990358 Charles Lauds Corned Beef And Whiskey In Uruguay

Montevideo, Uruguay - Prince Charles got into the relaxed swing of things on the Montevideo leg of a Latin American tour Friday, joking about the trade in beef and whiskey between Britain and Uruguay.

After a high-profile three days in Argentina, where he got in hot water with comments on the sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands, Charles seemed to enjoy the slow pace of Montevideo, one of Latin America's smallest capitals.

The heir to Britain's throne, who leaves Uruguay Saturday for the Falkland Islands, joked to businessmen about Uruguayan meat packaged by British firms, saying, “I was brought up on it, I remember eating corned beef until it came out of my ears.”

He was also delighted by whiskey's importance in Uruguay's trade links with Britain, saying, “I always knew the British drank themselves silly on champagne, but I never realized the Uruguayans drank themselves silly on whiskey. But then again, I am very glad to hear it.”

His host, President Julio Maria Sanguinetti, is a painter and historian with a penchant for quoting French and Italian writers in conversation.

The prince showed an interest in the history of the River Plate, which separates Uruguay from Argentina, and there was an unusually low-key, low- security feel to this visit by one of the world's most watched men.

The broadsheet daily El Pais splashed his arrival on its front page Friday and other Uruguayan newspapers, such as La Republica, had front page pictures with captions such as “Hello Charlie.”

A few hundred people turned out at a wreath-laying ceremony Thursday at Montevideo's main square -- his first public function upon arriving.

Later Friday, Charles was to go to an agricultural study center called “The Witches.”

During the dinner with Sanguinetti Thursday night, Charles let slip that he was “surprised” that Britain's involvement in this part of the world first came in the form of an attempted invasion in 1806.

That would have raised eyebrows in Argentina, which still has a territorial dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands 17 years after the two nations fought a brief war over the South Atlantic colony.

But in Uruguay, President Sanguinetti talked in a speech at a dinner in Charles' honor of the “old stories that unite” Britain and Uruguay, like the fact that Uruguay's electricity network and railways were built by Britain around the turn of the century.

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