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!

Brazil Bound

The proximity of Brazil has finally gotten to us and despite months of rationalizing, “No, that’s another trip, we are not going to Brazil”…we are going to Brazil! When it got down to it, we realized that though it’s going to cost us a bit more money to do a ten day side trip to Rio de Janeiro, in the long run it’s a lot cheaper to go now when it’s just a commuter flight away instead of a hemisphere!

The decision was slightly last minute but after a full day of buying our flights, booking hostels, printing out all the confirmations (that were barely glanced at by the officials), getting passport pictures, filling out the paperwork, applying for the visa, going to a bank 5 blocks away to pay the reciprocity fee (damn US government and their fees!)… but after all that we have our visas! And less than 3 days later too!

And the best part is we can go again in the next 5 years and not do this again! Some how we lucked out and got a 5 year multi-entry visa (which is what we were hoping for but heard that maybe they were not giving those out anymore, and so we didn’t want to get our hopes up!) Ahhh, after all that running around, we have our visa and we’ll be going January 31st!

¡feliz año nuevo!

Ringing in the new year of 2010 has got me thinking about the travels ahead and the things I will miss about Buenos Aires, our home for the last 4 months. I’ll miss the awesome vegetable and fruit stands, especially the particularly spectacular one that just happens to be right in front of my apartment! I’ll miss the public transportation and my ability to navigate it. I especially like the buses. I like the Subte too, but there is something about being above ground and seeing the city whirling past that makes people a tinge happier. Despite the uncomfortable heat and your close proximity to your neighbor no one is visibly unhappy or hostile. People are well dressed, on their normal commute and happy to be one stop closer to home. I’ll miss the feeling of camaraderie when I too am just another person on my way home after work. I’ll miss carrying around empty beer bottles. I’ll miss walking to the grocery store and cutting open a bag of milk. While Nick and I are on the move for the next months I’ll miss cooking.

But we also have lots of exciting things to look forward to and are ready to start the next chapter in our adventure. January 13th we leave Buenos Aires and head to Uruguay to do a volunteer program Karumbé that focuses on conservation and research of sea turtles. We’ll be on Uruguay’s northern beaches, for a little over 2 weeks, at their Cerro Verde research center where we’ll live and work with scientist and other volunteers.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Iguazú National Park

Iguazú Falls was a spectacular sight to see! The sheer size and power of the falls is amazing! My favorite part was the walkway that nearly goes right up to the falls. The wind and water in your face really makes you appreciate and respect nature! From under the falls looking up to a blue sky and rushing water and then down stream to the white waters and a vibrant rainbow was breathtaking.

If it’s possible to steal the show away from the waterfalls, the butterflies did a pretty good job! Apparently there are over 200 different kinds of butterflies at the Iguazú National Park and they are everywhere! Some areas were swarming with butterflies, especially around puddles. Butterflies routinely landed all over us, sitting on our heads, shirts, arms, etc.

We were lucky enough to see some other animals too. We saw a few Toucans and other exotic looking birds. We saw two monkeys: one swinging in the tree tops and another crossed the path in front of us. Maria saved a walking stick bug who was likely to be stepped on. There were lots of turtles in the upper river. There were also lots if iguanas and these raccoon-like creatures called coatis. The coatis have figured out that people will feed them and now unabashedly hang out near eateries and trashcans. They are aggressive little things if they think you have food and are withholding it from them. We watched an old man have a tug of war with a coati that was trying to get into his backpack! And Maria had to hit one with her water bottle to keep it from hopping up on the table top where our bags were gathered.

Iguazú also has the largest ants I’ve ever seen. Near the pathway was a colony of Tiger ants who live within a tree trunk. A guide along the trail pointed them out to us and gave us a word of caution, “If one bites you, you will sit down and cry for 30 minutes. I know.”

Click here to see more pictures!

Cataratas del Iguazú: Pictures

We just returned from Misiones, Argentina where we visited Iguazú Falls! It was an amazing sight and truly one of the seven natural wonders of the world! Enjoy the pictures and I’ll be back with stories about our adventure soon!

For more pictures check out my facebook album

An Argentine Christmas Joke

¡Feliz Navidad!

Christmas in Buenos Aires can be summed up in two words: family and fireworks!  On Christmas Eve everyone spends time with their families. I’ve never seen the streets of Buenos Aires so empty! Then around midnight the fireworks begin. There is no one large government or community sponsored fireworks show. Instead private citizens use their rooftops, balconies, or streets to light off their own private displays! You can hear the fireworks all around you, but because of the tall apartment buildings often you can only see the sky light up for a brief moment or see fireworks reflected in a building windows across the street. Roman candles and noise makers are especially popular. Porteños are very found of their noise makers. When lit they sound as though a cannon has just gone off! (These are actually a favorite in protest and picketing all year round!)

Nick and I had also read about paper lanterns that are traditionally released into the sky on Christmas Eve. They consist of a paper parachute and a burning pot below which raises the lantern into the sky. We saw one person on our street attempt to release one, only to find the wind was a bit too strong this particular Christmas Eve. Once released the paper lantern was quickly seized by the wind and landed on the other side of the street as a fiery ball. The scene quickly felt more like a city under siege then a blissful Christmas Eve night, with a fire in the street and the sound of fireworks (and cannons) going off all around us!

We celebrated with a lovey Christmas Eve feast including roast chicken, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots and stuffing, at my parents rented apartment before retiring to the balcony to watch the sporadic firework displays. Tomorrow we hop on a bus to Iguazú Falls!

Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad!