Category: Travel

MONTEVIDEO: As seems to be my trend lately, I managed to rise just after 10am. Breakfast was until 11am so I still had time for a shower first. My room mate, Mike, had long since disappeared to Colonia. He was working his way around most of South America in just three weeks, so the 16hrs he spent in Montevideo was quite a luxury on his schedule.

Temperamental Showers
Negotiating the shower proved harder than I first imagined. It was a cold morning so a hot shower was a necessity today, but no matter how long I ran the hot water, nothing hot was coming out. Eventually I decided to run two showers to speed the process. It worked, and soon I had hot water, but as soon as I turned off the other shower the hot water stopped too. The result was that I showered with two showers running, and got the hot shower I was wanting.

I wandered down after my shower and joined a couple of German tourists at the breakfast table. They were enjoying their measly fare of sliced bread rolls and jams that constituted breakfast. After our conversation, I decided to head out in search of a better breakfast such as a banana or yogurt or even both. But being a Sunday morning, there was not very much open and I never did find my breakfast. In fact I did not find lunch either, opting instead to fast for the day.

Enjoying The City
My first stop was at the Plaza Independencia, a lovely open area filled with lush green grass. There was not a single person on the grass when I first arrived, so I found myself a lovely sunny patch and sat down to enjoy the atmosphere of this new town. Very few people were around the place and the few that were remained firmly in the sun. It was too cold to do otherwise. About two hours later I decided to wander a little further afield and see what this city had to offer.

Using my miniature tourist map with its walking tour information, I managed to find my way through the entire tour within a few hours. I do not think I could have walked much slower either. There were plenty of old buildings to see, and a number of old churches too, all standard fare for any city. I stopped and relaxed at times in some of the other parks on the way but none of them seemed to have the same positive feel as Plaza Independencia.

Mercardo Puerto
Since I was near the port and ferry terminal, I wandered in and got the ferry timetable for my return to Buenos Aires. Crossing the road from the port, I wandered into the Port Market area which was now open and filled with people. The atmosphere was busy and electric. A drumming band was playing rhythmic tunes amongst the local artists with their wares on display, the restaurants lining the place were filled with people dining, and dozens of people were wandering up and down the street enjoying the whole show. But this was just the avenue outside.

Inside, the market was filled with eating places. There was little room to walk between each of them. It seemed very similar to some of the eating markets I had visited in Japan. Every kitchen was filled with people busy stoking the fires and cooking up the meals for hungry customers. Chefs and waiters would search out and canvas for new customers as they wandered through the commotion. I found myself explaining to quite a number of these guys that I was not going to be a customer. Most of them left me alone as soon as they heard that although a few were like bull-terrier dogs that took a lot of convincing before I could shake them off.

The whole market area was built inside a large high-roofed building made of tin. In the centre of this place was an old wooden clock standing proud above everything else. Exposed steel girders held the roof in place, and long tubes of steel venting the cooking fumes rose from each of the restaurants to the roof. The whole place took on the feel of chaos, but it was also a place that I would love to return to more than once.

The Tourist Trail
Moving on from here I continue on my wanderings, following the tourist map back to where I had started and then further on. Along the main road virtually all of the shops were shut. In one of the parks people are huddled together in the sun along the edges of the walking paths and gardens. From a distance they looked like birds sitting on a wire.

Further along I heard the sounds of a pentecostal church and wandered inside to listen to what they had to say. The volume of the speakers inside were so loud that my ears started to hurt. I could not understand what they were saying and decided to head out at the first song. As I left, a young man from the church approached me and tried to tell me about God. I told him that I knew God already, and once he realised that I did not really know Spanish, we shook hands parted ways.

The rest of the walking tour was very ordinary, although it did take me past a tourist information booth that was able to produce a map of the actual city and not just the Old City. It was getting quite late in the day now so I decided to head back toward my hostel.

