UruguayLiving.com

I think it was about 02:30
this morning. I heard multiple gunshots in the street.

When I carefully peered out
the front windows I saw either troops or paramilitary police in a large group
lined up and down the street. There was a helicopter overhead with
searchlights…

…and then I woke up.
What a nightmare!

But living here has
decidedly NOT been a nightmare. It keeps on being…dare I say it…normal.

This has been our week for
involvement with the government here at a couple of levels. Yesterday we
paid the quarterly property tax bill. Since the landlord lives in Buenos Aires, our
agreement is that we pay it and deduct it from the rent. The amount was
staggering $2880 for 3 months.

Don’t get too shocked,
remember, here the $ means Uruguayan Pesos. In Yankee dollars it was only
U$S120.00, a far more acceptable number.

Paying the bill was very
simple. In the local business district is a privately operated bill
paying shop, hardly more than a kiosk. Chris took the tax bill in, they
scanned the barcode on it, took his money, gave him a receipt, and thanked
him. Three minutes flat in and out the door. (In a certain Central American Republic,
which shall remain nameless, but the initials of which are CR, that would have
taken half the morning.)

Today, we paid our corporate
tax bill for our 1 year old Uruguay
company. That set us back a whopping U$S7.50 — we already had some extra
money on deposit with the accountant, so that didn’t even take any more effort
than sending and receiving emails.

Lastly, we come to the post
office—the bane of most people’s existence in the “development challenged” (is
it the 2nd, 3rd or 4th—I forget) world.

I had ordered 4 books online
from Amazon.com. They shipped them by post to me here. It took only
9 days from the US.
The postman left notices in the mailbox, which I signed. Chris took them
to the local post office, presented the signed notices, showed them his
passport, collected the boxes and came home. No duty, no endless forms,
just “gracias señor” and back into the street “immediamente”.

(In that previously unnamed
Central American Republic it took 4 hours and 4 trips between the customs
office and FedEx to collect 2 used golf shirts: total duty-U$S2.00, total taxi
fare-U$S75,00. In that same country the post office simply refused and
returned a package of winter clothes I had left behind in Serbia-Montenegro.)

Let me see, we dealt with
property tax, corporate income tax and the post office in two days without even
causing me to curse.

Gee, I miss America…

Posted by southron on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 20:55.