Every year in the Uruguayan city of San José, the National Festival dedicated to the iconic mate drink takes place. Despite the fact that mate is called Paraguayan tea, here it has gained extraordinary popularity - it is regularly consumed by almost 90% of the population of Uruguay. The beneficial properties of this magical drink have long been known - it maintains the level of adrenaline in the blood, saturates the heart with oxygen, normalizes blood pressure, and improves blood circulation. In addition, it has another invaluable property - it reduces addiction to alcohol and smoking.
The Indians of South America appreciated mate and consider it a gift from above. That is why in San Jose de Mayo in 2008 a monument dedicated to this tonic was erected.
This composition is a huge palm - about five meters high and two and a half wide, holding a calabash - a vessel designed for brewing tea (it is believed that mate brewed only in it retains all its properties), with a bombilla - a special tube for its drink. Around are the essential attributes of tea drinking - teapots and a thermos, as well as planted bushes of the mate itself. The author of the project of this unusual composition is a local artist and architect Gonzalo Mesa.
In the last few years, this magical drink has become extremely popular and fashionable all over the world, and this is perhaps the fashion that should be followed unconditionally. A huge number of tourists come annually during the days of the festival to these beautiful places near the capital of Uruguay - Montevideo, to see the unique monument with their own eyes and take part in the original folk festivals of the natives.
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