It also took faith and courage on the part of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to finance such an improbable mission as the one proposed by Columbus.  Don’t forget that they had just completed the Reconquista after more than 700 years of Moorish occupation, and had every reason to believe the Moors might try to return.

For good or bad, Columbus is a key figure in the history of our world, and I, for one, am very glad that he did it, otherwise I might have grown up in my ancestral home of Switzerland, which would have been great, but with the French as next door neighbors, which would have been horrible.

Like every great hero, Columbus had great faults–but they pale when compared to his achievements.

A few nights ago I had a
45 minute long interchange over the instant messenger with a Latin American
Gentleman (LAG) on the subject of Continents.
No new ones having been discovered since I was in school, I thought I
was on pretty safe ground with the traditional seven: Asia, Africa, North America, South America,
Europe, Australia and Antarctica. WRONG!

It seems that in parts of
Latin America political correctness flows over
into geography and becomes Geographical correctness, but then, as the LAG said “you
are a gringo you don’t understand”. I
think what he was trying to say was I had not suspended my cognitive faculties in order to salve his Latin American feelings of insecurity.

Chris Kohl had mentioned
the subject to a successful (Latin American) internet entrepreneur in Buenos Aires, who
dismissed LAG’s opinion in this brief discussion:

Chris: will you agree that it makes more sense to have North and South
America as separated than Europe and Asia?

Successful Entrepreneur: yup, i would

Chris: well South Americans
teach that because of political reasons

Successful Entrepreneur: yeah, cuz we love getting cultural, moral
and political criticism and discrimination from northern countries, so called
first-world, right, that makes sense. guess the southern hemisphere just like
being masochistic

Chris: how about those who call people from the USA
norteamericanos and not Canadians or Mexicans?

Successful Entrepreneur: well, but then again, there’s a cultural
issue around that. norteamericanos just became a common word used by ignorant
people

The following is a transcript
of my interchange, edited only to correct spelling and take out HTML language. You may find it humorous—or just dead boring.

If you simply want to get
the gist of the argument, skip down to the red text at the very end.

If however, you are
REALLY BORED and want a detailed example of insecure Latin American logic, (which
many successful Latin Americans reject, by the way) read on and be amazed…

The Southron: the North
American continent goes all the way to the Panama canal

LAG: false

LAG: North America is
Canada, USA and Mexico

The Southron: then what
continent is Central America?

The Southron: there
are only 7

The Southron: and I don’t
think it fits in Antarctica

LAG: Central America
is from Guatemala
to North Americans

The Southron: what
continent?

The Southron: not sub
continent

LAG: look

LAG: America is divided
in 3 sections

LAG: North America : Canada, use and Mexico

LAG: Central America
from Guatemala to Panama

LAG: and South America

The Southron: I am
not talking about ethnicity, I am talking about geography

LAG: me too

The Southron: that
has nothing to do with being Latin or anything else

LAG: just geography

The Southron: Central America is part of the Continent of North America

LAG: nope

The Southron: just
like Iberia is part of Europe

The Southron: your
position is untenable it is based on national boundaries, not geographical
formations there is no natural boundary between North America and Central America, but if you don't want to see that, fine

LAG: my position is
that Central America is not part of North America because Central America was
formed millions of year later than North America.
in the age of the dinosaurs only South America and North
America existed..

LAG: Central America was created way later making a link
between both land masses

LAG: and that is a
scientific fact

The Southron: great
if it is that important to you have it your way

LAG: it is not my
way, it is just the truth

The Southron: the are
many references that would disagree with you, undoubtedly they are all wrong
and you have some cosmic lock on the truth

LAG: don’t be mean
with me

LAG: I’m just telling
you what I think and know

The Southron: you are
telling me what you think you know, I have been on 10 different references in
the last bit and they ALL include CA in North America. For example:
North America

The northern
continent of the Western Hemisphere, extending northward from the Colombia-Panama
border and including Central America, Mexico, the islands of the Caribbean Sea,
the United States, Canada, the Arctic Archipelago, and Greenland. So obviously, there are different points of
view on this…

LAG: well then why
does the term Central America exist?

