near foreground once you have achieved the proper technique.

Inside the church in Ciudad Vieja is below; church appears on the right.

We explored the old city again when we returned a week later. But by the time we got there on Friday, we had walked those 5 miles and I was ready to quit.

Second visit to the old city:

Cerro is a small suburb West of Montevideo. The Armory atop the highest hill surrounding the city affords one a great view of the city . These are four stereograms but formatting them properly will take a bit more time than I have today.  Good luck with them.

Artigas is setup as a pretty good stereogram. Maybe a little too far away, one from the other image. Artigas statue at  Postal Museum in old city Montevideo.

 

About the most beautiful book store I've ever seen - right inside the gate to the Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo

I sent this postcard on to my brother Fred. It was produced in Europe and not Uruguay, a decidedly Catholic country. Other cartoons drawing attention to deities have caused violence in Paris within the past year. It's an issue among some religious populations.

Below, Anna shops for warm slippers for Sonny & Piper. Please don't tell them.

We learned that growing your own cannabis plant is perfectly legal here and there are shops selling plants (see photo below). It is illegal to sell the end product to someone else.

Cannabis Shop - One flight UP

The 19th and early 29th Century architecture shows a formidable workmanship.

Tree Class announced:

One has only to look at this city's beautiful trees to discover a business opportunity. There must be 1,000 or more employed laying sidewalk and yet not one gaucho has yet attended my proposed one-day class on how trees grow, with special attention to root systems. In Colonia, Montevideo, and now, Carrasco (Montevideo suburb) from where I write, tree roots have wreaked havoc with sidewalks. </Sidewalk crews, receive a 7% discount if you sign up now!>/

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay (Invaded by Portugal in 1680's)

this below are two stereograms of this image
-

To view look at both towers. While looking, cross your eyes until a single image of the tower appears in the middle. Focus on the middle image of the tower until it appears well behind the ancient structure. The entire image in the middle will appear in 3D.  Be patient. 



A second stereogram. This one with less distance between the two images thus less depth although some does appear between the church towers and the tree.

This church has a 4-5 second reverberation (not sure what they call it.) so when you sing a note, as Anna did, the echoing bounces around in the empty room lasting 4 or 5 seconds. It's otherworldly which is I guess what they wanted it to be.

A park in Colonia built over the remains of an early colonial home (c. 1690) not far from the Atlantic Ocean. 

" The Charrúa people (lived here) for approximately 4000 years before the Portuguese invaded".

The main streets in Colonia are lined with sycamore trees reminding us of home where we look upon a good example of the same from our livingroom.

Messi (Barcelona) scored two goals in a competition against Arsenal today. We saw him in a bar in Colonia and took the opportunity to get a shot of the hero with Anna along side.  I have his shirt. It is the vertical blue striped shirt of the Argentine National team which is his World Cup outfit.