Special guests from Uruguay landed up with us due to a double booking at another guest house. A tense start soon warmed into a lasting friendship as we exchanged knowledge on each other’s countries and on the excitement of travel. We learnt about their local beverage called ‘maté.’ It is a traditional South American caffeine-rich infused drink, a tea leaf mix that is steeped in a traditional calabash gourd, hot water is added to it during the day, a metal or silver straw called a ‘bombilla’, is used for sipping on the tea during the course of the day. We were gifted with the tea as well as an ornamental version of a mate gourd. A most pleasant surprise, thank you to Gustavo and Federica! All we had to give them was some of Jack’s delicious home-made biltong. We hope that they enjoyed it. Jack suggested he visit them in Uruguay to teach them how to make the biltong; Uruguay is certainly not short on cows, the present count is five cows to one person with most people being in the farming industry or veterinary profession!
