Uruguay

I realize that I have not done any real research in quite a while. I was thinking back to what is a nonagon. You’ll have to go back a few months for that one. I was thinking about Simon Bolivar and trying to remember all of the countries in South America and thought about Uruguay. You don’t hear much about Uruguay when you hear about South America. It is either, Columbia and cocaine, Brazil and Carnival, Peru and the Incas, or Venezuela and oil. The rest of the countries are pretty much non-existent in the media. Well maybe Argentina every once in a while. Well, here is something Uruguay.

It is a country about the size of the state of Washington sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina on the South Atlantic coast. The capital is Montevideo and is located on the Atlantic Coast. Montevideo was founded in 1726 by the Spanish as a military stronghold. Uruguay was annexed by Brazil in 1821 and declared its independence from them 3 years later. By 1828, they had won their independence.

Uruguay has a temperate climate where freezing temperatures are rare. They have large arable tracts of land that are used for grazing sheep and cattle. Their economy is largely oriented toward exporting food commodities such as rice, wheat and corn. They are a fairly educated population with a literacy rate of 98%. Their government is a constitutional republic similar to the United States.

With a stable economy, an educated population and a representative government it is easy to understand how they manage to stay out of the news. If only some other countries would take the hint and stop with the press release mentality, the world would become a better place.

Uruguay actually sounds like someplace I would like to visit. It’s warm, stable and on an ocean. There are probably some nice beachfront to spend a restful week lounging in the sun. I’ll have to save up a little green and convince the wife that a flight to South America is a good thing. I can already hear that one.

Icool

Cobb