Home. (Punta. con punto al fin)

Bueno, resulta este blog ha sido el mas dificil de escribir, en parte porque tal vez de alguna manera no queremos terminar con este “viaje” todavia, y en parte porque demoraron mucho en ponernos la conexion de internet! Pero ya tenemos internet, y telefono, y estamos aca instalandonos en el destino final. Y a pesar de unos pequenios inconvenientes, ya nos estamos aclimatizando los cuatro a nuestras vidas nuevas. Este blog lo venimos escribiendo hace rato, asi que algunas cosas pueden parecer un poco atrasados, pero por lo menos les sirve para saber en que andamos.
Fue un dia soleado y frio cuando salimos de Montevideo, un poco mas tarde de lo pensado porque nos llevo un monton de tiempo organizarnos para salir. Salimos rumbo el este por la rambla, pasando toda la parte costera de Montevideo. Ibamos bastante lento debido al peso de todas las cosas (cajas de libros y cosas que habiamos mandado desde Canada hace meses) pero de a poco pasamos las ciudades de la costa, Piripolis, Punta del Este…Llegamos a la frontera departamental con Rocha cuando estaba empezando a oscurecer. Casi enseguida nos empezamos a sentir que la camioneta perdia fuerza cuando estabamos en subida (subiditas uruguayas que, despues de estar en las montanias, no son nada). Fue muy extranio. Pensabamos que le pasaba algo al canio de escape, porque despues de un rato la camioneta recuperaba fuerzas de nuevo. Inclusive en un par de lugares tuvimos que bajar a empujar! Paramos para poner nafta en Rocha, a una hora mas o menos de nuestro destino. Al arrancar la camioneta hizo el amague de nuevo, como que no quieria andar y no tenia fuerzas, pero alli salto y anduvo. Al rato pasamos la entrada para Castillos y despues la de La Esmeralda, y sabiamos que no faltaba mucho para llegar – estabamos muy ansiosos y emocionados! Al final, alli en la distancia vimos las luces de la entrada a Punta del Diablo. Con mucha emocion, doblamos para entrar al pubelo y…..nada. La camioneta no quieria ir ni para atrás ni para adentante. Alli estabamos estancados conmpletamente. Nos llevo un par de minutos para reacionar. Como? Si la camioneta nos llevo fielmente mas de 20 000 km como podia parar ahora, a solo 5 km de casa? Muy loco. No lo podiamos creerlo. No nos quedaba otro que reirnos! Despues de reaccionar un poco, llamamos a Isaac y Monica, que sabian que veniamos ese dia, y nos venieron a rescatar. En ese momento justo pasaba el taxi del pueblo, y nos tiro con una cuerdita los ultimos kilometros hasta casa. Cuando llegamos Miguel e Irene nos habian hecho el fueguito y entramos a nuestra casita quierida, por fin. Ahhh. Me pueden decir que no creen en el destino o lo que sea, pero es muy fuerte – como vamos a venir a quedarnos en la entrada del pueblo despues de recorrer toda Latinoamerica sin problemas mayores? Hablandolo despues con todo el mundo lo vimos muy simbolico ya que habiamos llegado al destino final y que nuestra querida camioneta ya lo sabia. Punto. El otro dia nos levantamos con el sonido de los pajaritos en los arboles, y el sol saliendo sobre el mar (vista que tenemos todos los dias de nuestro cuarto – un lujo total!). Al segundo dia Mateo empezo las clases, y ahora esta esperando la llegada de su propio laptop verde por el Plan CEIBAL! Ya esta bastante integrado, y el viernes 15 estamos de cumpleanios con los amigos aca en casa. Ariel tambien ya empezo en el liceo en La Coronilla (un pueblo a 30 minutos por omnibus al norte de aca) y esta bastante nervioso. Va a tener que estudiar bastante para poder pasar los examanes y pasar de anio despues de perder tantas clases. Pero esta entusiasmado y el sabe que lo puede lograr. Hasta tiene clases los sabados – esta salado el liceo aca! Esta contento porque tiene ganas de meterse a trabajar con un refugio de tortugas marinas ubicado en La Coronilla que se llama Karumbe (http://www.karumbe.org/web/index.htm).
