Category: beach

¡TronKEElo!

Muy tranquilo.

Unseasonably pleasant yesterday (think October in the north), beach empty. Shorts and bare feet, mesmerized by lazy churning of barely-waves which continue to amaze me because look at how much open ocean they have in which to develop:

Give me a W! Give me an A! Give me a V!….

Reminiscent of our first stay in Uruguay in March 2009, when walking on the beach brought an especially peaceful feeling after the tension of living in Mexico. I could have fallen into a trance watching the swirling water….

Rare yellow turtle emerges from brown Uruguay surf

Semana de Turismo (or Semana Santa, or Pascua) gone, walk to the beach means socks and a jacket, and perhaps moving ‘firewood’ a notch higher on the to-do list. And having the beach to yourself. The waves are puny and brown, but almost iridescent with the blue they reflect from the sky, the sands blows crazy, and the channel cut by rainwater hosts mini-tsunamis. Here’s a (mercifully) short video clip, with lots of wind noise.

Always something.

Adieu to March

Though I took this a few days ago, the weather has remained lovely

I find March is usually the most pleasant month in Uruguay: the heat has abated, the hordes have returned to Montevideo and Buenos Aires, and while not guaranteed, there’s a good chance of some lovely days for long walks on the beach.

Neighbors have loaded in tons of firewood for the winter. I will wait until I have to.

 

Tosca

Tosca:

  • an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini
  • the same magically transposed to film in a stirring and wonderfully performed production featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna asthe star-crossed lovers
  • a downtempo-chillout-electronic-trip-hop lounge duo
  • a fine Italian dining experience in the heart of Washington, D.C.
  • an awesome old school café in San Francisco’s Chinatown
  • a manufacturer of travel goods in Australia
  • a street in Singapore, and …

… dirt. Actually a type of crumbly rock (my scant knowledge of geology fails me), a mountain of which appeared last week on the rambla, probably for the repair of the collapsing stretch nearby, and destined to devolve into clouds of dust, tooth-rattling washboards, and suspension-testing potholes (pozos).

Tosca, the "dirt" for roads, Uruguay

I found this spot a little more inspiring a couple years ago, with a funky car and graceful pines.

Car, tree, ocean — Uruguay

They’ve gone, victim of a storm, as have the railings to the then-new boardwalk. And I haven’t seen that car in a long time either, come to think of it.

Anticipating collapse

Piles of sand block the street to car traffic. Apparently the exceptionally heavy rain last week carved out whatever caused the rambla (waterfront road) to collapse three years ago. You can see the new crack forming halfway to the missing chunk.  When all is done, they’ll dump in a bunch of sand, pave it (maybe), and that will be that.  Until next time.