I first heard of Mate traveling in Guatemala on my semester abroad from college. I didn’t try it but I did remember it and when I saw it again, and had the opportunity again, chose not to try it again. I figured that since I was going to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile I should wait to try it in one of those countries.
Mate itself is basically a type of herbal tea (sort of looks  like oregano or crushed tea leaves) that is very popular down here. Rather than filling a coffee mug with water and dropping in a small filter bag with tea leaves inside, with Mate the cup itself is special. No ordinary mug will …

0530 – Wake up after 4 hours of sleep on a rather comfortable bus to discover that even though it is dark out, we’re at the border and since we went cheap and only paid for bus fare to the border, its time to get up and get out.
0532 – Handed our passports, stamped Exit from Brazil and Entrada to Uruguay.
0534 – Find a bathroom at the border post and begin our pre-dawn walk into town to find another bus to take us the rest of the way to Montevideo
0640 – Find bus station with 7am bus. They do not take credit cards.
0642 – Discover the ATM does not like my card.
0650 – Return to bus station …