The Southron: it is a
region within North America, just like the Iberia
peninsula or Scandinavia are regions in Europe or the Arabian peninsula is a
region within Asia

The Southron: I agree
it is a geographic entity, I lived there, I am sure it exists

The Southron: but it
is physically part of the North American Continent – if you go by the plates it
is on, that part of Mexico
is not part of NA as it is on the Pacific Plate

The Southron: Panama
seems to think it is the link between the two continents, the bridge over the
canal is called the “bridge of two continent”

The Southron: My
original point was simply that people from the US ought not be called
norteamericanos while Mexicans and Canadians are called by their country
name. Either we are all norteamericanos,
or we are not. I am perfectly happy
being called a gringo – at least it is not a misnomer

LAG: I know what you
mean

The Southron: I
always find it interesting the people from the US are supposed to be culturally
sensitive, but no one else is…

LAG: you are a
gringo, and a person from Mexico
is a Mexican

LAG: but both of you
are North Americans

The Southron: I have
no problem with that, what I object to is the standard use of the term
norteamericano to refer to someone from the US

LAG: but I bet you to
ask someone from Costa Rica
if he is from North America. he will tell you
that he is from Central America

The Southron: We call
ourselves simply Americans, and since we are the oldest nation in the
hemisphere, I suspect we have that right

The Southron: being a
Southron, what I really object to is being called a Yankee – I think the Spanish term for us is Los
Confederados

LAG: its funny to see

LAG: in most texts from
use they consider Central America part from North America

LAG: but in Spanish
texts they consider Central America
something outside from North America

The Southron: most Americans
would define Central America to include Mexico

LAG: yeah but you
know that Americans(from use) are not known from being very good at geography
hehe

The Southron: most
are not, I am an exception, geography is one of my passions, as is history

LAG: you are like me

The Southron: I was
chatting with someone from BA who was amazed I knew who Jose de San Martin El
Libertador was

The Southron: already
seen that

LAG: well you see there’s
is no an absolute truth about it

The Southron: if
there are 7 continents it is pretty obvious, of course if there are now 7 1/2 continents,
it's a new ball game

The Southron: I think
it is all based on anti-gringo feelings

The Southron: I don't
like the USA
one damned bit these days, but I am not going to redraw the continents

The Southron: it is
a sort of geographic political
correctness meant to convey a point of view rather than objective information

LAG: In British
schools, Central America is taught as being a separate continent (just as
Europe is separate from Asia).

The Southron: so
there are now 8 continents?

The Southron: In that
case I think we should start a movement to make Scandinavia a continent and Iberia
as well -

The Southron: it
makes as much sense

The Southron: maybe New Zealand will qualify or Greenland,
it is bigger

The Southron: is Madagascar next

LAG: it depends on the
model

The Southron: pretty
soon we'll have two dozen continents

LAG: you are a gringo
you don’t understand look this

LAG: The 7-continent
model is usually taught in Western Europe,
China, and most
native English language-speaking countries. The 6-continent combined-America
model is taught in Latin America. The
6-continent combined-Eurasia model is preferred by the geographic community, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Japan. In all
of these cases, the names Australasia or Oceania may be used in place of Australia; in Canada,
the government-approved world reference map names 7 continents and indicates Oceania instead.

LAG: that’s the
problem different schools of taught

The Southron: but
none of them consider Central America a
continent

LAG: for example in Peru they teach
the 6 continents model

LAG: I’m not telling
you that Central America is a continent

The Southron: which
one do you leave out

LAG: I’m telling you
that America
is divided in 3 sections

LAG: nothing more

The Southron: are we
talking about continents or sections?

The Southron: I agree
there are at least 3 sections

LAG: in America
sections

The Southron: I would
add the West Indies as a 4th section

LAG: here we use America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Antarctica

LAG: Oceania = Australia , New Zealand and other islands

The Southron: so you
use the Americas
as one continent

LAG: yes but, we
divide America
in 3 sections

LAG: North America, Central America an d south

The Southron: I can
see where someone would think the dividing line between Europe and Asia was more
defined than between North and South America,
especially if they had never been there

The Southron: if
you're going to have 6, Eurasia certainly
makes more sense

LAG: well the Urals
are the dividing line between Europe and Asia

LAG: as I’m telling
you, there are different models

LAG: you can use Eurasia

The Southron: I think
the only models that make sense are the traditional 7 or the aggregate 4 -
everything else is politically motivated

LAG: I think that the
correct type is that America
is one big super continent

LAG: that can be
divided in 3 sections

The Southron: that is
their traditional model in your culture

LAG: yes in the whole
Latin America culture

LAG: more than 550
million people

LAG: and that
includes funny enough Mexico
and Central America

The Southron: but Hungary agrees
with me

LAG: Hungary
is not American :p

LAG: this is American
business only :)

The Southron: I
thought we were talking about the continents, surely that is everyone's
business

LAG: yeah but Europeans
don’t see Central America as a continent so
they don’t care :)

The Southron: that's
because it's not–and I agree with them

The Southron: so you
want to exclude anyone who doesn't agree

LAG: I’m just telling
you the point of view of 550 million people, part of them that live in countries
that you describe as being part of North America

The Southron: the UN
agrees with me: North America has 3 sub
regions: North America, Central America
and the Caribbean

The
Southron: I think we will have to agree to disagree – but this is instructive. It certainly illustrates why North America
has more ties to Europe than Latin America. I thank you for that.

