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Long
time no see, here I come again with an updated list of what's the cost of
life in Uruguay these days, when the american dollar is cheaper and cheaper,
and uruguayan peso stronger. I've recently moved,..again, still with my
girlfriend, and making plans to get married this summer, so my budget is in
crisis...again (it's been almost three years already since the cost of life post... im
getting old). It turned out that the info about how much does it cost to live in Uruguay
did seem to help, and it even got mentioned in a book, or so I've been told.
Let's start by the beginning, right now the exchange rate is about
20 pesos for 1 american dollar, and rates are expressed per month. So without further ado, here is the table:
Item Peso UY USD Comment Lunch at restaurant
from 100 to 200 from 5 to 10 Places where you sit, and there's a waiter Dinner for two in a fancy restaurant from around
500 to 1200 from around 25 to 60 appetizer, main course, dessert, good wine for both Lunch at Mac Donald's
120 6 MD is not considered a cheap meal Movie Theatre/Cinema from 50 to 105 from 2.5
to 5 105 weekend price Theater around
300 around 15 expensive 20km taxi drive in Montevideo around 350 around 15 from carrasco to ciudad vieja Urban bus ticket 13.5 0.675 government is making it cheaper 1 lt of gasoline 32 1.6 got a car now Renting a one bedroom apartment in a fancy neighborhood from around
6000 to 8000 plus common expenses from around 300 to 400 neighborhood being pocitos or punta carretas Renting a two bedroom apartment in a fancy neighborhood from around
7000 to 12000 plus common expenses from around 350 to 600 for some
reason real state bubble hasnt burst here, again this is per month. Electricity bill around 1000 around
50 Phone bill from around 1500 to 3000
from around 75 to 150 five person house, one teenager Water bill around 300 around 15 cable tv bill around
600 around 30 internet broadband (256k download) from
200 to 600 from 10 to 30 at least some things are less
expensive Kilo of Potatoes around 20 around 1 Kilo of apples around 30 aroundaround 1.5 Kilo of bananas around 25 around 1.25 1 lettuce around 12 around 0.6 Kilo of fatless grinded meat around 138 around 6.9 Kilo of beef loins around 170 around 8.5 1 lt milk 18 0.9 1 loaf of bread 18 0.9
As you can appreciate everything is much more expensive than 3 years ago,
specially if you rely on dollars (which I dont). The perspective of moving to
Uruguay might not seem as cost effective as it used to be, at least not to
americans.
I don't have the mean income info, but if i have to guess it, i'd say for 70% of the population it's below 1000 usd/month.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Uruguay cost of life updated 9/2008
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Montevideo's Harbor (in Black and White)
Montevideo's harbor (aka "el puerto de montevideo") is a very interesting place, but unfortunately access is restricted. I was lucky to get in and take pictures because I am entering a photography contest and was given a special permission and a tour guide to walk around. These pictures describe the harbor and its people, their work and their breaks.
Please full view them by clicking on the thumbnail, you will appreciate the scenes much better. I might add a couple more in about a week or so because I will go back to take some more so if you like them come back for more! Hope you enjoy them...
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Sunday, December 18, 2005
Uruguay cost of life
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Finally i'm making the big step, or one of the big steps, or one step in the way, or ... whatever. I'm moving with my girlfriend, and my budget is in crisis. I figured out that the info about how much does it cost to live in Uruguay may eventually help someone somewhere, or at least it will be fun to compare.
Here goes one table with prices for some consumption items, that I hope will serve as example.
Item Peso UY USD Comment Lunch at restaurant from 60 to 150 from 2.5 to 6.25 Places where you sit, and there's a waiter Dinner for two in a fancy restaurant from around 350 to 700 from around 15 to 30 appetizer, main course, dessert, good wine for both Lunch at Mac Donald's 84 3.5 MD is not considered a cheap meal Movie Theatre/Cinema from 50 to 105 from 2 to 4.4 105 weekend price Theater around 200 around 8 pitty is so expensive 20km taxi drive in Montevideo around 200 around 8.3 from carrasco to ciudad vieja Urban bus ticket 16 0.7 this is a very expensive price for a generally bad service 1 lt of gasoline 31.6 1.32 ooOOOUCH! Renting a one bedroom apartment in a fancy neighborhood from around 4000 to 5000 plus common expenses from around 170 to 210 neighborhood being pocitos or punta carretas Renting a two bedroom apartment in a fancy neighborhood from around 6000 to 8000 plus common expenses from around 250 to 330 Two years ago prices were half of what they are now Electricity bill around 1000 around 40 Phone bill from around 1500 to 3000 from around 62 to 125 five person house, one teenager Water bill around 300 around 12 cable tv bill around 500 around 20 internet broadband (256k download) from 800 to 1250 from 33 to 52 armed robbery Renting a two bedroom apartment in a fancy neighborhood from around 6000 to 8000 plus common expenses from around 250 to 330 Two years ago prices were half of what they are now Kilo of Potatoes around 10 around 0.42 Kilo of apples around 12 around 0.5 Kilo of bananas around 17 around 0.7 1 lettuce around 6 around 0.25 Kilo of fatless grinded meat around 80 around 3.3 Kilo of beef loins around 95 around 3.96 1 lt milk 10 0.42 1 loaf of bread 10 0.42
Is it expensive? cheap?
