5. Location Uruguay is located on the eEasterncoast of South America and is the smallest Spanish country in South America The word Uruguay comes from a language of a native tribe, Guarani and means “River where the painted birds live.”
18. Geography of Uruguay Uruguay has mostly rolling hills and plains with hills in the north of the country near Brazil. The highest point is only 1,686 feet. There are lots of rivers and many miles of beautiful beaches, some of which are world famous. Brazil is to the north of Uruguay and Argentina is across the river to the west. The climate is temperate with all four seasons that are opposite of those in the U.S. Summers are warm but not excessively and winters are not too cold. It never snows and the temperature only gets down to the 40’s.
19. History of Uruguay Uruguay was settled by the Spanish and by the Portuguese explorers in the early 1500’s. Both Spain and Portugal battled over the territory and eventually the Spanish won. Jose Artigas led an army to gain independence from Spain. He was successful and became the first president of Uruguay.
21. Government Uruguay is a democratic republic with a House and a Senate elected by the people. The three major political parties are the Blancos (White party) Colorados (Red party) and Frente Amplia (Broad Front party) The present President, elected in March of 2010 is from the Frente Amplia party (Socialist and Leftist combined). His name is Jose Mujica.
22. Education in Uruguay Uruguay has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Primary school starts in First Grade and goes to Sixth Grade. Most of the schools require uniforms. Secondary school is divided into three year cycles. The first cycle is mandatory and is general education. The second three year cycle is to prepare you for the university or a technical school. Education including the University is free.
24. Money in Uruguay Uruguay uses pesos. Right now 204 pesos would be $10
25. Sports in Uruguay Uruguay like many other South American countries has futbol or soccer as the main sport. They won many games in the recent World Cup and took fourth place in the world.
26. Other sports in Uruguay Uruguay has many different sports that are played. Soccer is the best known, but they have basketball teams, rugby teams, tennis matches, polo matches and surfing competitions also.
33. Murgas Murgas are somewhat like the famous “mummers” from Philadelphia. They dress up in costumes and the music uses guitar and a lot of percussion instruments, mostly drums. A lot of the murgas perform in street parades during Carnaval which is like Marti Gras in February.
35. Candombe Candombe is originally from the African slaves brought over by the Portuguese. It has a lot of drums of differente sizes and sounds and like the Murgas, Candombe music and dance is mostly found during Carnaval
38. Food in Uruguay In Uruguay two things influence the types of food eaten. One is that Uruguay has a lot of grassy plains for cattle so beef is a big part of the diet. The other is that the high number of European peoples that have settled there, especially Italian. There are a lot of “pasta” dishes in what they eat.
39. Some typical foods of Uruguay Milanesas are a typical dish. It is like a veal cutlet, dipped in egg then covered with bread crumbs and fried. It is usually served with lemons (to squeeze the juice onto it). Sometimes it can be served with other things such as mozzarella cheese with bacon or ham.
40. Chivitos Chivitos are a steak served on a sandwich with a lot of other things such as cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, ham and or bacon, hard boiled eggs, and onions if you want. Usually it comes with French fries.
