The idea is to give Ex-Pats and our Uruguayan friends learning English a place to connect and sound a little foolish in a safe environment.  If you screw up at The Atlántico, nobody gets shot…which is more than I can say for some of the places I learned up in Mexico.  The first meeting on Friday, November 20th attracted 40 to 50 people in the large living room space,  finally spilling over to the bar and outside onto the side and front terraces overlooking the Playa de Pocitos.  I don’t know how many people actually tried to communicate in a language not their own~a few~, but most seemed to survive, even enjoy the experience.

Terrace at the Bar Atlántico on Pocitos Beach

I think we’ve all had the dream of finding this incredible Old House, buying it for a song and turning it into something incredibly amazing, the perfect expression of Who We Are…a winning self-portrait (without the warts) in stucco, wraught-iron and stained glass.  Of course for most (and I confess, for me) the dream bogs down quickly in the morass of economic reality and, just as important, wondering if I have what it takes to pull it off.  I mean…We’ve all seen “The Money Pit”…bathrooms turning into cesspools, sub-standard wiring, endless plumbing repairs…How do you get started on something like this??

 There are lots of old colonial homes being renovated here in Montevideo.  One of them belongs to a new friend of mine, Robert…who is not only taking the plunge, but he’s managing work-crews and permitting with this almost Zen-like sense of calm.   I sat down with him to have a talk and share his secrets:

 Are you mad?  What possessed you to take on a project like this?

I’ve done this my whole life as a weekend renovator, and increased the value each time. I did several homes on Long Island, New York and the Hamptons. Then Florida, and more recently Costa Rica where I built 8 homes in 3 years. Now here I am in Montevideo. It’s maybe my last stop. 

Why here? 

Montevideo is my return to NYC on a small scale. [The neighborhood of] Pocitos is like living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for 1/20^th the price.  I love it!  The people are wonderful, and very European; it’s not at all like the culture I found in Central America.

Is moving money around a problem?

This is a bureaucratic nation with more rules than anywhere I have ever lived and contracted.  Fortunately, the process also ensures things will get done correctly and you will be well protected if you follow the system.  

Is there an End-Strategy here?  Are you looking to eventually cash out and repeat the process?  Or is this your Dream House and Nobody is Dragging you Out of Here?

The first house is mine and I hope to stay in it for many years with my new Uruguayan family.  I am currently looking for additional properties to renovate for sales.  We are especially looking at lower priced, distressed apartments to renovate and later rent or sell.  Distressed properties in Pocitos range from $70,000 to $150,000 for apartments and single family homes.

 Is this your first job in Montevideo?

Yes,  we plan to move into our new home on July 1st, 2009 .  It has taken 4 months to complete the interior, and the exterior will take another 2 months, but we can still live in it.

 Any final thoughts or words of advice?

 Be careful.  Select the right contractor.  Use a good architect, and call me if I can be of help.  Costs can vary substantially and some of the high-end, larger architectural firms can cost twice what it could or should cost.

 I think I’ll call you.  Seriously.  Can we come back and shoot some more pictures…just to see how things are going?  I’m still having trouble visualizing the Jacuzzi in that space.

No problem.  We’ll do another asado [barbecue Uruguayan-style] up on the roof.  

How many capital cities have a great beach?  Let’s make it easier.  How many great cities have clean, safe beaches where you can slip out your front door first thing in the morning and take a long walk on the sand?  Cities, not towns or resort areas that roll themselves up into lifeless balls for 9 months of the year?  I LOVE living in a city where the beach and the ocean (or is it a river?) are a constant PRESENCE.  Yet, it’s still a CITY, full of surprises in the way that only a true city can offer…a new restaurant opening, a new shop on the corner…and people moving and inventing new experiences for me to discover.

So I took my camera to see what was happening on the beach in POCITOS.   Bikers, walkers, people-with-dogs…but wait!   Here’s something,  GYMNISTS.   Of course my camera battery is nearly shot, so I’m ten seconds behind the action…but miracles DO happen, and I caught this perfect back-flip.  I couldn’t say if the execution was a perfect ‘10′ but I think she nailed it.  I wanted to applaud, but I didn’t want to be like the guy who shouts something inane just as Roger Federer or Tiger Woods reach maximum coil at the top of  their backswings.  So I kept still…but I KNEW that I had ’stuck’ that photo!  (”YOU DA MAN!” I whispered to myself.)

 Moving on down Pocitos Beach I ran into a group of guys laying out a ‘Tejos’ court on the sand in front of the rocks.  ‘Laying out’ means to take a stick and gouge out the boundaries of the field of play…like a mini tennis court.  THIS is ‘in’; THAT is ‘out’…Then they get behind one service line and take turns pitching wooden discs at a target, and then of course the next guy tries to knock the prior guy’s disc away.  Kind of like shuffle-board without the stick.  These guys seem to have been doing this together every weekend since they were 6 years old.  There’s some strength and coodination involved, but the older guys, they must be in their 70s, easy, seem to be having their way with the ‘kids’.  It kind of reminded me of the way the old Buddhist monk schooled David Carradine in “Kung Fu”.  Just “be the tejo’, Grasshopper”.  It was a perfect day for them to be out.

This city and its beach are one.  The Rambla (beach walk) is a treasure, and a happy accident of history.   How many cities created today would grant their oceanfront to all, rather than to the few?  It’s fortunate that the Rambla pre-existed the city’s spread to encompass so much of the shoreline.  The Rambla was there…and so, over time the city merely filled in the streets behind it, in the beginning one beautiful summer villa at a time, and then, a generation or two later,  came the taller modern apartments which have gradually transformed the waterfront from Punta Carretas to Pocitos and beyond, giving it the sunset-reflecting, glass facade we see along the shore today.