Heading For Dinner
I stopped on the way at a cinema expecting to find people here. It was open, but had the same ghost-town atmosphere as the rest of the place. It was hard to believe that 1.5 million people lived here. Moving on, I found a place to eat that I had passed a few times before. Each time I had passed by there were always people inside, so it seemed to be a great place to stop.

Only after having decided on the meal that I wanted did I discover that the kitchen does not even open until 8pm. That is the way things work here. People come in even after midnight to eat their dinner, so at 7pm I guess I was still too early. None-the-less, I selected something from the snacks menu which turned out to be a full meal in itself, settled back and enjoyed my dinner.

By the time I left that place, just after 8pm, people were starting to appear on the street outside. When I had walked this same street before, it seemed crowded when I discovered five people walking along it. Now there were almost thirty or forty people wandering down it. Some people at my hostel told me that after midnight the place is completely packed with people, although I did not hang around to see that.

Hostel Activities
Back at the hostel I allowed myself to be entertained for a while by a strange French movie. It was about a young man being persuaded to start a family by his son and other descendants who lived in another world and time. Somewhat bizarre.

When it was time to retire to my room I passed by the family that runs this place who lived on the middle level. They were having friends over for dinner, creating a lot of noise in the process. I noticed their son using the computer in the corner, evading the crowd. I had not realised that the Internet computer was also their home computer too.

Inside my room the noise of these guests carried through readily. I lay on my bed reading until sleep eventually overcame me. Even the noise was not able to stop me by then. These easy days in the city were just what I needed.

Perhaps I would do more tomorrow. But then again, perhaps not.

CHUY & CHUI: Today I moved on to Chuy. A true frontier town on the border with Brazil, Chuy has a main street on which Uruguay and Brazil meet. Cross the street and you have changed countries. There are many unusual things that I discovered in this small town in the North-East of Uruguay, including characters that looked like they had come straight out of the movies.

Arriving in Chuy
The bus journeyed on for less than an hour before it reached Chuy, stopping at many places on the way to ferry locals from one place to another. In Chuy, the bus stopped along the street. We were here now and supposed to get off. The town was just not big enough to support a bus terminal.

Climbing out of the bus, I wander into the ticket office and inquire about buses from here to Treinta y Tres. There was one leaving in ten minutes, or I could choose between an early morning or mid-afternoon bus tomorrow. I chose the mid-afternoon bus.

Staying The Night
Now I needed accommodation so I set out to find somewhere to stay. There did not seem to be a plentiful supply of hotels here and I eventually had to ask someone where I could find one. It turned out to be not very close to the centre of town but the price was very high.

When I told this to the girl at the hotel reception desk, she happily explained to me where there were two other hotels in town. I chose the one that seemed to be a little bit further out of town on the chance that it would be cheaper. When I got there my guess had paid off. It was a hotel with very friendly people and a great price.

Sure, it was not in a great part of town, but that did not concern me greatly. I was only going to be there for one night. I thanked the lady that helped me to sort out my room and then headed back into town with a few errands to complete.

Some Interesting Characters
As I wandered down the streets of this new town, I could hardly stop myself from staring at each person I saw. There was hardly a person that I passed who did not look like they were straight out of a movie set.

There were a couple of women hobbling down the road that caught my eye. One was short, and the other appeared to be a midget being very much shorter than her friend. They did not walk fast, hobbling from one foot to the other, their movements suggesting pain was involved in the process. The skin on their faces, folded a thousand times into endless series of ruts and ridges, revealed a hardness of life they had both endured. They looked straight down the road as they walked, ignoring everyone around them.

Another man wandered slowly with a cane in his hand. His darkened leathery skin and face covered in a three day shadow did little to hide his years. As I greeted him while passing, he looked at me with tired eyes. Then they glistened as a smile grew on his face. Stopping, as though doing two things at once was a little too much for him now, he returned my greeting with a broad several-tooth grin. With the greeting complete, he then turned ahead and recommenced his journey. I just smiled and moved on.

I saw an old lady with her purple crocheted cap atop her head, who sat out in the front of her tiny front yard enjoying the warmth of the last rays of sun. Rugged up in a multiple layers of coats and with a thick scarf around her neck she was hardly visible amongst all of the clothes, her small diminutive body engulfed by what she wore. Staring straight ahead at nothing in particular, when I greeted her she nodded to acknowledge my presence but her eyes never moved. After persisting, she was happy to engage in a conversation. Her hearing was not the best though and I had to talk reasonably loud to make myself heard. Perhaps this explained the way she greeted me.

This was in the centre of town on the Uruguayan side where there is a large plaza common to all towns in Uruguay. In this plaza sat all sorts of other characters, each one that could easily have been from a movie set. One man was wearing an eye patch that reminded me of a pirate and was amongst a group of other men chatting and laughing coarsely. Children too had characteristics like Tom Sawyer and other characters from books. Both young and old had characteristics about them that I had not seen in any other city of Uruguay.

It was incredible to see so many amazing people. To have taken photos of them all would have been wonderful, although at this point in time I had no space left on my camera for photos. So amidst the frustration, I did as one of my good friends said and took “mind pictures” instead.

Running Errands
The first thing I had to do now that I was here was call the people whom I have fondly nicknamed “The Scotts”, to let them know when I would be arriving. Chris and Grace Goodman with their son Timothy, were friends of friends that I knew only via recent emails. They have lived in Treinta y Tres, Uruguay for around eight years, and we would be meeting very soon.

Discovering that the only Internet place in town was packed out with people, I searched out the only two photo shops in the town only to discover that digital photos was not something they knew much about. They did tell me that there were computers in the local petrol service station that may be able to help me move my photos onto CD.

Surprised that a service station would have computers, I discovered that they actually had three computers in the shop that had Internet access. They could not help me with my photos but I was able to access my email account and reply to all of the emails received over the last few days.

When I emerged from the service station it was dark. The sun had set in an blaze of orange glow over the top of the Brazilian side of town. Since I had yet to visit Brazil since arriving here, I headed directly toward it.

Crossing The Border
Now I was not exactly sure where Brazil started and Uruguay ended, but I had been told by the people in Punta del Diablo that you simply walk across a street and you are there. So I found the biggest main street and walked across it and presumed that I was there.

A quick look around at the shops and signs revealed quickly that I really was there. The name of Chuy had now changed to the Brazilian spelling of Chui. There were Brazilian telecom phones on the sidewalk, and the names of everything here was spelt in Brazilian rather than in Spanish. How incredible it was. How strange too.

As I wandered through the shops and streets of the business section of what was now Chui, I heard people talking in both Spanish and Brazilian. There is a clear distinction between the two languages that makes it easy to hear when people are talking.

The prices on this side of town were obviously in Brazilian Reals, the currency of Brazil. There were postal services for Brazil on this side, and on the other, postal services for Uruguay. Virtually everything was duplicated. One for the Brazilian side, and one for the Uruguayan side.

Even the main street that I had to cross was duplicated. It was built like a four lane roadway with the two dual lanes separated by a wide grassed strip in the middle. The difference here was that each side was actually a two way road. One two way road for Uruguay, and one for Brazil. The strip in the middle was the dividing mark between the two countries.

High-Class Restaurants
So after buying some toiletries from a pharmacy in Brazil, I headed back to Uruguay for dinner at a nice restaurant that had a few people inside. Some of the people, when served by the waiter, acted as though they were in a very high-class restaurant. They gave an elegant nod of the head as the waiter completed his duties at the table.

It was quite amusing to see at first. Then I considered that perhaps I really was in what they would consider as an expensive restaurant. It was not really an expensive looking place but it did have a degree of elegance to it. I ordered my usual of steak and fries with a side order of lots of bread.

