Almuerzo en Salto

During our road trip the other day, we had lunch at La Caldera in Salto. Apparently, only tourists flock to restaurants on major holidays, so we were joined by one other couple at the restaurant, and that was towards the end of our meal. The restaurant was a beautiful place, though, and we had an excellent meal.

We both ordered an ensalada Genovese, which was a salad of tomato, mozzarella, basil, and hearts of palm. The basil came in powdered dry form, which was surprising, but the salad was still really good.

Scott ordered a steak with mustard sauce, which looked beautiful, and I enjoyed the sole/flounder (whatever translates from Lenguado – which is NOT tongue; that’s lengua). It tasted like it had been sautéed simply in butter, and the lime wedge that accompanied the fish gave it a nice bite.

Since we’re now officially addicted to desserts after every meal again, we each ordered one. Scott followed the waiter’s recommendation and had the gelado special, which turned out to be a gelado made with marscapone cheese – it turned out halfway between ice cream and cheesecake. It was drizzled with a fresh berry sauce.

I ordered the chocolate mousse, and holy god was it good. It looked a little odd – like ice cream that had half melted. But it tasted like chilled chocolate cake batter. I easily finished off the whole thing, and would have been happy to nap away the rest of the afternoon.

A Salto

Yesterday was our first real day off since our arrival. We decided to take a road trip to Salto, on the northwestern coast of Uruguay. It took 2 ½ hours to get there, but the drive was nice. We thought the area around Tacuarembó felt rural, but halfway to Salto you could look for miles and not see another soul.

We decided to head just north of Salto to try and find the falls near the dam which supplies the majority of power to Uruguay. Instead of finding the falls, we ended up on a bridge that connects Uruguay with Argentina, and ended up adding another country of our list of places we’ve visited. The best thing about venturing into Argentina was the “wild animal” signs cautioning drivers to the nearby animal habitat.

Also near the dam and bridge was a roadside stand next to a woman’s house. She was selling freshly squeezed orange juice from the nearby orchards. We bought two small bottles (the fresh juice was poured into used soda bottles) along with some local canned mushrooms that I hope Sonia can help me find a use for. J

We also ventured into one of the hot spring areas (“thermals”) that makes Salto famous, or at least to Uruguayans. Scott’s guidebook listed this one as “the Disneyland of hot springs.” We weren’t sure exactly what that meant, but apparently that equates to street vendors and people wandering around in bathrobes. Needless to say, we didn’t end up spending too much time here.

May 1 is a national holiday here in Uruguay, as it is for most of the world. Apparently everyone spends their holiday either at the thermals, or in the local city park. Next to artistic and historical monuments were inflatable bouncey-houses. I think the locals were wondering why we got the giggles.

All in all, Salto was a lot of fun, and a nice change of pace to field work.

Meseta de Artigas

On our road trip to Salto yesterday, we stopped at the Meseta de Artigas, which is a hilltop area named for a famous general. We didn’t know anything about it from the map, but it was probably the highlight of our trip. It was certainly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

The meseta overlooks the Rio Uruguay, which runs between Argentina and Uruguay. You can see both country’s shores, and a long expanse of the wide river.

The lighting was perfect, and plenty of people were up there enjoying the view, playing soccer, or dancing. We watched as fishermen in a few small boats slowly meandered around the river.

This is my new happy place. J