Gentle readers,

Uruguay is an amazing discovery of gentle urbanity and rolling farmland, that rolls, and rolls and rolls, as far as the eye can see.  . More European than Europe, Montevideo sits like a confortanble upmarket version of Bournmouth, welcoming Argentinians in their droves for the summer holidays, which on this latitude coincide with the February Carnival season. Every hotel room in the city is booked for the long weeked over February 18-20th.  Small flocks of cheerful green parrots fly through the urban avenues. There are more trees in this city than in any other.  From Christopher’s apartment on the 18th floor you can look down on the green highways guiding the way.  Pocitos, where he lives , is nothing if not respectable, but still the recycling teams of young boys with their horses come through late into the evening with their ramshackle carts collecting empty plastic bottles from all the dumpsters and trash cans.