Last day at Karúmbe

Today is our last day at Karúmbe. Tonight we are catching a late bus to the Montevideo airport and then an early morning flight to Rio de Janiro! I maybe writing again tomorrow if we have internet access because I´ll have a lot of time to kill. And by a lot of time I refer to a 9 hour layover in São Paulo! Then we fly to Florianopolis (south of São Paulo) change planes again… before we finally arriving in Rio (north of São Paulo)! Sucky itinerary, I know, but well priced tickets and we have more time then money.

Before we left the northern coast of Uruguay we wanted to check out the town of Chuy (pronounced Chewie, like the nickname of the Star Wars character Chubaca). Chuy is actually split down the middle by the Uruguay-Brazil border. Lonely planet wrote, ¨If you are not on your way to or from Brazil then you must be seriously lost buddy! Turn around and go back!¨

On the main drag one side of the street is Brazil and the other Uruguay. That´s kinda cool. The official border crossing is a bit further, which is nice because to come here from Uruguay we don´t have to hassle with customs. But as Lonely Planet implies there is not too much to see. It´s a small town, one main drag and it´s fueled by Tax Free shopping. This is a place to come if you need to buy something or cross the border, not to just hang out.

But it´s just one town away from La Coranilla and I still wanted to see it. I came, I saw, I bought sunscreen.

tortugas marinas

I´ve been learning a lot and kept busy at Karúmbe. The other day we did a censo to Punto del Diablo… 18km from La Coranilla! The idea is to walk a long span of beach (a very long span of beach) taking note of any dead or stranded turtles (rarely stranded, usually dead). We didn´t find any turtles but we did find a dead ¨lobo del mar¨ (similar to a sea lion but it´s actually a little different and they call it a sea wolf). It was very fresh and even though it´s kind of gross, it was cool to be able to be so close and see it.

Since we were walking to Punta del Diablo the coordinators decided that our group would camp in Punta del Diablo in order to get up first thing in the morning to do a capture on Playa Grande near Punta del Diablo. It was a fun adventure, though exhausting! We set up camp in the sand duns and cliffs right on the beach! It was pretty neat to be the first people on the beach early in the morning!

Another interesting experience was assisting a turtle autopsy. I wasn´t really sure how I would react but it was actually pretty interesting. We took specimens so that a cause of death might be able to be determined later by scientist in Montevideo. It wasn´t clear to us exactly what was the cause of death. The poor turtle was very skinny, but seamed to have been eating. We found plastics in it´s stomach, but not enough that it would have caused death.

Though some of what we are doing isn´t glamorous, it´s been educational. Karúmbe also does a lot of educational awareness. The other day we set up on the beach with a sea turtle, played games with the kids, taught people about green turtles, and at the end of the day released the turtle back into the ocean! The kids thought it was really cool, the energy was great and everyone was excited: the volunteers, coordinators, and our beach audience! It felt good to send a turtle back out into the sea and teach people in the process!

Karúmbe

Well, Nick and I made it to Karúmbe in the little beach town of La Coronilla. We weren’t quite sure what to expect. The information they sent us did say that the operation was housed in a ¨precarious structure¨, and I´d say that this describes the place pretty accurately. This ¨precarious structure¨ is more like a large shed then a house. Actually it´s better to think of it as the coolest tree fort that you´ve ever seen (minus the tree, of course). It seems sturdy enough, (we are sleeping in it) but it´s not really designed to have right corners, straight lines or lumber that meets other lumber to prevent nature from entering. It probably sounds like I hate the building, but it is actually starting to feel quite homey. It´s eclectic to be sure. It´s one step up from camping since we have electricity and running water. But one step down from camping in that there is really no good way to keep out the mosquitoes! I who hate bug spray, have used more bug spray in the last 3 days then in my entire life. But it´s either me or them and I need a weapon! They are of course most annoying at night, when we are sleeping. Our bunk has a mosquito net, but our bunk was constructed in a similar fashion to the house…making the mosquito net obsolete (someone didn´t really think that one through). But I´m on to the mosquitoes tricks and becoming quite an skilled mosquito killer! And I´m adapting, at night I turn my sleep sheet into a cocoon, wrapping my entire body inside, including all limbs and my head!

But the people, work and environment (minus mosquitoes) is making up for the itchy mosquito bites. I don´t think I´ve ever seen the night sky (or the milky way) so clearly! And during the day the sky is an incredible clear blue! Everyone working and volunteering for Karúmbe has been really welcoming. There is a great mix of volunteers here, Chileans, Brazilians, Argentines, one other American, one Brit, and a French girl. Spanish is mostly spoken, English and Portuguese a little. We went to capture turtles on our first day (and were glad we had our wetsuits!). We set out a net off a small rocky point on the beach. We caught one turtle (a lot less then their 14 turtle average, but you never really know if you´ll catch a lot or none.) We did however catch two fish, one big one (two and a half feet or so) and one smaller one. We ate them for dinner!

The turtles that are healthy and just happen to be caught are brought into Karúmbe, checked out, information is gathered for research and to catalog them in case they turn up somewhere else, and then released. Turtles that are sick are also brought to Karúmbe and they do their best to nurse them back to health and release them if possible. Yesterday Nick and I helped feed and give antibiotics to the sick turtles.