El otro dia fuimos todos a Chuy, la ciudad pequenia que esta en la frontera con Brasil (a unos 50 minutos de casa, pasando la Coronilla) donde todo el mundo que vive aca va hacer las compras – literalmente, de un lado de la calle estas en Uruguay, y del otro estas en Brasil. Aunque nunca cruzas la frontera oficialmente, hay unos controles que te paran volviendo a Punta del Diablo y te controlan las compras (mas sobre esto despues....) Mas que nada es porque hay unas tiendas de Duty Free que oficialmente no podes comprar si no sos extranjero – es raro. Antes el Chuy era conocido como un lugar donde los uruguayos iban a comprar comidas y cosas de la casa muy barato, pero ahora que Brazil es mas caro que Uruguay, es donde van los brasileros a comprar electrodomesticos, etc. Por supuesto, nosotros seguimos yendo para comprar vinos tintos ricos y baratos! Uno de los aspectos mas interesantes del Chuy es la influencia palestina; pasando por sus tiendas uno los ve fumando sus pipas de agua y mirando el canal Al Jazeera por el TV cable. Y, por supuesto, Gustavo y los nenes comierons un bauru con ovo – un sandwiche caliente brasilero con un huevo en el medio.
El pueblo de Punta del Diablo ha cambiado un monton en algunos aspectos, con muchisimas casas nuevas (en la cuadra de nosotros eramos la primera casa, y ahora esta lleno!) pero en otros aspectos esta, por suerte, igual. Las playas son iguales, preciosas, y por el momento, vacias de turistas – todo para nosotros. El otro dia vimos focas en la playa, y una joven se quedo media atrapada entre las rocas, llorando hasta que vino una ola a sacarla de alli. Hace dos semanas habia un pinguinito cansado que se quedo por un tiempito en el pueblo, cuidado por la gente, hasta que recupero las fuerzas y se fue de nuevo al mar. Agosto y Setiembre son los mejores meses para ver ballenas en el agua, aca a la orillita nomas. La mayoria de los dias hay un sol rajante, y aunque haga frio hay una calidad inexplicable en el aire –es la luz, o el olor a mar, no se exacatamente que es–que te hacen despertar los sentidos y sentir completamente vivo. Desgraciadamente para la camioneta, vivir tan cerca de la playa quiere decir que hay mucho salitre en el aire, cosa que nos tiene un poco preocupados (vamos a tener que darle un banito de vez en cuando!).
Ahora, despues de otro viaje a Montevideo para buscar los resultados de la tomografia computada de Gustavo (que salieron muy bien) estamos de nuevo en Punta del Diablo. Mateo tuvo su cumpleanios el otro dia, e invito algunos de sus amigos para celebrar sus 10 anitos con una piniata de diablito, una torta hecha por Mimi y unos juegos divertidisimos animados por Ana. Manejando desde Montevideo con la camioneta llena de cosas – otra vez un domingo de tarde – nos vimos el atardacer mas hermoso que hemos visto en mucho tiempo, fue espectacular, un rojo vivo con el paisaje de las palmeras de Rocha y las vacas en el campo. Fue impresionante, y fue la bienvenida que nos faltaba. Este momento nos sirvio para subrayar porque hemos decidido hacer nuestra casa en este lugar del mundo. Es realmente un lugar magico…
Noticias: Magico o tal vez es un lugar mufa. Todavia esta por decidirse cual! El otro dia despues de dejar al Ari en su liceo, a Gustavo lo pararon en la “aduana” que esta en Coronilla (expliquenme porque hay una aduana 30 km de la frontera?) Les parecio “sospechoso” que Gustavo estuviera con la camioneta con papeles de turista al mismo tiempo que esta llevando a su hijo al liceo aca. Para hacerlo corto, a pesar de que todos los paperles estan en orden, se quedaron con la camioneta y mandaron a Gustavo y Mateo en el omnibus a casa! Mateo lloraba alli en frente de los aduaneros, y nada. Paso la noche con pesadillas – imaginense: hace 7 meses que esa camioneta es nuestra casa; ya es parte de la familia! Ahora tenemos que contratar un abogado para demandar que nos lo la devulevan, y aunque no hicimos absolutamente nada mal, eso va a demorar hasta por lo menos la semana que viene. Les hacemos saber como sale todo esto – por lo menos nos sirve de excusa para seguir con el blog un rato mas!
Ahora que llegamoshasta aca queriamos agradecerles a todos que nos han estado siguiendo – haciendo comentarios o anonimamente - en este aventura - le verdad que nos hizo sentir siempre acompaniados saber que tanta gente nos estaba alentando durante todo el camino. Gracias a todos!

Well, this entry has proven somehow to be the most difficult to write– maybe in part because it is kind of sad to know that it is the “last” one of our trip and we are somehow a bit reluctant to end it, and also in part because we have been waiting forever for our internet connection. But, now we finally have a home phone and internet service. Despite a few small glitches (to be detailed below) we have arrived at our final destination and are all four of us just now beginning to settle into our new lives.
