By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN

(CNN) — They’d been friends for years, but everything changed for Austin Mullins and Jack Richards, both from the US, when they took a trip to New York’s Fire Island together back in 2020.

Returning to NYC very much a couple, the pair moved in together and got engaged two years later.

In January 2023, Austin and Jack, who first met at a party back in 2016, relocated from the Big Apple to Uruguay.

They’ve been living there happily for the past two years and are now permanent residents of the South American country.

‘Special place’

“We love it here and find it to be a really special place,” says Austin.

So why did this thirty-something couple decide to relocate to one of the smallest countries in South America?

Austin and Jack say it all began during the pandemic, when they spent a lot of time watching TV together at their apartment.

“We got addicted to a television show called ‘Escape to the Chateau,’” says Jack. “Most of our American friends had never heard of it.”

As they continually tuned into the British reality show, which is centered around a couple who buy and renovate a 19th-century French chateau, Austin and Jack became intrigued by the idea of “buying some crumbly old piece of property and renovating it.”

However, living in a rural town “didn’t sound appealing.”

“Europe was appealing,” says Austin. “But then we realized that we needed to go somewhere that we can learn a language that’s going to be useful.”

Deciding that Spanish would be the most beneficial language for them to learn, they narrowed their list down to relevant destinations.

Although Spain was a consideration, they eventually vetoed the European country due to the fact that Jack, who runs a digital marketing agency, would be working remotely, and most of their clients were based in the US. They therefore started looking south.

“I brought up Uruguay,” says Austin, explaining that he’d previously visited the country, although Jack hadn’t at that point. ”And so we started researching the culture here.

“The political climate. The economic climate. And it all is favorable. It’s on all these lists of great places to go.”

Aside from being attracted to Uruguay’s “strong” LGBTQ protections and “stable political system,” they also found that the country was home to various aging properties that they could potentially renovate.

“It answered all of the things that a chateau in France didn’t answer,” says Jack, referencing the nightlife and culture of capital city Montevideo. “And we still have an airport that we can fly in and out of.”

Big move

Austin and Jack had originally hoped to move to Uruguay for a few months to test things out. But after talking to their accountants, they realised that being out of the US for more than 11 months in a 12-month period, would save them “a big chunk of change” on their taxes.

Before leaving New York, the couple, who had been engaged since April 2022, decided to tie the knot.

“We just did a courthouse wedding, to both of our mothers’ chagrin,” says Jack, adding that they brought just one person to act as a witness along with them.

After visiting their families to “get some time in before leaving the country,” they packed up their stuff and threw a going away party, and spent New Year’s Eve of 2022 dropping in to parties to say goodbye to various friends.

A week later, the couple flew to Montevideo, Uruguay, to begin their new lives. They initially arrived on a tourist visa, which allowed them to stay for 90 days.

But although they were hugely excited after taking such a giant leap together, Austin and Jack’s first few weeks in the country didn’t turn out quite as they’d imagined.

“January is strange, because January here is kind of August in Paris,” explains Austin. “The streets are deserted… So we’re like, ‘Ok. Where is everybody?’

“It’s really hot, but there’s no-one at the beach. All the restaurants are closed. So it felt very odd.”

Thankfully things began to pick up in mid-February, when “carnival starts, and the city becomes much more alive.”

“There’s lots of music around. There’s lots of things to see,” says Austin. “So we started to feel a little bit more like, ‘OK, the city is waking up.’”

By the time March came around, Montevideo was even livelier and they were finally able to get a real taste of life in the city.

While the couple were keen to find a big property to become their renovation project, they say they struggled to find a bank that would grant a sizable mortgage to two non-nationals earning money outside of the country.

Realizing that they’d have to put their “Escape to the Chateau” dream on hold, Austin and Jack, who stayed in at least four Airbnbs before moving to their current home, settled on renting an apartment in a neighborhood named Parque Rodó.

“We love this area,” says Austin. “It’s a five-minute walk from a very beautiful park in the city and 10 minutes to the beach.”

After discovering that most of the rental leases in the country were for a two-year duration, the couple say they were initially hesitant about committing for such a long period of time.

“Here, no-one is willing to give you a one-year lease,” says Austin. “So that’s why we really had to make the commitment to stay for two full years.”

Once they’d pledged to remain in Uruguay longer term, they slowly began to feel more at home and less like they were on an extended vacation.

Settling in

While the locals have been “extremely kind and patient,”, Austin and Jack say they’ve found Uruguayan culture to be “pretty insular” and haven’t made any Uruguayan friends as yet.

“All of our friends are other nationalities,” says Jack. “And it’s something that we’ve talked about with them.

“Uruguayans are really nice, but especially people born and raised in the city of Montevideo, tend to only befriend people that they’ve known for their entire lives…

“And it is really, really challenging to ever get invited to their home or to be part of their lives.”

The couple go on to explain that they’ve found it easier to develop friendships with Uruguayans who were born outside of the city.