LAG: well
go out and ask any Uruguayan if they think that Costa
Rica is part of North America

The
Southron: I'll ask the UN instead

LAG: where
is the UN located?

LAG: New York?

The
Southron: words cannot describe how little I think of that response – as I said, your attitude has been
illustrative… good night

LAG: and
excuse me, Uruguay is a far
more European country than USA

LAG: as Argentina

LAG: don’t
be rude

LAG: we are
just talking

The
Southron: (42 minutes after starting)
no, you are lecturing and I am tired of it – maybe the UN should move to South America, as long as they pay for it…once again we
must agree to disagree, good night…

Boy, you really were bored, weren’t you?

I the mid 1990's, I
called the US Postal Service International Information line. I asked the
woman who answered, “Do you have international express mail service to Gibraltar?” She said she would check and I
could hear her furiously rustling through the pages of some obviously large
reference book. After a few minutes, she asked me, “Sir, where is Gibraltar?”. I replied that it was in Europe–it seemed a fair question, after all, The Rock is
a tiny place.

There was more rustling
of papers-seemingly even more furious than before. Finally, she came back
to me and said this: “Sir, what country is Europe
in?” No kidding, that is exactly what she said. I thanked her
and told her that she couldn't help me.

I immediately hit the
redial button and asked for a supervisor. When he came on the line, I
explained what had happened and complained about the incredible ignorance
displayed. His defense was, “She's new at the job…” To
which I replied, “She may be new, but the 6 inhabited continents are
not.”

Unquestionably, this
gains top honors in the ignorance race.

Second place goes to a
Yankee from Utah who sat at a restaurant on the Island of Grenada and insisted
that “we are right next to Spain”, because he saw on a map that we
were near Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad.

Makes you wonder how the US
ever got to the moon, doesn't it?

One cannot help but
wonder why the US
thinks it should run the world when so many of its people know so little about
anything outside their own borders.

Today I called the fraud
department of the Bank of America to let them know that we would be paying for
things here and in Argentina
with our company Visa check card. The person with whom I spoke was very
nice, as all BoA personnel seem to be unfailingly nice. However, she was
at best geographically challenged–and at worst, dumber than a box of
rocks. But, did I mention, she was very nice?

I told her that Chris
and I were working in Uruguay
and would be using the card here. She said she would note that we were in
Europe. I explained that Uruguay was NOT Europe, but was, in fact in South America. She asked me to spell it, which I
did, and she duly noted the account. I also explained that we would be
using the cards in Argentina,
another country in South America. I told
her Chris Kohl was there right now. After spelling Argentina, she duly noted that as
well.

At that point she told
me that it looked like there was a problem with the account. I asked
why. She told me that if I was in Uruguay, someone was using my card
elsewhere, in a place called “Monty-video”.

No, I did NOT make this
up.

I suppressed the urge to
speak my mind. Instead I explained that Montevideo was the capital city of Uruguay, and that Uruguay,
like the US,
had a number of different cities. Polite as always, she thanked me and
said she had noted the account accordingly.

And that was that…

Wrong! Literally 2
minutes later the VoIP line rang and it was the same woman at BoA with whom I
had just spoken. She said we had a problem: someone was using Chris
Kohl's check card in a place called “boon-ohs airs”..,

It must be something in
the air, because I didn't explode nor did I even question her parentage
or mental competence. Once again, I calmly explained that “boon-ohs airs” was Buenos Aires,
and that it was the capital city of Argentina,
which, like the US and Uruguay,
actually had more than one city in it.

Unfailingly polite to the
end she thanked me, and that was that.

After she hung up, I
stared at the phone for 3 minutes wondering if it would ring yet again–it
didn't.

The worst part of the
whole thing is that this is not an isolated case of American ignorance–after
all the US
is governed by a Commander-in-Chief who pronounces nuclear as “nuke-you-ler”.

Scary, isn't it?

First, a few facts. (If you are among the cognoscenti, you can skip the next paragraphs.)

Uruguay is in South America. It is on the Atlantic Ocean south of Brazil and North of Argentina. It is not connected to Paraguay, which lies North of Uruguay with a big piece of Argentina in between.