Today Nick and I got a free day (it´s a bit like summer camp here), so we headed to the nearby beach town of Punte del Diablo. This is the quintessential sleepy little beach town! All the roads are gravel/dirt, there are surfers, beach goers, sand duns. The town is built on a rocky point so as you walk on the beach away from the town (either north or south) you walk away from all the buildings and there is just sand duns, beach and waves (no condos, no restaurants, no one selling things on the beach… just sand)!

back in Uruguay

After much anticipation, Nick and I packed up our backpacks and said goodbye to Buenos Aires. Nati and Mauricio (our roommates) walked us to the subte, Mauri carrying my backpack and joking that he was going to come with us (or was it to leave the women behind and he continue on with Nick?) Nick and I were able to leave a lot of our unneeded things packed up at SAE which will make the next month of traveling much lighter and enjoyable.

Today Nick and I are in Manantiales, Uruguay, a costal town near Punta del Este. Well spend the day here checking out the town and Bikini Beach before taking the bus another 2 hours up the coast to where our volunteer project will take place.

Note: I said we are ¨traveling light¨ and unfortunately the laptop didn´t make the cut. So the blogs will probably be shorter and full of weird symbols (see my attempted quotation marks above) as I struggle with Urugayan and Brazilian keyboards!

Punta del Este

Punta del Este is a swanky little beach town on the coast of Uruguay, 2 hours from Montevideo. It’s most well known landmark is the sculpture in the sand “hombre emergiendo a la vida” (man emerging to life) or in English popularly called “the hand”. Guidebooks point out that many celebrities vacation here, and that Shakira has a nearby estancia. We didn’t see any celebrities, but I can see why they would flock to this upscale South American destination. These beautiful white sand beaches span practically the whole coast of Uruguay, and since Punta del Este is a peninsula it makes the scenery particularly spectacular. There were times when Nick and I would come to a cross street near the tip of the peninsula and see the road end at the sea in all four directions!

Though Nick and I were a little ahead of the high season, January and February, there were still people around town and at the beaches. Vendors walked along the beach sell anything beach related, including bathing suits, sun dresses and beach towels! The guys selling the large pieces of fabric to layout on where my favorite. The breeze took hold of the beach blankets tied to long poles displaying their beautiful colors and patterns. The vendedores were quite a sight to see trudging up and down the beach laden with fabric.

Check out more pictures here!

Montevideo

Montevideo is just across the Rio del Plata. Nick and I took the ferry to Colonia (1 hour) and then continued onto Montevideo by bus (3 hours). Nick and I were unsure of what to expect from Montevideo. It’s a typical bustling capital city, but looks tranquil compared to Buenos Aires. Many shops were closed on Saturday and there were far less people in the streets, even the main drags. But it seemed to me the best and most unique part of Montevideo is the beaches! The weather was too windy and cold for us to really experience the beaches first hand. But walking along the promenade (trying not to get blown away) the beaches appeared remarkably pristine and litter free for being located in a city! Next time Nick and I find ourselves in Montevideo (probably mid to late January) I hope to rent bikes and ride along the coast checking out the different beaches further away from the city center.

One thing Nick and I did notice is that people seem just a little nicer compared to the people of Buenos Aires. There are more Christmas decorations in the squares, restaurants and store windows. We saw people wearing Santa hats (and they were not handing out flyers or asking for money, they were just wearing them because they wanted to). I like their festive spirit.

Border crossing to Uruguay

Nick and I just got back from a long weekend in Uruguay. I know a long weekend in Uruguay sounds quite swanky (and don’t get me wrong it was nice) but this trip could also be called a border-hop-to-renew-our-visa-weekend, but that just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Nick and I are here on a 3 month tourist visa, and the clock started ticking on September 2nd. If you are doing the complicated math and aware of this past weekend’s date, yes, we overstayed our visa by 9 days.

Nick and I weren’t too concerned, lots of people overstay their visa and face up to the hefty penalty of a $50 peso fine when they do finally leave the country. That’s about $13 dollars, and the reason so many foreigners let their visa expire. It’s cheaper to pay the fine then hop on a boat to Uruguay! Since December 2 we’ve been making jokes about being illegal immigrants. Jokes that my father didn’t think were particularly funny when I casually mentioned it to him over Skype.

So there we were at the ferryboat terminal, feeling pretty silly that we hadn’t made the trip sooner and avoided the fee all together. Since my family is arriving soon (in less than a week!) and we plan to travel with them a bit, Nick and I wanted to clear up any potential visa issues we may have before they arrived. Plus, a friend that recently left Argentina by plane (and who also overstayed her tourist visa) told us the fee for overstaying had been raised to $300 pesos, and we were kicking ourselves for not going sooner because $300 pesos will cover your trip to Uruguay!

Nick and I were ready to face the music, so to speak; each of us armed with our $300 pesos, we approached customs. The customs official scanned my passport, stamped me out of Argentina, handed my passport to the Uruguay customs official sitting next to her, who stamped me into Uruguay, and sent me on my way. No questions, no mention of an overstayed visa, no fee! Nick, who was behind me in line and went to different customs officials, had the same result!

This is what is so amusing but also frustrating about South American countries, the laws on the books and the practice on the ground rarely parallel one another. You never know what to expect! Maybe they never collect the fee at this boat terminal, or maybe they usually do, but the guy that collects it was on his lunch break so they just let us pass. But, I’m not complaining, if they don’t want to take my $300 pesos I’m more than happy to keep it!