Valle edén

After we finished our field work, we had some free time around Tacuarembó before heading south towards Montevideo. We decided to explore Valle edén (Eden Valley) near town, which boasted a pretty cool natural area and some waterfalls.


When we got there, the road ended at a small river, with the main bridge completely washed out. Luckily, there was a cool foot bridge across the water.


The "12 person maximum" sign on the bridge was pretty generous, I think. With the three of us, the bridge was swinging pretty good. Granted, the water wasn't very deep and the bridge was only about 12 feet off the ground, but still.


After the bridge, we were trying to find the waterfall we had read about, but with the road washed out, the alternate route was pretty made it pretty difficult to find. The random woman we talked with near the Museo de Carlos Gardel suggested we keep walking the 2-3 km up the road we were on, and we could find a smaller, more private, but slightly less impressive waterfall. We figured that was as good of an adventure as trying to find the bigger one, so we kept going on foot.

A ways up the road, we passed by a shack of a house at the end of the road. A guy came out and asked where we were headed. He said the waterfall was pretty hard to find, but he would take us through the field behind his house and up the "trail" to the waterfall. So we were joined by two local barefoot tour guides - our first time with Uruguayan hippies. They were very friendly, extemrely knowledgeable about the area, and very helpful about leading us to the waterfall.



The waterfall was pretty awesome. It was probably only about 10 feet high, but was flowing over a small cave area. We never would have found it on our own - the "trail" was pretty invisible, and even then, part of it was inaccessible because a recent storm had downed a couple trees. We followed the barefoot hippies all the way to the waterfall and actually around it to the top of it, where you could see the entire valley.

It was so nice to stand in the cave area, where it was cool and damp. The weather was usually pretty muggy in Uruguay, and even a short hike made us sweaty (well that, and the fact that our leisurely field work and Sonia's cooking didn't exactly keep us in shape).

Our hippie tour guides were very gracious, and took our money at the end of our journey with gratitude and politeness. I was constantly impressed with the people of Uruguay, especially around Tacuarembo. People seem genuinely nice and always had time to chat or show us around. Even the woman at the helado stand near the foot bridge was very excited to meet us. She had us sign her guestbook and seemed to incredibly happy to have tourists at her stand.

Rivera - a cuidad en Brasil y Uruguay

Even though we are now home (safe, sound, and really cold), there was still a lot that happened in our last few days in Uruguay. The last few days went by so fast that I actually forgot all the things that happened - the things we saw and the people we met. Even though I know I'll be back down before too long, and I'm comforted by that, I had a hard time leaving. It was hard to leave Sonia and her family, and the estate at La Corona as a whole. It was hard to leave the gracious people. It was hard to leave the good wine. It was hard to leave the warm weather.

So, now as I'm surrounded by blankets, a wood fire, a clingy dog and cat, a husband surely ready to come home from work, and occasional naps, I'll get down to the rest of the trip.

We spent the majority of a full day with Sonia and Luana on a trip to Rivera. It is a pretty cool city that straddles the Brazil-Uruguay border to the north. Most of the city's shops are duty free, and because of that attract a lot of tourists and traffic. It was one of the biggest commotions we've been in the middle of while we were here.

The border between Brazil and Uruguay is identified by tons of stone structures dotting the line between the two countries. It seems funny to see these historic structures even in the middle of a bustling city.

Sonia decided the best plan of attack for lunch would be to ask a local where to go. We stopped in at a gas station, where she hopped out to ask a gas station attendant where he would recommend we go. In typical Uruguay/Brazil style, the guy talked to her for awhile, then decided he was ready to leave and could lead us partway to the restaurant. He hopped on his moped and headed through town, with John at the wheel of our truck trying to keep him in sight.

After our guide waved us on, we had to stop 3 or 4 more times to ask other people where the restaurant. It was like playing a game of Hot and Cold, but as adults and speaking in another language. We thought something was wrong with us the three times we tried unsuccessfully to find the grocery store in town, or when we tried to find a local wine shop, but apparently this is just how it works down here. Just keep asking until you actually find it.

Everyone that Sonia asked was helpful - there was no hesitation when they spotted her hanging out of a truck window asking if they wouldn't mind answering a question. In the states, I think we'd be ignored a lot, but here, I think people are just used to striking up conversations with strangers.