It was a bright and sunny but crisp day when we left Montevideo just after the last blog entry. We ended up leaving later than we expected because it took us a while to get ourselves organized, but we finally piled ourselves as much of our stuff (we had shipped some boxes of books for my thesis, the kids books, rugs, etc.) as we could cram into the westy and took off. We drove along the rambla (which is a long and rambling boardwalk all along the Rio de la Plata, which basically extends from the old city to the outskirts of town, the entire length of the city) enjoying a typical winter-yet-sunny day. As I said, we were quite loaded down so we drove pretty slowly, passing the small towns on the coast just outside of Montevideo whose populations have exploded in recent years with people who are tired of living in the city; we passed Piriapolis and Punta del Este and by the time we started to reach the departmental limit with Rocha, it was starting to get dark. We also started to notice that the westy was losing force whenever we came to a small incline. We knew we were loaded down, yes, but this just made no sense – after all of the mountains that we drove on throughout the trip, how could it be that the westy was losing force on these dinky Uruguayan hills?! It was very strange. And it kept getting worse – at one point Ari and I had to get out and push! After about a half an hour of wondering whether we should flag someone down and call a tow truck, the vehicle suddenly accelerated – vroom – and started to drive normally again. We were perplexed, but thought that maybe the filter was clogged, or that something – maybe a banana!?- was stuck in the exhaust pipe and got spit out. Anyway, we kept driving until we got to the town of Rocha where there is a gas station right on the highway. After filling up, the westy did not want to go into gear and drive, but after a minute or two it did the same thing and jumped forward, driving fairly normally on the highway. Weird. It was now completely dark at this point and so we couldn’t really see very well, but we were starting to get all antsy, feeling very excited to be so close to home! Finally, off in the distance we saw the turnoff to Punta del Diablo and we all started to congratulate ourselves for having made it at last. At the highway exit we slowed down to turn right onto the main road and…nothing. The westy had completely frozen. No matter how many times we tried, it would not get it to go into gear. We could not move neither forward nor backward. Desperate, we tried to push-start it a few times in second gear (which worked once, very briefly, and we had to jump in after it was moving – remember Little Miss Sunshine?). But it just did not want to budge. It was an amazingly starry cold night, and we just sat there and scratched out heads; for the first few minutes we just could not believe it. Once we recovered our wits, we decided to call Monica and Isaac who were expecting us to arrive that day, and ask them to rescue us. A few minutes after the call, the town taxi happened to drive by, and he ended up towing Gustavo and the westy by rope the last km from Highway 9 to our house, while the kids and I rode in Isaac and Monica’s car. You can tell me you don’t believe in fate, or destiny, or karma, or whatever…..but come on! The westy faithfully carried us from Hamilton all the way to Uruguay, with only a few small problems here and there (which seemed to happen in exactly the places where they needed to happen) and now it gives up and completely dies on us? We drove more than 20,000 km and the last five km we had to be towed with a flimsy rope by the Punta del Diablo taxi driver? It is just too much. Talking about it later with others, we figured out that it must mean that we are finally home: the westy took us to where it needed to take us, and decided that it that was it. At least for now.
