Money shot #5: When mustaches ruled the earth
Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, 20 Uruguayan pesos
According to Bibliotecas Virtuales, Juan Zorrilla de San Martín (1855-1931) was a great poet, journalist, diplomat, and avid gardener whose lavish home has been converted into a cultural museum. He has also been honored on Uruguay’s postage stamps.
I spent one day in Uruguay and this is my souvenir. It wasn’t so much that I was dying to visit Uruguay as it was that I needed to have left Argentina in order to re-enter it for reasons that should be clear to anyone who has worked while on a tourist visa .
On the other hand, I wasn’t averse to the idea of seeing Uruguay. I had heard that the Uruguayan was even more fanatical about yerba mate than the Argentine, and this I had to see. The claim was borne out within minutes, as every male over the age of three sported a special case of finely-tooled leather whose sole function was to carry a thermos of hot water, bag of yerba, drinking gourd, bombilla, and other accoutrements of the mate fiend.
I walked around, changed some money and bought postcards and stamps (no San Martín on them) to give the illusion that I was visiting Uruguay as a country rather than as a waiting room. I sought out a fantastic lunch of shellfish, drank a beer, and re-boarded the high-speed catamaran that whisked me back across the River Plate. At the Argentine end I got a new visa and faced a ten-hour bus ride back to the Humid Pampas.
That was five years ago today, and that’s what I know about Uruguay.
Money shot #4 was one million old Turkish lira
Money shot #2 also featured a fellow named San Martín
As one who sports the extra-heavy lip, I am in full agreement with your title of world domination and facial hair. I’m waiting for my staff car, my fistful of badges, my ill-fitting generalisimo jacket. I am surprised to see that you always seem to shave off your mustache (as I presume you sport one, especially when quaffing a Zlatorog) for the pictures you post of yourself on this blog. You truly must have a high-speed growth version of the wiggly caterpillar to be able to shave it off so often and then sport it around 24 hours later.
So, how about at least one pic of you in your best Pancho Villa?
Comment by DarkoV — Sunday 24 September 06 @ 18.24 MDT+2.00