Just stand on your head and sing the national anthem, you're good.

Every time I meet an ex-pat or extended-stay tourist, I ask them how they went about doing it the legal way. And everyone has a different answer.

We've been told that we have to spend 72 hours outside the country every three months, that we can just leave and come back in the same day, that we have to have residency to pay taxes, that we'll never get residency and we can just pay our taxes, that we can overstay our tourist visa and pay the fine, that we can go to the airport and get a 10-year visa (like the one they give in Chile for $140), that we can go to the airport and get a 3-month extension, that we can visit the immigration office (only once) and get a 3-month extension.

We're about due for another trip out of the country. While as of the last one we had hoped to have more figured out by now as to how to go about staying here long-term, we do not, so we will probably be taking this second trip to Uruguay (possibly Montevideo this time!). After that, I'm leaning toward our bar-owner buddy's advice: just pay the taxes for your business and stay on a tourist visa. Clean and simple, unlike the removal of the mold from our bathroom wall.