Hail and Museums and Mate

Chris and I spent our last day in Dayman not going to the thermal pools. Yesterday, after going to one set of pools, I tripped on the post at the end of our bed (which was a hollow metal cylinder that hadn’t been filed down) and cut my shin open. We decided that open wounds in warm public water probably wasn’t advisable and that ended our adventure in the thermal pools. So today we took the public bus 9km into Salto to see some museums.

We had a good lunch of a mixed salad and pizza and water and cake for about $12 total, which was nice because Uruguay has been pretty expensive. We went to a History of Man (and kind of a History of Man in Uruguay) Museum and then we went briefly into an art museum that was in an old restored home. We wanted to stay there longer (it looked like they had some good stuff) but needed to catch the bus and beat a huge black storm cloud that was coming on us quickly. The bus came just in time and the ride back had a lot of lightning and hail and crazy amounts of rain. It was a very Midwestern storm. We had to run through the rain to the hotel, got soaked, but our cameras are still in working condition. Yay.

Tomorrow (early!) we take a 6 hour bus ride to Colonia to look at some old buildings, I think it will be better than it sounds.

And before we leave Uruguay (and Paraguay and Argentina) I need to tell you about the maté obsession. Maté is a type of tea that everyone drinks. When the Spaniards showed up to South America, the native people drank this tea. They thought it was from an herb (so it’s called Yerba Maté) but it’s actually made from part of a tree. Everyone fell in love with it, and they drink it all day, everyday. But to drink it, you don’t just get a little tea bag of maté, it requires a lot more. There is a cup that resembles a hollowed out gourd where all of the dried up leaves are packed into the cup. There is a straw with a filter at the bottom of it that looks like a hollowed out spoon with holes in the bottom. You pour hot water into the cup, and sip the tea through the straw with the holes, to filter out all of the leaves. So to have the maté experience, you need to carry around your gourd filled with dried leaves and the special straw, a full sized thermos of hot water (the Paraguayans have theirs cold), and shoulder bag to carry extra maté leaves and your cup and thermos when not in use. All day we see people with a big thermos tucked under their arms, the gourd thing in their hands, the big leather bag slung over their shoulders and then their required handbag/briefcase/books/backpack/child that everyone needs to carry. It really seems like a lot of work and I think there should be an easier way to do this, but no one asked me. So that’s maté, I’d be upset if I forgot to cover it.