Day 38: Meet everyone's mate

No, not THEM, but what they are HOLDING. It's called mate (pronounced mah-tay) and everyone in Uruguay, including these two gents, seems to drink it. It's like tea, but instead of tea leaves it consists of yerba mate leaves.

People drink it as they drive, walk and even as they cross the road. Everywhere you look, people have their lips around a silver straw, and their hands around a flask of hot water and a gourd (traditional mug).

Mate is the national drink of Argentina, but it is the Uruguayans who have made it their own, so it would seem.

The capital Montevideo is only four hours sailing from Buenos Aires, across the wide mouth of the Rio de la Plata.

In the past, this country has been occupied by the Portuguese and the Spanish, and after establishing its independence in the 19th Century it was at war with Brazil.

But it now has much more akin with Argentina, in language (the two countries share their idiosyncratic version of Spanish) and culture.

Montevideo is a pleasant city that, like Buenos Aires, has a large number of parks and squares, but it lacks the buzz of its larger neighbour.

Further east, the resort of Punta del Este attracts the rich holidaymakers of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. I was under instructions from a Uruguayan friend in London to visit, but I really was the only backpacker in the village.



THING I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE TODAY:
Uruguay is officially secular, so Christmas Day is called "Family Day"