I don't have the mean income info, but if i have to guess it, i'd say for 70% of the population it's below 1000 usd, making everything rather expensive.
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Saturday, November 26, 2005
Why the heck is called Uruguay anyway?
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The name Uruguay comes from the Guaraní language.
The Guaraní language is originary of one of the native tribes populating what is today know as the south of brazil, paraguay, part of argentina and uruguay. It is in fact, paraguay's second official language.
Uruguay is guaraní for "river of the birds", or "river of the painted birds", or "river of the snails" depending on the interpretation. The most accepted is river of the birds. And the whole name of the country is República Oriental del Uruguay, meaning republic at the west of this river. Before the creation of the republic this chunk of land in the world was known as "Banda Oriental" (oriental band? oriental stripe? i dunno), so it was already named in reference to the river. This is why sometimes uruguayans are referred to as "orientales", which can be sometimes confusingly funny, because it's the same term used for talking about asiatic people, orientals.
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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Montevideo, city buses
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Among the downsides of living in uruguay there definitely is urban transport. In Uruguay the time spent waiting for buses it's like some patience endurance test run by the goverment in cooperation with the transport companies. Seems to be part of long term goverment policy for raising buddas among the population. There is no such a thing as bus schedules on the bus stops, and if you by some mysterious means come to the possesion of one, any coincidence with reality is an event comparable to planets aligning, or eclipses. You see, here in uruguay, if the thing's supposed to pass by 5:00 chances are that it may pass 4:50 or 5:10, if not worse. But I guess the whole uruguayan punctuality culture could be a post on itself.
Finally when the bus does arrive, you are so happy that you dont mind sharing a box intended for 32 seated passangers with 60 persons more, like some weird solidarity movement with canned sardins. What's the choice?, keep on waiting?
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Sunday, October 23, 2005
Montevideo
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Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay. The story goes that the word montevideo comes (at least that's what they teach us in school) from one portuguese expeditionary who saw the hill by the area known today as montevideo, and said something like: i see a hill, which in portuguese was something like monte vide eu and sounds like montevideo.
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Friday, October 21, 2005
Hornero
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If you are roadtripping in uruguay this is a very common sight. It's the house of a bird that goes by the name Hornero (Furnarius rufus). Builds his own place, about the size of a basketball ball and seems to have a thing for telegraph posts.
As a kid I used to think that it had a complex internal rooms distribution, with a tv room (electricity and telephone wire access is not the problem ;), and a bedroom, the whole bird family thing. Dumb kid.
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Monday, October 10, 2005
Uruguay's flag
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White background, sky blue stripes, with a sun in the top left corner. The strange thing is that the sun has a face, with eyes, mouth'n stuff, just weird. I've heard somewhere that is some sort of masonic symbol, I understand that masonry is strong in uruguay, brazil, paraguay and argentina. Urban legend, who knows?
Anyway, beautiful flag, isnt it?
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Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Countryside
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Populated mainly by cows Uruguay's countryside is a green and flat meadow. Very, very quiet. This are typical sights of Uruguay.
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Saturday, September 24, 2005
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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From Uruguay
Welcome to my humble blog, this is a public space to share the experience of growing and living on this corner of the world. If I have time I would like to upload pictures of montevideo and the rest of the country so that you get a picture of things around here.
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In the opportunities I had to travel most of the people I met were unable to place Uruguay in the world map, sometimes I'd get the feeling that some people when they think of uruguay they picture us living in huts. Well I guess one of the goals of this blog is to enlighten the reader on truths and myths, do's and dont's of Uruguay.
So, where do we go from here? First of all I would like to know what do YOU think, know or would like to know about Uruguay.