That night we walked in to our very own little house, which was waiting for us – it was like it was frozen in time or something – Miguel and Irene had already made a nice cosy fire for us, and had taken good care of the place for us while we were gone. We woke up the next morning to the sound of birds in the trees and the sun rising over the ocean (a view we have been enjoying fully every morning out our bedroom window -we truly are privileged!). We saw a whole band of bright green parrots outside welcoming us home, along with a big red-headed woodpecker and many other little birdies, who sometimes come right into the house regularly by mistake if we leave the windows open. The next few days were spent cleaning the house, visiting with people, and getting the westy fixed. This task was made relatively easy, thanks to El Vampiro, the guy who provides firewood and also happens to be a mechanic. So we got a load of firewood too (he also cut down a pine tree that was leaning dangerously over the house -and blocking our view - you’ve got to love Punta del Diablo!). On the second day, Mateo started school and is already settling in well in his class. He is waiting for his own little green “One Laptop per Child” laptop, which should be arriving for him soon! He had his 10th birthday party the other day and invited some old and new friends to celebrate with a devil piñata, a cake made by Mimi and some really fun games animated by Ana. Ariel started high school, and although it looks like it is going to be tough getting caught up, he is motivated and excited about it. We both have some serious studying to do in the next few months, because in order to pass the year he has to write some difficult exams at the end of term. Poor Ari: high school is really challenging in Uruguay, and he even has classes on Saturdays! He also has to take a bus on the highway every day to La Coronilla, a town which is about a 30 minute ride north of here. But it is a nice smallish school, and the people seem really friendly and open. He is especially excited about getting involved with a sea turtle sanctuary in Coronilla called Karumbe – check it out online (http://www.karumbe.org/web/index.htm). We have been going regularly to Chuy to do some errands, do banking and pay bills, etc.. Ah, Chuy…it is a strange and wonderful border town in the northeast of the country (about 50 minutes from here, past La Coronilla), where you are literally in Uruguay on one side of the street and on the other side of the street you are in Brazil. While you never actually physically cross a border, coming back to Punta del Diablo from there you come upon these weird customs check points where they control what you have bought (and legendarily ask for bribes – more on this later). Chuy is a typical border town, a bit shady with lots of duty free shops, a casino, and commercial stores galore. Another interesting aspect of Chuy is the Middle Eastern (especially Palestinian) influence; walking by their shops you can see the merchants smoking water pipes and watching Al Jazeera on cable TV. Chuy has been known for years as being a place to buy cheap goods and foods. For Uruguayans it was back when Brazil was cheaper than Uruguay, but now Brazilians flock to Chuy to buy electro-domestic products. Of course, we still go to the Duty Free shops for cheap bottles of good wine! And we love going to the supermarket on the Brazilian side for coconut yogurt, chocolate bars and tahini. The kids and Gustavo had bauru con ovo, a Brazilian grilled sandwich with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in it (peppers, olives, mushrooms, cheese, corn) and a raw egg cracked in it before grilling to crispy perfection. Speaking of food, we have been slowly going through all the foods that we had stashed in the cupboards of the westy for the whole trip (Maseca, arepa flour, quinoa) and the other night we decided to make a Pad Thai kit that we had bought way back at Trader Joe’s in Cincinnati, Ohio - It was delicious!
The town of Punta del Diablo itself has changed a lot in some ways, with lots of new houses and construction happening all the time (in our block, for example, we were the very first house and now it is full!), but in many other ways, it is exactly the same. The beaches have not changed much, for example. The other day we saw a seal on the rocks, crying and alone until she figured out how to get past the waves and back out to sea. Two weeks ago a penguin was stranded on the beach and hung out for a while with the people in the town, before recovering strength and taking off out to sea again. It is whale-spotting season, and with our eyes glued on the horizon we are looking forward to seeing them any day now. Most days are sunny, and even though it is cold as this time of year there is an inexplicable quality to the air here –the light, the salt in the air, I am not sure exactly what it is - that awakens the senses and makes you feel completely alive (of course, the part about the salt in the air is an unfortunately detail for the poor westy, who will have to have regular washes to keep from rusting all to hell while we are here).
Now, after another trip to Montevideo to get Gustavo’s CT scan and blood test results (which are all fine, by the way) we are back in Punta del Diablo once again. This time we are finally starting to relax and settle in. If you want to see more photos of and information about Punta del Diablo check out www.portaldeldiablo.com.
Driving here from Montevideo – again, on a Sunday afternoon -- we witnessed one of the most spectacular sunsets that we have ever seen. It was translucent fire in the sky behind the fields of cows and the famous tall, thin palms trees of Rocha. It was breathtaking - an incredible welcome home, and only served to reinforce for us why we have chosen to make this place our home. It is truly a magical place…
Update: it is either magical or jinxed, we are still trying to figure out which (at least for the poor Westy!). The other day as Gustavo was driving back from dropping Ari of at La Coronilla, the customs guys stopped him (can anyone explain to me why there is a customs office 30 km from the border?) and thought that it was “suspicious” for him to be driving on a tourist permit while taking his son to school. To make a long story short, even though our paperwork is entirely in order and there is absolutely nothing legally wrong, because it is “unusual” the guy decided to confiscate the vehicle, and Gustavo and Mateo (who was crying inconsolably) had to wait on the side of the highway to take a bus home. They took the keys and the vehicle. Some people we talk to think that they are either looking for a bribe or hoping that there is actually something wrong with our paperwork, in which case they might eventually keep the vehicle themselves. Others think they are just doing their jobs. I don’t know, but we were all pretty crushed, and Mateo was plagued by nightmares all night. It is difficult to explain, but after a 7 month trip like the one we just had, the westy feels like a part of our family and we felt somehow violated. We had to get a lawyer to write an official letter of complaint and are now waiting for a judge to tell them to give us our keys back! There is no doubt that they will, but bureaucratic processes like this take a long time here, and meanwhile we are braving rainstorms and cold weather without a vehicle! We will keep you all posted as to how this turns out: at the very least, the incident serves as an excuse to keep the blog going a while longer! Speaking of the blog, for a while now we have been wanting to thank all of you who have been following us (whether publicly with your amazing comments, or anonymously – and you know who you are!) on our journey. This adventure has been made all the more exciting and ratifying for us knowing that we have not been alone, and that so many people have been cheering us on during our adventure in the last few months. Thank you again to all!
