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Uruguay: where i can buy iron, Calcium , magnesium for agriculture?:
For smaller amounts of the trace elements, I'd ask either Drogueria Paysandu or Drogueria Montevideo.
For magnesium, you can just use epsom salts. Pharmacies have that here, but so does Drogueria Montevideo.
For Calcium, you'll want either agricultural Lime or Gypsum. Lime is much more common here. But it's hard to find Lime that doesn't have additives (like any-fungal agents) because it's meant for plastering walls. What you want is called "cal natural". And ask for it in powder otherwise you'll get a bag of rocks. I was recently able to find a lot of it (minimum order) and have it delivered to my house for not much money. But I had to find this rough looking guy living in a hole in the wall at the edge of town. The guy at my local agropecuaria told me only his first name and pointed in a general direction. I had to ask several people in the area before someone knew where he was. Somehow he managed to procure it for me. I haven't had a chance to read the bag yet and see where it came from. Mercado libre doesn't have it.
Check out the Mittleider growing method. www.growfood.com. I've located all their trace elements here in Uruguay.
Uruguay: US Television in Uruguay:
For electronics the frequency doesn't matter. This is because the electricity is immediately converted to DC. So if the device is only electronic and doesn't have any motors, the frequency doesn't matter.
The frequency also doesn't matter when the device has a universal motor. But it does matter if you have an induction motor. Universal motors scream (vacuum cleaners, circular saws), induction motors hum quietly.
Induction motors made for 60hz will run at 5/6 their normal RPM when plugged into 50hz. This may or may not matter. To give you an example, some friends of ours took a dryer the other direction. They plugged one meant for 50hz into 60hz so it ran slightly faster. The end result was that the clothes wouldn't tumble. The extra centrifugal force kept the clothes pinned to the walls of the drum, so they never dried.
To make matters worse, many induction motors have fans attached to the arbor. So that fan will be turning 5/6 of the designed speed. And the drop in performance of the fan might not be linear. So a slight reduction in RPM might result in a 50% reduction in air flow. This could lead to the motor burning out.
I ran a chinese dust collector with a chinese induction motor for about an hour with no problems. I ran an american made Marathon motor attached to my compressor for less than 30 minutes. It burnt up with smoke and fanfare.
I'd buy the transformers here. There's a place in Ciudad Vieja called "Casa de Transformadores". They have a lifetime guarantee (unheard of in uruguay). They're made for their rated wattage unlike the normal ones which are overrated. And they'll put a handle on for free if you ask.
Uruguay: Needing an ally in uruguay:
>Do you know what it's like farther
>away from the capital?
We like the rural areas, especially around Rivera and Minas. You'll need a car.
>We live in the US. In georgia right
>now. So we're pretty used to hot and
>muggy. Would those be your
>biggest complaints?
It won't be that hot and muggy. I've never seen it break 100. It can be muggy, but it's not like the US south west. Winter is cold, windy, and wet. But there's never a hard freeze.
Uruguay: buying and bringing a caravan(container) for chacra:
There are companies on mercado libre selling houses built in shipping containers. Expect to pay around $20,000. If they're building it for you, ask them to double or triple the insulation and insulate the floor if they can. Demand good quality windows, and keep them small. I'd install two small wood stoves, one at each end, the kind that can heat the place and cook with.
Tell them to cover the entire roof with foil backed tar roofing rolls. If you don't I guarantee it will leak.
Delivery will depend on where it's going and what the site looks like. But expect a crane and truck to be around $500 to $1500.
Site prep matters also. The containers will need to be on concrete pads. These could be piers in the ground, or just pads on the surface. I've done both and see no problems with the surface pads as long as the ground is level.
UTE will be responsible for bringing power to a breaker box at the edge of your property. I have no idea what this costs, but it probably depends on distance from existing service. The container will have a box on the outside for making the connections. You're responsible for filling in the blanks. So either you'll need to do that or find someone who can. Maybe you should consider off grid. If you use LED lights, a laptop, solar water heater, and don't care about a/c, this could be easy to do.
Getting a well dug will be $4000 to $6000 depending on the location and depth.
I'd install an add-on greenhouse made from a metal or wood frame and covered in plastic. This would provide more living space, a place to grow food in the winter, and you can install a gutter to collect rain water in a barrel. If you make the greenhouse big enough to cover the entire container, it will be easy to heat in the winter, block the wind, and help avoid leaking problems. Roll-up sides would avoid overheating in the summer.
Expect maybe $1000 to have a septic tank put in. And consider barometrica access for this. You'll have to pay more to connect the container to the septic tank. Or you can use a composting toilet. I drop the shower water right on the ground under the container. It hasn't caused any serious problems yet. Figure around $500 for a tank on the roof depending on the size and another $500 for a well pump with float switch.
Uruguay: biggestcheapest lighting store in uru?:
I can tell you that Sodimac's prices are definitely high. Most likely, they have a worse selection than the dedicated stores also. But they have a wide variety. And the experience is better.
For example, in the US, if you have a plumbing project, it's nice to go to home depot, build something right there in the isle. Then when you have it right, take the contraption to the register. At sodimac, you can do this. But if it's the traditional counter type thing where you have to call out the things that you need, it's much harder.
Sometimes, it feels like Sodimac has 80% of five different solutions, but no way to make a complete solution. For example, if you have a black water tank on your roof, and you'd like to connect white PVC to that, sorry. You can't. They're missing a key fitting. But they have all the other PVC. They have the key fitting in thermofusion. But to do the rest of the project in thermofusion it would be ridiculously expensive. Building a P-trap drain is also impossible for example. In that huge store, the only solution I could put together was that bendy straw drain junk. Wanna splice two 8 gauge copper wires together? Sorry. So if you're doing any outside the box thinking, good luck.