Even though we were on the Uruguayan side, there was a lot of Brazilian spoken. Most people in this town could speak both Brazilian and Spanish. Being so close to the “other side” it was obvious why they could, and in many cases, needed to.

Facing A Gun
Heading back for my hotel it was already quite late at night. I considered that there were probably some risks in walking through this sort of area at the time it was, but this was the way to my hotel.

Actually I was not quite sure which way was the way to my hotel by now. I had taken a different way to get there, believing that I could remember how many blocks in each direction I needed to walk before arriving there. Somewhere along the way I had forgotten and now all of the streets looked the same. I could find my way back to town, but did not know how to continue.

Just as I arrived at this point of realisation, I saw a man in an overcoat standing in the shadow of a doorway. There was nobody else around in this particular place. He was the only person here for as far as I could see. Since I needed directions, and at the time he seemed to be the best, well actually the only person, I thought I would ask him.

It was a few stairs up to the concrete landing upon which he stood. When I reached it, I approached him and asked where the nearest hotel was. He pointed in the opposite direction to where I needed to go, to wards town. I told him that I already had a hotel, but could not remember where it was. At this he then pointed in the right direction and told me how many blocks each way I needed to walk.

Thankful for his help, I told him so and was about to leave. Suddenly, with a sweep of the arm faster than I could follow, he reached in behind his back and pulled out a gun. It was a large six-shooter pistol of the sort that you see in the western films. I was stunned. Was my helper now my robber?

I did not know what to say. There was nothing really that I could say. I just stood there and time seemed to move very slowly. The realisation of what was happening took a while to actually sink in. I had never seen a gun in the streets before, and to have one right in front of me was almost an unreal situation, but it was very real indeed.

Then with the suddenness that he had pulled the gun out, he turned it sideways and held it briefly in both of his hands. “These parts of the city are very dangerous,” he said. “You would be wise to carry something like this with you around here.” And then he returned it to its position behind his back. I left. Quickly. Thanking him for his advice as I moved away.

Explanations
Why the change? It was for less than a second that the pistol seemed to be pointed at me. Perhaps this was his intention all along. Perhaps he was just trying to be nice to me. Perhaps in this street where there was little light and no people, he realised that I was taking a risk and he wanted to ensure I was aware of these risks. There was another explanation though.

Perhaps he had really intended to rob me. I had heard many stories of Christians in dangerous situations like this where someone that was intending to rob them suddenly changed their mind. Sometimes it was because they saw a huge person, possibly an angel, standing behind their would-be victim. Other times there seemed to be no explanation as the person changed their mind and the Christian walked on, untouched.

I pondered upon both of these explanations, although considerably later. The answer I do not know. I do know however that the street was deserted, that it was poorly lit, that the man was standing in the shadow of the doorway and hard to see at first, and that he was wearing a large overcoat which could conceal many things. I also know that he was Brazilian and there is more poverty on the Brazilian side.

All of this does not necessarily make him a robber however and not knowing his motives, I cannot say which occurred. All I know is that the situation was very weird, and that nothing happened to me. For that I am very glad.

Safely Home
The rest of my walk home was in the middle of the road. I had learned while in Argentina that this is the safest part of the street to walk, as there were less shadows and surprises nearby. A few cars and motorbikes had to drive around me as I walked, but there was room for them and I was not keen to move too far to the sides after this experience.

When I reached the hotel, I was glad to be there. It was like an oasis of calm and security amidst a land that I was not so sure about any more. This was my first encounter with a gun and it made me realise how quickly things can happen.

A Revised Perspective
Although the whole event came as a surprise, I was glad that it had happened because it gave me a different view on the things around me. I was not fearful of everything around me as such, but I had become a little too secure while walking through places such as this.

Now I was once again aware that there are dangers around the place. Now I give the respect and the fear to the places and the people that deserve such respect and fear. Now I am once again cautious.

These were the last thoughts that passed through my mind as I drifted off to sleep in the warmth and security of my hotel bed, safely behind locked doors.