Uruguay Travel Guide

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Quick Facts
Location
Flag
Capital	Montevideo
Language	Spanish (official), Portuñol, or Brasilero (Portuguese-Spanish mix on the Brazilian frontier)
Internet TLD	.uy
Calling Code	+598
Religion	Roman Catholic 66%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, nonprofessing or other 31%
Area	total: 176,220 km² land: 173,620 km² water: 2,600 km²
Population	3,386,575 (July 2002 est.)
Government	Constitutional republic
Currency	Uruguayan peso (UYU)

Time Zone	UTC -3

Uruguay, officially Oriental Republic of Uruguay. A country of southeast South America on the Atlantic Ocean and the Río de la Plata, republic (2005 est. pop. 3,416,000), 68,536 sq mi (177,508 sq km). Uruguay's only land border is with Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to the north.

[edit] Understand

To the west lies the Uruguay River, to the southwest lies the estuary of Río de la Plata, with Argentina only a short commute across the banks of either of these bodies of water, while to the southeast lies the South Atlantic Ocean. Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, being only larger than Suriname. The land is an area of topographical transition from the humid Argentine Pampa to the uplands of S Brazil. North of the alluvial plain, known as the Banda Oriental. Montevideo is the capital and the largest city. Population: 3,460,000. Most of the population is concentrated in the south; over 40% live in Montevideo. Almost 90% of Uruguay's people are of European descent, Spanish and Italian predominating. The majority of the population is nominally Roman Catholic. Uruguay's greatest natural resource is its rich agricultural land, almost 90% of which is devoted to livestock raising. Although Uruguay is within the temperate zone, climatic variations are moderate; generally the climate is warm, with rainfall evenly distributed through the seasons, but in some years there are severe droughts.