For tools, their prices and selection are terrible. Want to see an example? Walk out into the lumber section and see which chop saw they're using to cut things down. It's a top of the line Bosch sliding chop saw. It's state of the art using articulated arms instead of the usual rails. IIRC, this thing is $600 in the US. Now go inside and try to buy that saw. You can't. One class of tools for them. Another for you. Want a wire feed mig welder? They have exactly one that costs about double what it should.
For tools, it's better to go to the big stores in ciudad vieja, like Herracor.
Also, I tried to buy a hole saw at Sodimac. "Sierra de copa" in spanish. This is the kind of thing you'd use to cut a hole for a door knob. There's a cup shaped saw with a normal drill bit that screws into the center. The cup and the drill bit have to match because they screw into one-another. Well, they didn't. I tried to point out to them that it was silly to sell these this way since you couldn't make a working tool. They should pick one size and stick with it, or sell them in sets like the US. About three months later, I saw a couple guys there who were stocking shelves. They looked higher up the food chain than the normal people walking around. I pointed out the problem to them. One was mystified. The other looked around for a while and finally found bits that fit the saws hanging on pegs next to unrelated tools about three isles over. I'm certain they weren't there before. Note that they still had the smaller bits with no cups to fit them.
I've also found them lacking in the lumber department. They don't really have plywood anymore for example. What I'd like to see is an A/C or B/C plywood, and a cabinet grade plywood. Instead, all they have is this resin impregnated ply that would be good for shop projects, but not furniture. Everything else they have is either particle board or MDF. Their wood leaves a little do be desired also. Although they do have dimensional pine now. For lumber, I use a place called Gabycar. They have a limited selection also, but it's the stuff Sodimac doesn't have.
Their screws cost about 4x what my local screw store charges, and my local store makes Sodimac's selection look like a joke. Sodimac's screw section is a mess also. You have to dig to find what you want. This is one case where the Uruguayan style counter with a person is better.
Their tile section can't compete with Castro for selection and price.
Having said all that, I'm happy to have Sodimac. Their hours are more like what we're used to in the US. And they're across the street from my daughter's house. So it's easy to run over there and pick up something. Their delivery prices and policy is also reasonable and good enough for us. I think the Sayago Sodimac is bigger and better though.
Sodimac could be a great store. But they need to hire a buyer with experience working at Home Depot. They need to ditch the appliances, housewares, and furniture. And it needs to be about four times larger.
Uruguay: INTERNET & CABLE:
I didn't know you could still do dialup.
What are you going to be using your internet access for? Most people use either 4G wireless or fiber to the door.
Uruguay: Buying a new Sprinter 4x4 Van:
Unless you are a returning uruguayan, you cannot import a car into Uruguay. You'll have to buy it here.
Uruguay: Metal bars on windows:
I think it's purely psychological, even part of the culture. It acts as a deterrent to casual thieves. And it makes the locals feel safer. Home owners insurance policies require them also.
Slightly more determined thieves can easily get through the bars. A friend of ours had a house on their property broken into through a window with bars, and completely cleaned out... I mean everything. The thieves had the time and patience to chisel away at the bars with a hammer and chisel and remove them.
I've heard other stories that all one needs is a small floor jack. Stick it between the wall and bars, and off they come.
In the US, they would just chain them to their truck and pull them off the wall. I haven't heard of that happening here yet.
We don't have them. But someone is always home at our place 100% of the time.
Uruguay: Funeral arrangements:
According to my son in law, this is why flower shops are open all night. They'll even have a funeral in the middle of the night.
I'm guessing it's because they don't have proper morgues, embalming practices, or refrigeration.
Uruguay: Tiny homes & internet accessibility:
Off-grid is ok.
Do you really have to ask about composting? Is it not allowed somewhere in the US now or something? Yes you can make your own compost here. Although I would look into the Mittleider method and do that.
I work remotely for companies in the US and need reliable internet. I live in the campo, but relatively close to Montevideo, about 45 minutes away. I can get 4G wireless internet over a USB modem. I get about 12 to 15 megabit this way with 3 bars if I put the modem in just the right spot. I live in a terrible location, too far from the two nearest antel towers. Just unlucky. If I were a mile in either direction, I would get about 30 megabit.
With this same modem, and with my antel smart phone, I was able to get 60 megabit from a friend's house in Rivera. We had line of site to the tower though, about a mile away. In the valleys in Rivera, internet reception becomes unacceptable.
I get 3G at my house great. But it's too slow.
I get 4G over movistar from my house. 5 bars, but the tower is 1/2 a kilometer away. I only get about 2 megabit from that one though. And it's oversold so it's crap on friday and saturday night. There's also a download cap on that one. I use movistar only as a backup in case antel is down.
I can't get fiber where I am even though four or five different people at antel told me it was *real soon now*. This was about three years ago.
I'd say that the 4G coverage in the Canelones departemento is pretty good. But don't believe anything any of the companies tell you about performance or coverage. When you get to the point where you're considering specific properties, bring a friend who has an antel smartphone and have them run the speed test app. Or have them use their usb modem on a laptop running speedtest.net. It's the only way to be sure.
Do not, for any reason, sign up with Dedicado. They have a business service that's I think 2 megabit for US$400 a month. It's line of site microwave. I was able to see a tower 10km away. It's reliable and not oversold. But Dedicado are crooks.
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