Day 3
Last night, we laid in bed and began a new series on Netflix...Designated Survivor. My boy, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland... :-) ) is in it. Denise really liked it so we watched two episodes and stayed up past our bedtime! That means our morning was a bit slower. I think we were at the breakfast buffet around 8:30 AM (still very yummy). Again we returned to our room, showered and then got into our church clothes as our one goal today was to go out to the Montevideo temple...which was about 9 miles from the downtown area. To use Uber, it would be about $10 to $15. To get there on bus, $2. So you know what I chose.
Actually, the bus ride was not bad. Before coming, I downloaded an App called 'Moovit'. Boy, what a blessing that has been. It knows all the bus schedules, their stops and so on. You put in your destination, it tells you where the bus will arrive with walking instructions on a map. It then tells you how many stops and accounts for each stop. Just prior to exiting the bus, it starts notifying you that your stop is coming up. Then it shows you how to walk to the destination...the Montevideo temple in this case! Worked perfectly. It took about 45 minutes on the bus followed by a 5 or 6 minute walk to the temple. We arrived around 11 AM and the temples session was to start at 11:30 AM. This is a small temple. So they only keep temple clothing there for missionaries and out of town dignitaries like Denise and I! :-)
The temple is in a regular, really nice, neighborhood. It is pretty outside and in of course. It was such a peaceful two hours inside doing temple work. The only couple inside working that could speak English were from Orem. And...it turns out that they served in the Madrid temple with Kelly and Zella Grieve, our friends who we are meeting tomorrow in Buenos Aires. When the Grieve's left Madrid, they had the Duffins (Mike and Gaye) move into their apartment. The church makes the world a small place.
After our work was done in the temple, the Duffin's invited us to lunch. They said that they would escort us to the beach on the 'river'...which really looks like the ocean. So we walked about 20 minutes to the beach and then along the sand for awhile. We then found a nice restaurant to sit down in and dine. There we decided to try the Uruguayan 'hamburger' called a Chivito...I believe. It was a very yummy sandwich. While talking, we found out that Mike had served his mission partly in Uruguay and Spain in the late '60's. And it turned out that his mission president in Spain was Dave Barnes' father! He had met Dave. Again...a very small world.
The Duffin's were so kind to us. We had a really nice afternoon. From the restaurant, I showed Mike this cool Moovit app and then caught the bus back to the centro where our hotel was. But it was quite the adventure. While traveling, a lady 'staggered' gingerly on to the bus. She did not look good. She was not drunk or anything...just pale. But later on down the road, she passed out and collapse on to the floor of the bus. She was sitting behind me. Many of us quickly scurried to get her some air, raise her feet and cover her as she had a very short dress on. I would guess she was in her 50's. The bus driver immediately got on a phone he had access to and tried calling while slowing the bus down and eventually to a stop. When the lady came to, she slowly striped to get up. But a young lady, who seemed to be a medical professional kept her down. But she did not want an emergency vehicle to come. I could not hear why. But they were not going to let her up. As we were waiting, everyone started to leave the bus. I then asked this lady if another bus was coming. I asked it was to follow the same route back to the city. She said yes and encouraged Denise and I to leave it and get on that bus. So we did. I hope the dear lady gets the help she needs.
Denise also began to complain a bit when we left the restaurant that she was feeling chilled and she could hardly swallow. The buses are quite warm and humid inside. She slowly got sicker and sicker. Our hotel could not get here fast enough. Dustin had told her once that he had a bad throat (strep maybe) while traveling and he was able to get Amoxicilin over the counter. So upon leaving the bus, we needed to walk about a block and a half and fortunately, there was a pharmacy on the way. So we went in. A young pharmacist was at the back of the store. I described my wife's symptoms and told him our son was a medic back in the states and he thought that Amoxicilin would be OK to take. The pharmacist asked us questions and then said yes...he thought that would be good. So we bought it and headed to our hotel. I have lots of Ibuprofen in the room. She is now buried under a HEAVY blanket sleeping between whines of pain. I hope these meds to something to slow this down. We have a crazy day tomorrow traveling back to Buenos Aires. I've always worried about one of us getting sick. If it appears that she is not getting better and there are seats on a plane, I may just leave tomorrow once we get to BA. But that is a 4 hour bus and water ferry combo ride to get to BA. Keep us in your prayers! I hope she can get the strength to pack or I'm not quite sure what I will do. Crazy.
The sad thing is this...in the plaza across the street they are playing loud music stopping once in a while to hear a guy drum up some type of 'political party' rhetoric. Very noisy. I hope this quits soon.
More to come tomorrow!
Our hotel (Hotel Presidente). We are on the third floor...our window looks like the white curtains are drawn on the far left side.
Have you ever seen a 'quarter sized' jacuzzi? My bath tub at home is bigger! We had to cancel using it. Although, I think it might have made Denise feel a bit better.
The next pictures were shot yesterday at the top of the hotel looking out to 'sea' (south). Actually what you are seeing is a VERY LARGE River. It is fresh water.
This picture is looking into the harbor to the north west a bit...
A nice picture with the sun going down...
This morning...feeling pretty good...heading on bus to the temple.
I really did not want to get into a white shirt and tie...kind of hot and humid to me on the buses. But I did...and I was glad I did. Turned out well.
Angel Moroni behind us....
Temple doors....
Uruguayan flag in corner of temple lot. It turns out that this site has a temple, big chapel, church offices, patron housing, mission offices for two missions and a distribution center. Key location for our church down here.
Mike and Gaye Duffin. Great hosts they were. They have served as Mission President and Matron in Panama, Temple Missionaries in Espana (Spain Madrid) and now serving as Temple Missionaires in Montevideo Uruguay. Denise and I hope to serve similarly as well (not Mission President and Matro however!!!!).
On the beach of the 'river'...
The Uruguayan 'hamburger'. I think it is called a 'Chivito'. You can get it with beef or chicken. It has all kinds of things on it...olives, lettuce, boiled eggs, tomatoe, and so on. It came with a nice helping of French fries too.
To top it off, we had a nice Caprese salad to go with our split sandwich...
The political rally in the plaza below....
At 7 PM...yes...Denise is buried under this blanket trying to get warm from chills while I try to figure out a way to get cooler. I did go to the store to get some Gatorade and water. We bought some Amoxicilin from a pharmacy. Let's hope she resurrects for a big travel day tomorrow.
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