Heartbreak in Uruguay: A story of laughter, love and loss in South America

By Alaina Hardy

Recently divorced and questioning all aspects of her life in San Diego, a young woman travels to Uruguay to visit her mother. While there, her mother becomes gravely ill, and she soon learns that because of the COVID-19 pandemic the government will only allow her to continue to visit her dying mother if she becomes a resident herself. Frust

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Feb 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638379010

Alaina Hardy

Alaina Hardy Foster is a real estate agent, specializing in property sales in Uruguay. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with family and friends or hiking to find solitude. She lives in San Diego. Heartbreak in Uruguay is her first book.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The end of the beginning

Well, my divorce was final. What was I to do with my life now?

Wait, I was already doing what I was doing before my divorce, which ultimately led to my divorce, and now to hating my life. Make any sense? Probably not, because my life hadn’t been making any sense, not for the last three and a half years anyway.

The relationship I currently was in was one hundred and fifty percent tied to my career, and I was terrified — no him, no job. I guess it’s an American thing to think that a paycheck is all that is important at the end of the day. So I stayed, and I stayed, and I stayed, and I stayed.

We all have the voices in our heads. Some of us take medication to shut them up, and the rest of us embrace what they have to say even when we don’t want to hear it. My voices were telling me I was done and that the stagnancy of pulling the trigger on getting out was diminishing. If I didn’t make a change soon, something inside me was going to ignite and burn the whole damn place down. I didn’t know what exactly that meant, but I felt it. The real pressure of knowing that something is coming and the end of what was is near. You don’t always know what it is, whether a person, a place, or a thing. Then envisioning that end coming and there is that sense of calmness. Acceptance.

Maybe I was the victim of a brainwashing criminal, but, really, who cares? That is what my therapist is for. And, quite honestly, this first chapter is the least of what I care to write about or remember.

CHAPTER 2

Hello depression, nice to see you again

California was cracking down again with quarantine rules and Covid cases were back up on the rise. There were no more colds, flus, asthma, or broken arms; it was all just Covid. Not only was my life still a mess, so was the world. And then the messy world gave me Covid.

Let me tell you, I have had better experiences not feeling well, like, for instance, losing my virginity at 14 — best 6.3 seconds of my life. The depression, the loneliness, the nasty cough that made me feel like I was chugging acid out of a broken Boone’s Farm wine bottle. It was all awful and to be in the eye of the storm over Christmas. Cool, how many more holiday zoom calls with my family while swallowing glass? I was alone and depressed. Cheers to me.

Randomly, as I got better and finally got that "now you’re negative after 14 days" test, what Covid did make me realize is that it was time to go visit my mother who had moved to Uruguay several years ago to run a moringa farm.

I am sure most of you are asking yourself what the hell is moringa? So, let me explain: Moringa leaves actually are one of the most healthy things you can put into your body. Typically crushed and eaten in pill form, they have seven times more vitamin C than oranges and fifteen times more potassium than bananas. They also have calcium, protein, iron and amino acids. You basically can live off of these little suckers alone. I thought they were a joke at first but after my mother started shipping me bags of them and I started gulping them down I was sold - side note, you can also snort them. There is your nutrition moment for this story and you’re welcome.

She had also bought herself a van and started a mobile wine service. Down there, decent bottles of wine only cost around six to eight dollars and when you get four glasses in a bottle and sell those glasses for five to six dollars, boom, there is your profit. However, with Covid halting all of the yearly events, the van sadly sat parked in her underground garage. She had become quite the entrepreneur and I was interested in checking this all out for myself.

My job with real estate had pretty much moved to completely virtual so I could make traveling work. Nobody would know my zoom background was truly another country. I had never been to Uruguay and quite honestly, I just never had the desire. I don’t even think I knew where Uruguay was on the map, but it was time. I googled the location and flight times and then, just like any other Covid-free antibody hero, I booked my first trip to Uruguay, South America in January 2021.

CHAPTER 3

A Fay Fay Moment

In my mind, when a person thinks of any country in South America, one thinks of tropical drinks, bikinis made out of dental floss, and gorgeous cabana boys that only speak when spoken to and let you eat sushi off their waxed abs. I mean, the list goes on, am I right or am I right?

After about thirty-seven hours of travel, I landed in Uruguay. I remember looking down at the country as I was getting close to landing, thinking how similar it was to Ireland. Not as green, but with massive open fields with too many sheep, horses, and cows. I did not see any platters of sushi on waxed abs, nor did I see any dental floss bikinis. I was beginning to think that this trip may officially suck.

My mother’s best friend, Wesley picked me up from the airport and we had two hours to get to know each other while in the car driving to the beach town of Punta del Este. I was moody and needed a drink, so when I told him to stop talking to me about every single little thing about the country, he just looked at me with a humorous darkness in his eyes that basically showed relief. I did not care why the grass was more green on one side of the road rather than on the other. At this point in my life, I only spoke a language that was heavily influenced by sarcasm and wine, no matter what country I was in. But I could tell that him and I were going to get along just fine. The first couple days were a bit