The Ex-Vegetarian Says

Travel Tip 009 Twofer: Watch your money and watch your spending. So you’d think that if you had your money concealed it would be safe, right? You’d think that if you carried around a calculator and converted prices to amounts you understand that everything would be happy fish and daisies, right? Wrong. There’s an entirely different element to spending money some people don’t take into consideration when they travel to new countries (at least I didn’t). Willingness to pay. It’s a basic economic device that can make all the difference. Uruguayans love their meat and dulce de leche (a sweet caramel-like spread used on bread and fruit). In result: high quality meat and dulce de leche are incredibly expensive. Cultures in free trade societies set their own standards for what things should cost based on how much people are willing to pay for them. Especially in nations where tourism is on the rise, local residents figure travelers’ have a higher willingness to pay than your average citizen and the sad fact is that foreigners pay the big bucks.

Uruguay is the same. On Friday, after taking a Spanish proficiency exam in the morning (easy), I went along with a few other foreign exchange students to visit la Ciudad Vieja in the western side of Montevideo. La Ciudad Vieja is the older part of the city with ancient statues, archaic buildings, street vendors on every side, and expensive restaurants catering to tourists in particular. We took a business bus to travel to that side of the town and we were charged twenty-five pesos for admittance onto the bus. Twenty-five pesos is a little over a dollar and it may not sound like a lot but, for a fairly short bus ride, it adds up quickly. Uruguayan locals affiliated with la Universidad República del Uruguay are granted cards, special deals with buses, and five peso service fees for internal city transport. Five pesos!

Upon arrival to La Ciudad Vieja, I had to admit the old buildings, massive yet archaic hotels, the plaza, and the epic statue of the Latin America liberator Jose Artigas were impressive. My friends and I took our time walking around and taking pictures. We had to be careful to watch our backpacks, camera, and wallets because of the heightened amount of theft that was common for the area. Sitting on a bench and people watching, I had backpack under the bench and between my legs but a local Uruguayan still warned me it would be a better if I had it in my lap. The sad truth was that we were targets. Our picture taking, backpacks, undoubtedly slurred sounding Spanish, and our way (I have since tried to get Uruguayan friends to explain this to me but I have not yet understood the “way” that makes it obvious I’m from the US) made us targets for any and all thieves. We were tourists and, according to common knowledge, tourists have money.

The same common knowledge applies to restaurants. Hot, tired, and hungry, my friends and I decided to have a late lunch at la Estancia del Puerto: a well known circuit of restaurants and grills that specialize in preparing meat. Knowing the meat could be expensive; we decided to try out the restaurants anyways for the experience of doing so. A restaurant near the back had six waiters running back and forth and greeting customers to be seated. The fact that they spoke some English should have been our first warning but it wasn’t until we sat down and opened our menus that we saw how expensive the food was (thirty to forty U.S. dollars for a piece of chicken). We went to another open grill which was more or less like a bar with seating all around it and a huge grill right at its center. We ordered a combo meal intended for three and received a feast of food that could have fed ten easy. Once again, it was fairly expensive but not nearly as bad as other places. Tired, overheated from the cooking grill, and stuffed, we left the restaurant and headed for home. Once again, we had to be careful.

Later that night, all the international students got together at a pizza place to hang out. After having been awakened to the reality of prices I decided not to order anything and to do my best to watch my spending. After walking down la rambla or boardwalk near the beach and dancing at a boliche or dance club for some time, I ended up heading for home around 4:00 am. Once again, the nagging feeling that the taxi would cost too much nipped at my better judgment and I ended up walking and running the forty five minutes or so to get home, dodging homeless people sleeping near the streets and keeping my eyes front and center as not to attract too much attention.

The following day, my fellow apartment resident Elisa and I headed to la Punta del Este. We had purchased tickets for a departure of 8:15 am and a return set for 10:15 pm. After three and half hours of glorious sleep in my room and another two on the bus ride, I felt more-or-less prepared to enjoy the day. La Punta del Este is a resort city where the rich of Uruguay and of the world come to stay for a weekend or longer. Everything there is big: big hotels, big beaches, big lawns, big waves, and big Wal-Mart like stores. We stopped at El Devotó, the Wal-Mart of Uruguay, and bought a few snacks for the day. Also in the pharmacy I found the first bottle of contact solution I’ve yet to find; the only problem was that it was 860 pesos or $46 US dollars for the one bottle. Like any unsuspecting foreigner, I bought the bottle out of necessity. Willingness to pay strikes again. Uruguayans don’t often wear contacts; the majority of the people I’ve seen wear glasses. Letting it go, I was able to enjoy the rest of the day by relaxing at the beach, seeing the sights, and speaking to some newfound friends.

Elisa and I returned to our apartment by ten pm that night. My host mother cooked pizza and it was the most glorious, delicious food knowing I had already paid for it and need not worry about making another ridiculous payment. Take me as an example and watch out for additional prices based on willingness to pay. Yes you may be on vacation and yes it may be worth it for the experience but watch out for people who would take advantage of that.