Uruguay, introduction

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Uruguay is a small country, located at the south of south america, between Argentina, and Brazil. We are a population of about three millon people (most people are surprised when they find out this :) scattered over a flat surface of 176.220 km², which means you could fit Uruguay almost four times in France. It's a spanish speaking country, and most of the population are mainly spanish or italian descendants.

We have no mountains, no snow, we are too close to the sea for that matter. Uruguay it's a green country, with green extense areas, forests, and good beaches. It's NOT a tropic country, we have four clearly different seasons, a true winter with temperatures as low as 0 degrees celsius, and as high as around 35 C in summer.

The capital of Uruguay is Montevideo, with one millon and a half inhabitants, half of Uruguay's population. It's a low city, even in the downtown area, buildings won't go above 15th floor, due to a legislation that states that all buildings have to be no taller than a building called "Palacio Salvo", I promise pictures. It's true that it's kind of a gray city, not very colorfull, some even say comparable to eastern europe cities, I don't completely agree, montevideo's architecture, in particular downtown's 18 de Julio buildings with paralell only in buenos aires, argentina in south america.

We, uruguayans are raised listening that we are quiet, nice, humble folk, with somewhat a low profile, especially when compared to our argentinean neighbors. Uruguayans are usually conservative people, or at least in the last sixty years or so we've been. It's sort of an atheist country, with an important catholic minority.

The country's main income comes from the cattle industry,(big beef n'steak fans country :), most if not all of it extensively breed. Another, more recent, important income source is information technology industry and services. Banking services are also big in Uruguay, since there is banking secrecy in Uruguay, just like in Switzerland, and Cayman islands.

The average monthly income per family is around 820 usd, in the capital city, and around 590 usd in the rest of the country.

I could go on for ages about my country, from big statistics to the small stupid details about living here, but then I'd leave myself without anything interesting to tell afterwards so I better stop over here ;) If you have any question, you just let me know.

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