"Go sell crazy somewhere else; we're all stocked up here." – As Good As It Gets - Melvin (Jack Nicholson)

     Garbage - There is no garbage pick-up in the campos (countryside) or in smaller towns in Uruguay.  
You take your garbage bag and go drive until you find a public container.  The containers looked like a treasure chest, when we first visited Uruguay!
     If you have a house on the highway or main road, you will usually have some kind of a wooden bin to hold the garbage.  If you are like us (not on a main road), you just take your garbage and either sneak it in someone else's bin or take it to one of a very few nearby drop-off spots.   You learn very quickly not to overfill the bag or LEAKAGE!!
     I felt like a CRIMINAL the first time I put our garbage in someone else's bin.  The garbage fairies seem to come and haul it away in a day or two.  The hardest thing is remembering to take it with you when you leave home.  Who wants to do that?
     Girls - I saw a group of young ladies by the side of the road on the way to town one day. There is one spot under some giant eucalyptus trees where they always stand.  I thought they were pretty girls (however dressed a little strange) waiting for a bus.  I did notice there was no bus stop there.  Nope, I quickly learned they were waiting for something else, it turns out.  Since I had seen them so often, I asked our neighbor about them.  They are CALL girls - and I am not talking cell phone calls... They are even out there in the MORNINGS.
     Prostitution is not against the law in Uruguay unless you are a minor.  It is regulated with education on sexual health, etc.  According to regulations - prostitution must be performed in brothels (in Uruguay they are called  “whiskerias”.  And all this time, I thought the Whiskeria we pass on the way to our house was a bar! 
     Before I knew what a whiskeria really was, I once I took the bus to Montevideo by myself.  Upon returning home, I needed to tell the driver to let me out at the nearest bus stop to our home.  As it is located across the highway from the Whiskeria, I thought that would be the best landmark to tell the driver.  So I shouted out, "Necesito salir en Whiskeria".  (I need to get out at the Whiskeria.)  The entire busload of people fell out laughing; from my accent, they understood I didn't know what a Whiskeria really was.  The driver let me out and I swear, everyone on the bus was hanging out of the window, watching to see where I went.  When I ran across the highway to get into the truck with my waiting husband, they all cheered.  Bets were probably placed on where I was going!   
     Gasoline - I dreaded the filling up the truck's gas tank for first time in Uruguay.  I postponed doing so until I was running on fumes.  I was postponing this as long as possible, because I wasn't exactly sure of the procedure.  (It's the same crazy theory of why I don't go to Sonic or any complicated drive-through in the States.  Go figure...
     It turned out to be much easier than in the U.S.  There is no self-serve for gas here; it is like the U.S. in the 1960's and early 70's.  Attendants ask how much NAFTA (the word for gasoline in Uruguay) you want.  They pump the gas, clean the front (and back!) windshields, and  take your payment.  (You always tip them nicely.) I didn't even get out of the car.  All that dread and worry for nothing!