Ariel wants to let you all know that you should be prepared for our next big journey which will be our trip in ….Africa maybe? Or Asia?....

Llegamos a Montevideo!! (via Argentina)

Fue bastante facil cruzar la frontera a Argentina, aunque tambien un poco raro por el tema de la gripe AH1N1– aparentemente en Argentina esta bastante feo ahora, y estan tomando muchas precauctiones. Tambien es una frontera pesada en el sentido de control de narcotrafico, asi que nos hicieron sacar todo de adentro de la camioneta- fue la unica vez en todo el viaje que nos hicieron hacer eso. Una vez que se dieron cuenta de que lo unico que traiamos nosotros eran nuestras cosas personales llenos de polvo (por las malas carreteras de tierra en Bolivia) - aparte de unas hojitas de coca olvidados en los bolsillos y nos dejaron pasar sin problemas. Lo primero que notamos al cruzar la fronera era que las calles eran pavimentadas, y que todo el mundo tenia acento de Argentina – ya no nos preguntaban de donde eramos! Tambien hay unos homenajes al Gauchito Gil por todos lados, con trapos rojos y agua – una persona que se murio de sed en la ruta, y ahora le dejan agua por todo Argentina. En vez de manejar de noche y perder la parte mas linda del paisaje del norte de Argentina, dormimos en una estacion de policia en la Quiaca. Hacia mucho frio y estabamos medios tristes, pero por lo menos teniamos un techito para no tener mucho frio de noche. Hicimos una sopita de verduras y nos fuimos a dormir. Nos levanto uno de los policias a las 6:30 de la maniana (para nosotros eran las 5:30- otra vez habiamos cambiado la hora) y hacia mucho frio, pero arreglamos todo y salimos de nuevo. Seguia haciendo un frio terrible hasta que bajamos un poco mas de altura, y en Tilcara paramos a tomar un cafecito y comer unas medialunas, en un lugar muy turistico pero lindo igual. La quebrada de humahuaca era precioso, unos cerros de muchos colores que no podes creer! Tambien fue lindisimo manejar en carrteras en buen estado (nos olividamos de contar que tambien eperdimos la placa de adelante en las rutas de Bolivia – se cayo en algun momento!). Despues paramos en San Salvador de Jujuy para comer algo, pero nos sorpredimos que estaba todo cerrado por lo del gripe: el gobierno declaro vacaciones como por un mes para evitar propagar la gripe, y cancelaron todas los funciones en lugares cerrados. Hasta los chicos tienen un par de semanas extra de vacaciones. Sin embargo, las calles de Argentina parecian a las de un pueblo fantasma. Rarisimo, y hasta medio apocaliptico. En Jujuy entramos a comprar un poco de comida en un supermercado grande y nos sorprendio lo vacio que estaba – y a cada rato pasaban anuncios de que hay que dejar un metro entre persona y persona en la fila, y que no hay que saludar dando besos, ni compartir mate; mas raro todavia. Salimos rapido de alli, haciendo unos sandwiches en el camino. La ruta entre Jujuy y Salta es preciosa, entre montanias verdes, aunque fue un poco angosta y parecia mas como un camino de bicicletas que una ruta nacional. Llegamos a Salto de tarde y encontramos un camping municipal que esta buenisimo, con parrilleros y una piscina gigante (que no tenia agua, pero igual estaba bueno para ver!). Hicimos unos morrones con queso a la parrilla, hablamos con los “vecinos” y jugamos con los perros y gatos gorditos en la vuelta. Era rarisimo estar en Argentina – tan cerca pero todavia tan lejos! Empezamos a darnos cuenta de lo lejos que hemos venido y no podiamos creer hasta donde llegamos. Despues de dormir hasta tarde, fue lindisimo levantarse con el ruidito de los pajaros cantando de nuevo (en la altura nos olvidamos de ciertos “ruidos”). Pasamos un buen rato sacando el polvo de las cosas y limpiando la camioneta. De tarde salimos para el sur, hacia Rio Hondo, un lugar al norte de Santiago del Estero donde hay aguas termales. Llegamos a un camping con piscinas termales y a pesar de que hizo mucho frio nos metimos en el agua. Era un lugar lleno de gente que estaba de vacaciones, haciendo fuego y pasando bien. Habia como una rambla al lado del rio donde podiamos ver unos pajaros impresionantes: por suerte Jeulsch nos habia regalado un libro de identificacion de aves de Argentina y Uruguay. A pesar de una desastrosa visita a un restaurant que solo servia chivo y chancho, lo pasamos bien en ese lugar. Salimos al mediodia, manejando muchas horas y solo parando para dormir en un YPF (las estaciones de servicio que tienen duchas calientes y Wi-Fi!). En Argentina hasta en los estaciones de servicio sirven buena comida y vino, y a la maniana tienen rico café con leche (por supuesto lo sirven con medialunas y aguita mineral). (no te agrandes Charlie! Tambien vimos el primer Wal-Mart desde Mexico)
