Uruguay
Coast
February 2023 • Brazil and Argentina are on the other side of the frontera, so tiny Uruguay keeps its head down, works hard, stays quiet. It's worth a visit here for similar reasons—shoulders come down, bags go unwatched, transactions become easier. With just 3 million citizens, the country has income levels and living standards that aren’t as wildly unequal as the neighbors'. NYT Magazine says it's a case study in economic and environmental sustainability. For a better sense of the national character, though, revisit the story of the Uruguayan rugby players who survived a plane crash in the Andes in 1972. Their two-and-a-half-month ordeal is operatic, a haunting tale of human willpower vs. impossible circumstance. Those who know the story well are quick to point out: The survivors didn’t just wait to be rescued—they made a hellish decision to avoid starvation, then made hats and gloves out of seat upholstery and hiked down from the mountains to save themselves.