Uruguay is about the size of Washington State, and a bit smaller than England and Scotland combined. It has a population of about 3.5 million, which is a bit smaller than Costa Rica. More than 2/3 of the people live in Montevideo and the Atlantic littoral. The rest are thinly scattered through the rest of the country, which is largely agricultural. The language here is Spanish, but with Portuguese and Italian influences. Both here and in Buenos Aires, Argentina (130 miles up the Rio de la Plata) they pronounce the Spanish double L, “ll” as “sh” — they do the same with the “y” when it is a consonant. For example, the word “I — Yo” would be pronounced “show” and the word “key — llave” is pronounced “shah-vay”. One interesting fact: Uruguay has the second greatest reserves of water, per capita, in the world, after Canada.

For the researchers among you, check out:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uy.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/uytoc.html
http://countrystudies.us/uruguay/

At the risk of repeating what I have already written to some of you… After living in the West Indies, former Yugoslavia and Costa Rica, Uruguay (UY) seems NORMAL. Montevideo is a city of about 1.5 million people. It is a combination of old and new, rather like Florida’s St. Augustine. It is at the same relative latitude as the North Carolina Capes. The climate is perfect for me. On average it goes below freezing about 2.5 days/year and above 90F/32C only 6 days per year.

(There is a detailed weather summary at: http://qwikcast.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=058568&refer=.) As we all know, the Good Lord did not intend fat men in wheelchairs to live where it is hot!

The entire city of Montevideo (MVD) is bordered on the south by beautiful wide white beaches. The water color and waves remind me more of the Gulf of Mexico, than the Atlantic. Officially, the beaches are on the Rio de la Plata, or River of Silver, but don’t be fooled, the River here is more than 65 miles across–rather more like Delaware Bay than a river–and widens to officially transform into the Atlantic not too many miles from here.

Arriving:

We landed at Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo after an 8.5 hour nonstop flight from Miami. We left Miami at about 1AM (we were delayed two hours because of mechanical problems) and arrived here at about 1PM (10AM Miami time). As I understand it, almost all flights between this part of South America and the US start at night and arrive in the morning, going both directions. For those who can sleep on planes it is great. I did.

The airport was pretty modern, but with few bridges directly to planes. There was a mobile stairway for our plane. However, since there were people on the plane in wheelchairs, they brought up a special truck with a room on a scissors lift. It was raised to the airplane door opposite the stairway, we rolled onto it, the room lowered, the truck drove us to the terminal, and we were deposited at ground level via a special lift on the truck. I was impressed!

I was even more impressed when they had a big brawny man get behind my wheelchair and take me through immigration, baggage claim, customs and to a waiting van Chris Kohl had arranged for me. Usually they assign a 90 pound woman who can’t push their chair without me in it, much less the half-ton load I add.

Immigration didn’t ask me any questions, but did welcome me to Uruguay. The veterinary official look at the dogs health papers and cleared them both in less than 1 minutes. Customs opened one bag–with my desktop computer–and then waived me through. All of that was accomplished within 45 minutes of the plane touching down.

Contrary to my impressions from afar, a high percentage of people speak some English. Between their English and my limited Spanish, we do pretty well. If it gets intricate, Chris comes to the rescue. If he is not available, I break out my PDA with its Spanish-English dictionary and work my way through it.

Chris had two vans organized. One took Lucy the German Shepherd to a veterinarian for a few days, and the other took me, Harry, Chris and 5 big suitcases to the Pablo Figari Best Western Hotel on the beach in Carrasco. The trip only took 15 minutes, but it gave me my first view of MVD’s wide, well-kept and tree-lined streets.

The hotel room was $70/night including breakfast. The room was small, in the European style, but was well appointed and the bathroom was of a goodly size. A huge “Milanesa”, a steak breaded and covered with ham and cheese, was under U$S4.00 from room service.
Comment on currency symbols: Uruguayans use the $ sign for their Uruguayan Pesos (UYU), which are about 24 to the US Dollar. Consequently, when you see $ on UY websites, it means Pesos, not Dollars. Dollars are usually denominated as U$S. Argentina is similar, but the exchange rate there is 3 Argentine Pesos per U$S1.

Buenos Aires (BA) in next door Argentina (AR) is the big city with about 13 million people in the metropolitan area. It is 45 minutes by commuter plane, or 3 hours by fast Ferry, the Buquebus, from MVD. As far as I can tell, the relationship between BA and MVD is roughly similar to that of New York City and New Jersey, respectively.

After 4 nights in the hotel, we moved into the new house only two blocks away and just across the road from the beach.
On a closing note, I want to mention my observation that the people with whom I have come into contact thus far are friendly and courteous in a manner reminiscent of Florida 30 years ago. Several neighbors have already introduced themselves and offered any assistance needed–I have a bigger collection of home phone numbers already here than after 27 months in Costa Rica.