We finally found the restaurant, and as we pulled into the parking lot, I realized that I had actually been here before. Apparently this is the place to be, because Juan Pedro took us to this lunch spot in Rivera on my last trip in February. I cracked up, because, really, what are the odds of ending up in the same place twice without planning it?

John was pretty ecstatic to be here, because he had heard my tales of the Brazilian barbecue. Our table was loaded with side dishes, and the waiter constantly came by with various meats on skewers - chorizo, chorizo and cheese, chicken legs, chicken hearts, beef roast, beef sirloin, you name it.

After lunch we headed into the downtown area for shopping - in the fancy duty free shops and also in the street market. During the afternoon, Sonia directed us to a helado stand for some ice cream, and we learned that Luana wanted to treat all of us to a snack. It was so nice to spend time with them, and we felt pretty honored to know that they liked us as well. The ice cream tasted awesome - it was a pretty muggy day with lots of walking in the sun, so it was a welcome way to cool down a little.

Downtown Rivera is literally between the two countries. We had to be total tourists and take pictures of us literally straddling the line between Uruguay and Brazil. In this shot, I believe that I am standing in Uruguay, and John is all the way in Brazil.


The street market offered hours of entertainment. Apparently you could find anything you might possibly need here. For instance, if you need guns or counterfeit knives, head into Rivera...


Or say you need to load up on sunglasses by "Prado" or "Dolce & Cabana"...

Or maybe you need to expand your collection of illegally copied CDs and DVDs. There were probably a dozen vendors with huge collections...

Sadly, we didn't walk away with much from the market, but we definitely had our fill of entertainment and sights.

An Asado para John

On Sunday, Sonia and Quique organized an Asado dinner in honor of John's arrival, and we invited them to join us in the meal, since we usually eat separately. I think Sonia liked this idea, because the dinner was one of the most beautifully set and presented meals we've had. They moved one of the outdoor tables near the asado grill, brought lamps and cut flowers from the yard to decorate the table, and set it formally with nice linens.



We haven't had fresh flowers on the tables before, so that was a fun surprise. Sonia has some hydrangea bushes along their house, which are really beautiful right now.


Quique did an awesome job with the asado. All the meat was on the grill, and he seasoned it with a squirt bottle (fashioned out of a coca-cola plastic bottle) filled with herb infused olive oil and sprinkled everything with salt. Our appetizers were pork chorizo and the infamous beef gland (I forget the Spanish name). It turns out that with enough charring and salt, glands are actually quite tasty. Still not my favorite thing in the world, but tasty nonetheless.

Apparently we are loved, because even the salads were presented well. Sonia made garnishes out of tomato and basil for the hearts of palm and tomato platter, and she also made a flower out of a carrot slice and some chive to top the shredded carrot salad.

We had a great time with all of them. Andres, who also lives at La Corona, joined us as well for dinner. We haven't spent much time with him, but he's very nice, and took a group picture of all of us with Sonia's camera. In return, I ended up spilling my red wine across the table and gave him a wine dressing on his salad plate. After he mopped himself and the tablecloth up, he didn't seem to mind.

He did, however, eat his dessert by holding his plate up off the table in defense.

We ended the meal with not one, but two desserts. Sonia made a peach flan-like dessert, complete with peach syrup to drizzle on top. She also made a dulce de leche mousse. I was in heaven...

Long time, no blog...

It's been a few days since I posted an entry. There's a few good reasons why. The weather has held out for a few days in a row, and we've been working long days. We've got just a little more work to do, and the sooner we finish, the sooner we have some time to have a little fun. We've worked weekends and into the evening, pretty much just having time to shower before bed.

The other reason it's been so long, is this...


We've got ourselves a new field hand, complete with gate opening skills. It's nice to have someone to wrangle the fencing, laugh at the nandus with us, and also collect data on pine seedlings.

It turns out he also has some skills with the photography. Butterflies are abundant here, and plants like thistle really draw them in.

There also seems to be more activity lately with ranching. We've seen gauchos on horseback, accompanied by their dogs, moving cattle herds through the plantations. It seems like hard work, but it must also be nice, riding your horse and chatting with your amigos while moving slowly through the trees.

