We’ve had a car for a week now. We rented it from Enrique in Chuy (pronounced chewy). Chuy is a frontier town. The broad boulevard “Avenida Internacional” runs between two countries; on one side Uruguay and the other Brazil. We arrived in dusty Chuy mid-morning after the short bus ride from Punta del Diablo, Enrique assured us that around midday a car would be ready for us and sent us off to explore Chuy. This did not take long. The Uruguayan side of the town is lined with one duty free store after another duty free store. The stores all sold the same things, things that can be found in any duty free store in any airport, anywhere: perfume (who buys all this perfume), brand name cosmetics, liquor, chocolate, electronics. We bought a bottle of gin (Bombay Sapphire), chocolate (Toblorone) and a jar of artichoke hearts on the Uruguayan side, and a fly swatter on the Brazilian side.
We arrived back at Enrique’s travel agency, no car yet but he assured us he was already working on plan B. His co-worker (wife too) asked us how we had enjoyed our shopping and I explained that the duty free stores offered nothing I could not find in Vancouver. Does globalization mean the end of variety and uniqueness; will everyone have the very same bag, use the same lotions and sport the same logos? Anyway, she told us about her travels in Canada, of visiting Lake Louise and there in the hotel finding a “Manos de Uruguay” handicraft store. Funny! I told her I wished there was such a store in Chuy.
After lunch, still no car. We decided to fill out the paperwork and pay for our rental so that when the car did arrive we would be ready to hit the road. A rental in cash was nearly half of a rental by credit card so we opted for cash and killed some time at the bank machine. Our two-week rental including insurance was 16,000 Uruguayan Pesos, about (800 US). With these large numbers buying things involves big wads of cash and complicated math. It is unnerving at first spending 500 pesos and then telling yourself that it is only $25. Enrique gave us a strange receipt, it said the funds were for the “concept” of renting a car, this kind of worried us. Off we went again and this time we at least located some postcards, even if they were from the 1950s. By 6PM it was clear that we would not be driving out of there as we dreamed. Our option was to borrow an uninsured car and then come and exchange it for the “concept car” in a few days. “What could possibly happen!” exclaimed Enrique. Enrique did not have the imagination of either Yvonne or I. In any case we took the bus back home with the promise that Enrique would deliver the car to us at our cabin in a few days and true to his word he did.
We have been enjoying exploring the coast, being beach inspectors and location scouts. There is 100 kilometres of dunes from La Paloma in the south to Barra de Chuy in the north. There are some really beautiful beaches! We spent a morning at La Esmeralda, a gorgeous white sand beach that goes forever any way you look. Boogie boarding was impossible. Playing in the waves there was like standing on fine glass shards and being sand blasted, very therapeutic. Our favorite town so far is Barra del Valizes, it had such a very cool relaxed vibe and is next to the UN protected area and national monument of Cabo Polonia, a unique sandy eco-system (no cars, no electricity).
The dunes are so extensive and constantly shifting. The coast has always been treacherous for sailors and tales of shipwrecks, pirates and buried treasures abound. Beach glass is harder to find in this sandy world but plastic litters the beaches and is found too easily. The province of Rocha should ban the plastic bag as well as the plastic water bottles to protect the huge variety of birds. The province boasts large lagoons where many birds thrive, the sounds of birds’ wakes us every morning. Uruguay actually means: “river of the painted birds”
We have walked the full length of Playa Grand now and got to the point. Just around that point we discovered the perfect beach for boogie boarding, in Santa Teresa National Park. We love the National Park not only for the beach but also because of our favorite restaurant; they make fish (Brotola) with a fantastic pepper sauce and super great fries. Playa Del Barco is a somewhat protected bay and the waves are strong yet gentle enough to keep the fun level up and the danger level down.
I am trying to master the parrella for bbqing. It is such a fantastic system, (pictured here). First you have a fire (I know we are burning up the trees) to make your coals then you use the coals for cooking: vegetables in tinfoil, roasted peppers and beautiful meat. All the cuts of meat are different here and named differently, for the bbq we prefer the pichana, a thick cut with a layer of fat to keep it moist. This we can cook from “jugoso” (rare) to well done. I think there should be a cooking show dedicated to cooking with the parrilla. So photogenic, such an ingenious design and oh so delicious!
3 comments:
Beachoramma! Do you now go back to Montevideo? So much travelling, it all gets mixed up in my mind. I think you guys should live on a beach somewhere, clearly that is where you want to be. Now I must check flicker for new photos.
rachel, you look so incredibly tanned. But what are you reading now?!
Wow, That sun is really striking. Do things look different on the other side of the equator?
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