Tan cerca pero todavia tan lejos, terminamos manejando por 15 horas ese ultimo dia en Argentina, solo parando para comer un almuerzo tarde en Parana, al lado del rio con el mismo nombre. A las 9 de la noche llegamos a Concordia, en el rio Uruguay, la cuidad que esta frente a Salto, Uruguay. Estabamos chochos seguiendo el GPS, pensando como unos tontos que habia un puente entre las dos ciudades – en un momento dado termino la calle y casi nos metimos en el rio! Resulto que todavia teniamos que ir 20 km mas al norte para cruzar por la hidroelectrica. Por fin llegamos a la frontera y – riendonos como nenes chicos – nos pusieron los sellos de salida del lado Argentino y caminamos dos pasos para el escritorio de migracion uruguayo (estan en el mismo edificio). Fue facilisimo cruzar esa frontera, y lo que demoro mas fue que todos los que trabajan alli querian saber todo sobre el viaje. Nos decian que no podian creer lo que hicimos, y con ese auto?? “Y sin aire acondicionado??” Hasta insistian que teniamos que llamar al Canal 4 para hacer una entrevista o algo asi. Lo primero que hicimos al cruzar la frontera – despues de sacarnos una foto con el cartel de “Bienvenidos a La Republica Oriental del Uruguay” por supuesto – fue ir a comer unos fainas. Lo unico que podiamos hacer en toda la noche era mirarnos y decir “no puedo creer que llegamos hasta aca”! Fue medio surrealista porque habiamos venido a este lugar unos anios antes con Mau durante las vacaciones de invierno y ya conociamos (la primera vez desde Mexico). Nos quedamos medios mal porque planeabamos ir directo a Las Termas de San Nicanor, un lugar con piscinas termales en el medio del campo, pero estaba cerrado por reformas. Dormimos en la estacion de policia en Salto, bien en frente de las Termas de Dayman. De maniana fuimos de cabeza a las aguas (ya que habiamos pasado mucho frio durante la noche). Todavia comentandonos que no podiamos creer que estamos aca, nos subimos a la camioneta otra vez para ir un poquito mas hacia el sur. Paramos un ratito en Paysandu para comprar una pascualina, unos sandwiches y un postre chaja, y para ir a visitar a Yolanda, la madre de Quique. No nos podiamos acordar donde vivia, y al final seguimos. El camino hasta Montevideo nos parecio eterno, los ultimos 300 kilometros mas largos del viaje! A las 9 de la noche vimos las luces de Montevideo aparecer en la distancia, y seguimos con el “no puedo creer que llegamos hasta aca!” Entrar a la ciudad fue raro, ya que cambiaron las careteras y todo nos parecia diferente. Lo primero que hicimos (por supuesto) fue irnos a nuestra pizzeria favorita, El Tasende, a comprar unas pizzas al tacho. Muy emocionados y sintiendonos medios anonimos estacionamos bien en frente del apartamento de Mimi. Un amigo de Pablo nos dijo que estaba alli en frente, y lo fuimos a buscar y con el Dado, subimos en el ascensor para sorpreder a Mimi. Casi la matamos. Estaba en camison en su cuarto, cuando Mateo asomo la cabecita atrás de la puerta y dijo, “Hola Mimi.” Despues de una llamada por telefono, teniamos a todos aca saludando. Desde alli estamos pasando tiempo hablando con la familia, con amigos, con Dado el perro dalmata y Tango el gato con tres patas, y jugando con lego que mandamos en las cajas que despachamos desde Canada antes de venir – para Mateo fue como abrir regalos en Navidad! Hasta vimos a nuestro amigo ingles, James, que vivia aca cuando estabamos en Montevideo y esta de visita unas semanas. El sol no ha salido mucho desde que llegamos, pero igual es lindo pasar unos dias bien de inverno en Montevideo. Despues de hacer unas cosas que tenemos pendientes aca (incluyendo la tomagrafia de Gustavo en el Hospital Britanico ) estamos locos por llegar a nuestro destino final en unos dias – Punta del Diablo!