We've got the final push with field work tomorrow, and then hopefully we can unwind. We're planning to celebrate a successful field season on Thanksgiving, with Uruguayan food and local vino.

Mas en el campo

While we're stuck inside during yet another thunderstorm (this one may be complete with hail), I thought I'd post another update about our field work.

There has been a lot of storms lately, and we've been pretty impressed by their intensity. After another night of storms, we ventured out the other day to get some field work done (grasslands, here we come!). We were through 3 of our 4 gates of fun when we discovered this...

There's an old eucalyptus grove along the side of the road. We've now learned that eucalyptus tend to be shallow-rooted trees, and several came down during the last storm. It was pretty cool to see all the damage, although it took awhile to find a route around the grove. Two days later, the tree is still there, and there's been no attempt to clear the road.

While we were walking around, carefully surveying the damage, and of course, taking pictures of what we saw, we found some cool fungus on a log. I realize we're science geeks at heart, because not everyone would be interested in the fact that even the fungus is cooler here. I've never seen any so bright orange like this one.

We were then welcomed into our grassland plots by more unknown species than I care to count. We are making progress, but at times it is painfully slow. The plots aren't as diverse as we were afraid of, but we're still dealing with 50 different plants by the end of the day.

We were popular at this site, too. This horse, and two of its buddies, wandered closely to the exclosure during the afternoon while we were there. I've never seen a horse where the tail and mane were different colors - the main was snow white (except for right on the top of its head), but the tail was black. He didn't have any black on his body, so I'm not sure where that came from.

The horses were then joined by a herd of cattle. Generally, the horses and cattle stick together in their own groups, and slowly wander the entire area together. Sometimes they merge together for awhile, and sometimes they don't. This was the first time we saw up close the horses right in the middle of the herd of cattle. They stayed like that for awhile, and then split up again and wandered their separate ways.

Our list of wildlife we still need to see is progressively shorter (we still have the armadillo and endangered fox on our list of must-see wildlife), and yesterday we were able to check another one off the list. We had heard there were tarantulas in the area, and we wondered if the semi-large spiders we see in the woods were what people were referring to. As we were driving out the other day, we saw a huge black thing wandering across the road. We stopped, parked, and grabbed our cameras.

I've never seen a tarantula up close, and it was pretty fascinating. They're covered in hair and move relatively slowly. We didn't get any closer since we weren't sure if they are poisonous here or not. He was pretty cool...

Popularity

Between the attention of Sonia and Luana, and our extremely warm welcome at Luana's school fiesta, we've been feeling very attended to and quite popular. I figured we'd have a little change of pace when we were able to get out yesterday afternoon to do some more field work, after yet another thunderstorm yesterday morning.



The field sites were pretty soggy, and the rows of trees were flooded. We splashed around as we identified plants, actually getting quite a bit of work done while adopting some new field methods, in an attempt to make up for lost time.



Lo and behold, even out here we were popular. I heard some steps coming towards us, and when I looked up this guy was right next to our exclosure fence, checking us out.



He stayed there for quite awhile, trying to figure us out. I think he was trying to get us to let him in the exclosure area, where apparently the grass is always greener. At one point he even started chomping on one of the fence posts in curiousity.

Apparently he's popular, too, because the next time I looked up, his friends had joined him. We laughed as they all lined up along the fence to watch us. They stayed there for a long time, milling around right next to the fence, checking up on what we were doing.

I love field work down here, and all the livestock and wildlife we've been able to see. I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching horses nearby, of laughing at the blank stare of a cow in the middle of the road, or giggling uncontrollably at a running nandu.

Mucho Mas Lluvia

We've had some more intense storms here lately, which is a fun twist with field work commitments.

Rain = fine.

Some wind = fine.

Thunder + lightning + wind + sideways rain = no field work for Laura and Scott.

As stressful as it is being further delayed by the thunderstorms of late, it's comforting to be inside La Corona, comfortable on the leather couches with a laptop while the wind howls outside and the thunder shakes the doors and windows. It's also very nice to have a day in every once in a while during a storm because Sonia brings out the comfort food. Yesterday's lunch was the lentil stew with beef and potatoes again. It's an absolute favorite.

