The universal beverage in Argentina and Uruguay is called Mate. It's a type of bitter tea made from the Yerba plant. It is mixed directly with hot water in a small bowl and sucked through a straw that contains a tea filter. We have been waiting to try it for nearly a week since, almost every store worker, bus rider or cab driver can be seen holding their Mate bowl. The only problem (from a tourist point of view) is that it isn't served in cafes or restaurants.
Yesterday, we visited Colonia, Uruguay - wanting a change from Buenos Aires for a day. Colonia is an old Portugese colonial town and smuggling center highly recommended by our Argentine tour guides (Flore and Gironimo) and was only a ferry ride from Buenos Aires. The town was nice, and the architecture interesting. We were able to climb a light house set inside the ruins of an old castle - from the top you can supposedly see Buenos Aires, but the fog prevented that.
Since mate was even more ubiquitous in Uruguay, I decided it was finally time to try it. I purchased a mate bowl, straw and about a pound of Mate (the smallest amount they sell) from a local convenience store and on the ferry ride back, was able to convince the cafeteria working to microwave a cup of water for me. I did my best to mimic what I had seen Argentines do, and poured the tea leaves into my bowl...
It was disgusting. Absolutely gross. I threw away my newly acquired Mate tools last night, not wanting to bother taking up the space in my backpack...
Today is the fourth of July, which, if the fog around Ezezia International Airport doesn't lift soon, we might be spending in the airport.
Hopefully, we will be in Rio tonight for the 4f.
Happy fourth of July.
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4 comments:
So you didn't like to tomar el mate?? I'm not surprised. Colonia's the one place I ever had it too. It was a cold, rainy day in Uruguay, and I was regretting having taken the nauseating ferry ride over to the tiny supposedly UNESCO-honored town, until I encountered some soccer players, apparently from Colonia's team in the national league. The naive gringa that I was, they were probably making it up, but well, they shared their mate with me and I was enamored by their lovely accents. I had the same impressions of the beverage? green mud? that you did.
Happy 4th and say hi to Deb in Rio for me!
Personally, I prefer mate with about 3 sugars, and a soccer team whenever possible ;)
Happy 4th!! Sounds like you're having a great trip so far...
Mate hater.
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