No podemos creer que ya estamos hasta aca!

The crossing was relatively easy, although also a bit ominous since there is a lot of worry about the AHN1 flu, which is apparently raging through Argentina right now. On the Argentine side, because this is a pretty important border, we had to take everything out of the westy (everything was just covered in dust that had come in on the bad roads, so when we opened the back door a cloud came out) and have the most thorough search we have had on the trip so far. Once they realized that all we had were our dusty belongings (and a few forgotten coca leaves in our pockets) they let us go. The first thing we noticed upon crossing the border was that the roads were suddenly perfectly paved. Then we noticed that everyone had Argentine accents, and so we no longer stood out! There are also these weird red shrines of all shapes and sizes all over the place put up for “Gauchito Gil,” a guy who apparently died from thirst on the road once upon a time, and now people leave offerings of water for him all over the country! We ended up sleeping in a police station in La Quiaca, just over the border, instead of driving any more in the dark because we had been told that this northernmost part of the country is beautiful and we didn’t want to miss it. It was very cold and we were feeling depressed, but at least we had a little roof over us and were able to make a quick warm soup and get to bed. One of the officers woke us up at 6:30 in the morning (which was 5:30 for us, as we had to set the clocks an hour ahead again). It was very cold, but we managed to pile everything back into the car and drive south until we went down another few hundred metres and it warmed up again. We stopped for a coffee in the town of Tilcara, which was very touristy but a very beautiful setting. The hills in the Quebrada de Humahuaca area are impossibly multi-coloured and beautiful, and as I said before it made a huge difference that the roads were in good shape (we forgot to mention in the last installment that, in the bumping up and down, our front license plate fell off and got lost somewhere in Bolivia…). We stopped in San Salvador de Jujuy with the intention of eating lunch, and were surprised that everything seemed to be closed – apparently the government decaled it a holiday that day as a way to deal with the flu epidemic. Later we found out that they have a whole month off, and all events in enclosed public spaces like theatres, cinema, museums, etc are suspended. Children are even out of school on an extra-long holiday. In Jujuy we went to a supermarket to buy some provisions, and were taken aback not only by the emptiness of the pristine place, but by the announcements on the loudspeakers throughout the store announcing that people should stand at least a metre apart when in line, should not hug or kiss one another, share mate or congregate in enclosed spaces. It was all a bit strange so we got out of there quickly, making and eating our sandwiches as we drove. The drive from Jujuy to Salta was amazingly beautiful, lush and almost tropical even, through this very narrow paved road along the green mountain (which was more like a bike trail than a highway). We got to Salta by late-afternoon and found a great municipal campground with lots of parrilleros and a gigantic swimming pool (which didn’t have any water in it, but was still quite impressive). We made a fire, chatted to our neighbors, and shared our dinner with the many dogs and cats in residence at the campground. It was very strange to actually be in Argentina – so close and yet so far! It already felt like we were there but we still had a long way to go. After a good night’s sleep, it was nice to wake up to the sound of the birds chirping once again (there don’t seem to be many birds chirping above a certain altitude, for some reason). We spent a long time taking everything out of the westy and beating out the dust that had accumulated on the Bolivian roads, then we took off toward Rio Hondo, a place with thermal waters just north of Santiago del Estero. When we got there we found a campground with its own thermal pools, and even though it was freezing cold, we got in and warmed up eventually. The place was crazy, full of families taking advantage of the flu holiday to camp out, make and cook over the fire and enjoy themselves. There was a nice riverside boardwalk from which we could observe the many birds in the area: luckily Juelsch had given us a great identification book of birds of Argentina and Uruguay. We had a good time there, in spite of a disastrous and expensive lunch at a local riverside place that was recommended to us, but that, as it turned out, only served goat and pig meat (!). That afternoon we drove for many hours and only stopped to sleep at a YPF gas station (the ones that all have hot showers and Wi-Fi!). Argentina is something else: even at a truck stop they serve good food and wine, and in the morning we had a nice café con leche, which is automatically served accompanied by a couple of pastries, a glass of mineral water, and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. We also saw our first Wal-Mart since Mexico – as I said, you’ve got to love Argentina….