As for the language, both are currently learning Spanish, but stress that they are “far from fluent.”

“I grew up in Arizona, so I had a bit of an introduction to Spanish, but Mexican Spanish,” says Jack. “And Uruguayan Spanish is very different.”

Meanwhile, Austin, who moved to Uruguay “knowing no Spanish whatsoever,” says he’s been pleasantly surprised by his improvement over time and hopes that this will continue.

“Language is definitely a barrier to integrating more with the locals,” adds Austin. “That’s essential.”

According to Austin and Jack, Uruguay’s slower-paced lifestyle has been both “a blessing and a curse” for them.

“There’s not a lot of urgency here,” says Jack, before explaining that the process of gaining residence permits in the country was much slower than they expected.

“So coming from New York, where everything is fast-paced all the time, to here. It is nice to slow down, but at some points it would be nice if Uruguay would speed up a little.”

Both feel that they have a healthier lifestyle now due to the better access to fresh fruit and vegetables, which they’ve found to be less costly, and the fact that they are getting “more daylight and fresh air.”

“We eat fresh fruit and vegetables all day, year round,” says Austin. “That’s something that was not common in New York… So that has been a big improvement.”

Although they’ve found Uruguay to be more affordable overall, they point out that locals earning local salaries may feel differently.

“We pay way less to live here than New York, and probably way less than even most places in the US,” says Austin.

“But compared to the rest of South America, costs tend to be high. And even for locals, costs are high.

“Because there is that kind of lack of job opportunities and so the ratio of how expensive something is, like internet to income, is a lot higher here than maybe other places in South America.

When it comes to cultural differences, Austin and Jack say they’ve noticed that there’s “a lot less toxic masculinity” in Uruguay.

“Even straight men kiss each other on the cheek to say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye,’” says Jack.

They’ve also found the culture to be quite similar to European culture and less like the rest of Latin America.

“Being so small, it has a different quality to it, that they’re very proud of,” says Austin. “But they’re also aware of the world outside of that, and they know that that’s important.”

Overcoming challenges

The US State Department currently advises travelers to “exercise increased caution” while visiting Uruguay due to crime, noting that “violent crimes, such as homicides, armed robberies, car jackings, and theft” occur throughout the country.

Austin and Jack admit that they didn’t consider the issue of safety before choosing to relocate there, and stress that they’ve never felt particularly at risk while living in Uruguay.

“The US doesn’t classify Uruguay as a safe place,” says Jack, noting that while violent crime is prevalent in some areas of the country, he finds that this is “small and isolated compared to the everyday lives of most people.”

When asked how their friends and family feel about their choice of destination, Jack points out that many of them don’t seem to know much about Uruguay and probably wouldn’t be able to locate it on a map.

“We have a lot of people who are like, ‘Oh, how’s Paraguay?’” they say. “I had one person who asked, ‘How’s life in Uganda?’”

The biggest challenge the couple has faced is undoubtedly the fact that only one of them is currently working full time.

“The difficulty here has been me finding employment,” says Austin, explaining that while he’s found some work teaching English, he hasn’t been able to secure a long-term position.

“That’s been kind of the struggle,” he adds. “We’re not retirement age…”

This ultimately means that things are a little “up in the air” in terms of the couple’s future in Uruguay.

“If we are going to ever get our chateau dream, that’s where having the dual income would help,” says Jack.

“Because we can live, and have lived for the last two years very comfortably, just off of my primary income and Austin teaching.

“And that would be sustainable for a while. But it would not allow us to escape to the chateau.”

While they admit that the situation has been a strain on their marriage, Austin and Jack say that it’s ultimately brought them closer together.

“The strain of it has also forced us to be stronger,” says Jack, pointing out that they have a couple’s therapist in Uruguay as well as individual therapists.

Austin echoes this statement, conceding that while things have been stressful at times, they’ve “learned to navigate a lot of difficulties” together.

“We need each other here,” adds Austin.

Although they’re happy in Uruguay, Jack and Austin haven’t ruled out the prospect of returning to the US one day, particularly if Austin continues to struggle to find work.

“The other thing is aging parents and grandparents,” says Jack. “I think if either of us had a family health emergency, that would be a big indicator of whether we stay or not.”

They stress that having the freedom to return to the United States regularly, as well as “visit most other Western countries, at will” is a privilege that they don’t take lightly.

“For example, in two years, we’ve gone back to visit family a few times compared to a friend from Venezuela who left eight years ago, hasn’t been back, and doesn’t anticipate ever being able to return,” says Jack.

“While we don’t want to move back to the US for our own quality of life and political reasons, it is still seen as a land of opportunity to many people.

“And while some would give almost anything to live outside their country of birth, we have the freedom to choose.”

For the time being, they’re happy to remain in Uruguay and keep “working towards the chateau.”

“We’re accepting donations!” jokes Austin.

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