We were looking for a sense of community. We found it in a pandemic in Uruguay

We feel taken care of, even so far from home

I asked them what had surprised them about Uruguay and how they were being treated in the pandemic as foreigners who don’t speak the language. From their Airbnb host in Montevideo who reached out to them all the time, recommending ferias to go to and keeping them up to date with what was happening in the news to the staff in the few restaurants they’ve found open, “we’ve really felt like we were taken care of, even though we were so far from home, which has endeared us [to Uruguay] for sure.” Kris called the contact “neighbourly” and marvelled when I pointed out that in Uruguay when people greet each other in the street, if they don’t know the other person’s name, they’ll say ‘Hi neighbour’, ‘hola vecina”.

When restrictions lifted a little, the couple hired a car and travelled the coast, avoiding city centres. Now in Colonia, they are enjoying being able to finally go to restaurants and already have a favourite cafe. At the cafe everyone knows their story, with the owner translating for them. Kris says that the best thing is feeling like they are part of the community. She said “I feel that we are ‘Ryan and Kris from California’. People on the street will say, ‘oh my friend told me you were here!’” They attribute the opportunity to talk to the owners of restaurants who otherwise would have been too busy to converse with them because of the pandemic. But almost every English-speaking tourist I have interviewed in the last 10 years tells me that they feel “looked after” by the locals in Uruguay. Pandemic or not.

A generation has learned English watching ‘Friends’

If there has been a negative for the couple, it has been their lack of Spanish–for which they feel embarrassed. However they’ve found plenty of people to converse with in English. When I started working in tourism, very few Uruguayans spoke English–even in the industry. Nowadays it is easy to find people who speak English in Uruguay, especially near the coast. I told Kris and Ryan that I have a theory that the improvement is in part due to the younger generation that grew up watching Friends without subtitles. They laughed: “That’s so funny. Someone literally yesterday told us about how everyone learns English here through Friends.”

When the borders open they hope both sets of parents come to Uruguay

So for now Kris and Ryan are in Uruguay. They are loving the beef and apparently Uruguay wine is very well-priced compared to California counterparts. Kris says her mom misses her but that she’s glad she’s “somewhere very safe”. In fact when the borders open up and travel is permitted, instead of leaving, they hope both sets of parents come to Uruguay. And they will be their tour guides.

I asked them what they think they’ll tell people in the future, about the time they spent in a small South American country in a pandemic. Kris takes me by surprise. “Hopefully’” she says, “maybe we’ll be living here.” Ryan agrees. “It’s serendipitous,” he says. “I had this idea long ago when I read that article about Uruguay, and now to live in the country, affirms the thoughts that I had in my head.” “We went on this trip looking for a sense of community,” says Kris. “We found it during a pandemic in Uruguay. That’s what I’ll remember most. The open fields and the people.”

Follow Kris and Ryan on Instagram and YouTube.