So close and yet still so far, we ended up driving for 15 hours on that last day in Argentina, and only stopping to eat a late lunch in Parana, right on the river of the same name. By around 9 pm we made it to Concordia, which is right on the Uruguay River that borders Uruguay. We were happily following the GPS, thinking that there was a bridge right in town facing Salto: at one point, the road ended and we almost drove right into the river! As it turns out, there is no bridge connecting the two cities (which face each other) directly, and you have to drive 20 km north to a hydroelectric dam in order to cross into Uruguay. We finally got to the border and - feeling slightly giddy - we got our exit stamps on the Argentine side before moving over three feet to the Uruguayan immigration desk (they are both conveniently housed in the same building). Crossing the border was easy as pie, but the thing that took the most time was that all of the guys in suits working at the border wanted to hear all about our trip, and couldn’t believe that we had actually driven all this way (“and without even air conditioning?!”). It was hilarious. They even insisted that we should call Channel 4 news for an interview! The first thing we did once we got over the border – after taking a photo of the welcome to Uruguay sign (and almost getting shot by the guard) of course- was to head for a pizza place in downtown Salto to have faina (a chickpea flour flatbread that you eat with pizza – in Liguria, Italy they call it farinata). All we could do all evening was turn to each other and marvel that we had made it. It was a bit surreal because we had been to this very town four years before with our nephew Mauricio. We laughed as we remembered that trip, and marveled at how this is the first time since Mexico that we were on familiar ground. We were a bit disappointed because we had planned to head straight for a place in the middle of the countryside with these hot thermal baths open all night, where you can soak away and look at the stars, but it had been closed for renovations. We slept at a police station close to the Termas de Dayman, and headed straight for the hot water pools in the morning as soon as we woke up (it had been a cold night, so the hot water was heaven). After soaking for a long time and repeatedly commenting to each other that “I can’t believe we are actually here,” we got back in the westy and started driving south toward Montevideo. We stopped for a bit in Paysandu, bought some pascualina (spinach and egg pie) and olimpico sandwiches (ah – how we missed them!) and a chaja dessert (hard to explain for those unfortunate souls who have never tried it – think crunchy meringue, smooth cream, and pieces of fresh fruit), and spent a long time trying to remember where Yolanda, Quique’s mom, lives. We had been there a couple of times before, but just could not remember how to get there so we gave up after a while. The drive to Montevideo after that seemed eternal – I think they were the longest few hundred kilometers of the whole trip, but by around 8:30 pm we finally saw the lights of Montevideo appear in the distance! Again, we still couldn’t stop saying, “I can’t believe we drove all the way here” to each other. The entrance to Montevideo from this direction was quite different than we remembered it, as the government has constructed a new highway and bridge and it is much quicker now. The first thing we did was (of course) head for our favourite pizza place, El Tasende, on the edge of the old city, right around the corner from where the kids used to go to school (which has been there forever, more or less) to buy some pizza al tacho (a very cheesy pizza) and faina made in a woodburning oven by a very skilled pizza maestro. Feeling excited and strangely anonymous, we parked the westy right in front of Mimi’s apartment building. A friend of Pablo’s spotted us and told us that he was just down the street, and after picking him and Dado up, we snuck up in the elevator to surprise Mimi. I think we almost gave her a heart attack! She was in her room in her nightgown, and Mateo stuck his little head in the door and said “Hola, Mimi.” Phone calls were made and we suddenly had a veritable party going on. Since then, we have mostly just been getting caught up with friends and family. We even got to see James, our English friend who happens to be here for three weeks for a visit! The kids have been playing with Dado the Dalmatian and Tango, the 3-legged Siamese cat, and have also been reacquainted with their Lego, which we shipped here many months ago. Yesterday we went to watch a murga perform, and then went to the house of one of the guy in the group, who is a freind of Pablo's, to celebrate his birthday. Murga is a typical musical style in Uruguay, associated with Carnaval, which is a neat mixture of theatre and music with social and political commentary/critique. The sun has not really come out much since we got here, but it is somehow nice to have a typical Montevideo winter and mostly cozy up in the house. After sorting out a few things here in Montevideo, including Gustavo’s CT scan at the British Hospital (an incredibly elitist and expensive place, but we needed it done fast!), we are looking forward to heading to our final destination, Punta del Diablo! Mateo already has his school tunica and everything!

I still can’t believe we actually made it all the way here...