Because we were prevented from field work, we took the opportunity to drive to town to make rite in the rain copies of datasheets and new method diagrams at the nursery office. It was interesting to drive around again after some heavy rains. The storm the night before was so intense that the wind actually pushed rain into the house through the seams in the window and door frames. For the second time here, we found towels and helped Sonia and Quique mop up around the doors and windows in the common room and adjacent kitchen.

La Escuela Fiesta de Familia

On Sunday evening, we went to Luana's school party, which she and Sonia had invited us to a couple weeks before. It's the end of the school year, and every year they hold this party to commemorate another successful school year. Groups of students, organized by age or grade, have practiced dances for this event. This year's theme was "Music from Around the World," so each group danced to a different style of music.

When the doors to the school opened, Sonia and Luana rushed in to the center outdoor courtyard and snagged all of us front row seats. By the start of the event, not only were the seats all taken, but people were sitting along the ledges that open into the courtyard, and many children and later, adults, were sitting on the ground in front of us.

At the start of the program, the principal (who came over to meet Scott and I before the program began) welcomed everyone and introduced this year's program. She then called up the school's English teacher, who, on the microphone, formally welcomed Scott and I to their school, said that they were very happy we were here, and that we have helped "marry Uruguay and the United States." Who knew we were on a diplomatic mission while we're here?

It was an odd thing to be formally welcomed, and even stranger when the hundreds of people in the audience gave us an applause. I've never had that kind of reaction just for showing up. :) Throughout the night, we had instructors and sometimes older students come by to say hi to us and see how we liked the program. Even when Scott went to find a hot dog, three or four different instructors checked in on him, escorted him through the building, and checked in on him later to make sure everything was okay. We really didn't anticipate the attention we had received.

The program began with the smaller children. One of the first events was from a group of 2-year olds in penguin suits, walking around to a song from the March of the Penguins. They were really adorable. Costumes were lopsided, multiple kids had pacifiers, and stood in place and had a tantrum in the middle of it.

Another dance was the traditional Uruguayan Carnival. The music is just drums, which was really cool. The girls were dressed and danced like typical Carnival dancers. We learned that night that Uruguayan social standards are different than in the states - you would never see so many bare midrifs or short shorts at a school event in the states, but in Uruguay the parents made these costumes, and the children were very excited about their dances.

Another surprise was how popular Barney is here. One of the early programs involved some small children in bathing suits singing to some song about the sun and the beach. Then Barney came out. Everyone started singing along with him, and everyone seemed to love it. Only Scott and I were a little shocked by watching Barney and a bunch of 5 year-olds dance around in bikinis.

During the night, we also went to Austria, and watched as students danced a waltz. This little girl was very proud of her costume, and had been wearing it the whole night. Her dress was complete with lace, ribbons, and a hoop at the bottom for an authentic ballroom gown.

We also went to Scotland, and some older girls danced in Scottish-style skirts and blouses. They were very good, and very energetic. A lot of the older students danced in multiple programs, and it was impressive how much energy they had for all of the dances.

"Music from Around the World" would not be complete without a visit to the United States. To represent the US, there was a dance to a rap song, a traditional Hawaiian luau dance, and, of course, a country dance complete with line dancing. The students were very good, and seemed to have a lot of fun dressing up and playing the part of cowboys and cowgirls. At the end of the song, they all threw their hats in the air, and gave a big "Yeehaw!"

Luana's dance was near the end of the program. Her group performed a traditional African dance, where the girls were dressed in saris and the boys looked like tribal hunters. I doubt this would be PC in the US, but it was entertaining here.

And here's Luana during the performance, in the costume that Sonia made. I think she really enjoyed dressing up, and seemed very happy after her performance. It turned out it was a good thing we were there that night because none of the pictures Quique took during Luana's performance turned out. Yesterday Sonia asked me if I could give her some of mine, so we loaded up a thumb drive with a bunch of pictures from the event.

It was a very long night, but a lot of fun. The program didn't even start until almost 8 o'clock, and we didn't leave until almost midnight. Even then, the program had just ended, but a live band was setting up for anyone that wanted to stay awhile and dance. We still marvel at the schedule of Uruguayans, and it's a hard adjustment, but we wouldn't trade this experience for anything. It's not everyday that you are welcomed into the lives of a local family, and even more rare is the chance to feel like a diplomat!