It is not often I manage to work two cheesy expressions into the title of one blog post, but today you are lucky. (Please note I didn’t say what kind of luck).
Imagine this situation:
- you have moved to Uruguay, lock, stock and pets.
- you have been living in a hotel with wireless broadband internet access (more or less) from which you have been managing your business or doing your job somewhere north of the equator.
- you have found the perfect apartment or house.
- you move out of the hotel and into the house because you are going stir crazy and the hotel is threatening to charge extra for the path you have worn into the floor of your room.
- you have already ordered telephone service so it will be installed the very first day you are in your new place.
- you move in, Antel installs the phone as promised, AND YOU REALIZE YOU HAVE NO INTERNET SERVICE.
- you call Antel and find out it will take a week to install your ADSL line.
- you also find out that you could not have ordered the ADSL earlier because you can’t order it until you have a phone line installed.
WHAT DO YOU DO NOW? A) run screaming through the neighborhood. B) move back into the hotel. C) lie to your employer/customers and tell them you have somehow gotten the mumps. D) drink heavily until the ADSL line is installed. E) use dialup internet access.
My personal preferences were D and C, but I finally decided to be responsible and try E. It worked, more or less, but at a great spiritual cost to me. How do you go to confession and say, “Bless me father for I have sinned, I took the Lord’s Name in vain 8,652 times…last week”?
For broadband users, dialup is a kind of limbo hovering just above Hell and way below heaven. But, at least it is almost universally available here without any paperwork or commitment whatsoever.
In Montevideo you set up your computer modem to dial 0909-1234, no password or username is needed. Depending upon the time of day, I have seen connections as high as 52kbps and as low as 12kbps.
If you turn off things like Instant Messenger and anything else that might try to grab a piece of the internet, you can usually use Skype provided your connection is at least 30kbps or so. During the day this is usually possible, at night, as more people pile on, the speed drops like a limbo stick until you fall over.
The cost, which is charged directly to your phone line is:
- UY$49.50 per hour (≈US$2.10) from 10:00 to 18:00, and
- UY$29.50 per hour (≈US$1.25) from 18:00 to 10:00.
Limbo is better than Hell, and maybe is good preparation for the ADSL line–by the time you get it, you will REALLY appreciate it.
>>For an inter-blog discussion of Dedicado as an alternative, see http://board.totaluruguay.com/Technology/What_about_Internet_Limbo_how_low_can_you_go
Interested in nightlife, music, and entertainment and I notice next to nada re: these areas! I did catch one comment comparing Montevideo, to Iowa with a beach! So what gives? Not that I ‘m a wild man prowling the streets after midnight! but I do enjoy live music, dance and lively entertainment on occaision!
I currently live in Angeles city, Philippines which has too much nighttime nuff sed! all familiar with A C Philippines know what I’m talking about!!
Regards;
Leolo
>>There actually is a lot of nightlife in Montevideo, especially in the Ciudad Vieja. I have asked the Copperhead to post an article here that he did for my book that details it for you.
Left by leolo on November 19th, 2006