My Saturday in UY

We really appreciate the opportunity, every other week, to buy fresh-as-you-can-get-it organic produce at bargain prices. Here Ricardo has just harvested a variety of acelga (Swiss chard) for us. Acelga is arguably the vegetable in Uruguay — if you order ravioli or canelones con verduras in a restaurant the verduras will be acelga. You can get it year-round. It took us a year or two to realize this was our desirable spinach substitute, since spinach is only occasionally available. And needs much more washing.

So then off to our chacra nearby where the in-places knee-high grass needed cutting. A couple of wild ducks flew into our tajamar, but decided the noise of the lawn mower was offensive, and left. I had seen one on my previous trip. Other posts about the pond we created. It’s an interesting experiment in “letting nature do its thing.”

Then there was the twice-monthly (because “bimonthly” can mean either twice a month or every two month; thanks English language) Atlántida-area English-speakers’ get together. 23 people showed up. Many lively (and funny!) discussions. Nationalities included Uruguay, US, Canada, England, Holland, and Germany. On other occasions we’ve had South Africans, Argentines, and no doubt others I can’t think of right now.

And this Saturday Occupy Couch performance art.

The ‘house’ in the ‘woods’

Beautiful weather the last few days, but I’m on dog-walking hiatus because he managed to slice open his foot on one of the multiple garbage dumps where we walk with Syd’s five dogs.

So this photo is from a few days ago.

According to Syd, someone spent a winter in this structure. It was intact when first I saw it.

Other trash sites include old furniture, TVs, and just about anything else you can imagine, including many things that could have been put in trash receptacles nearby.

trash pile locations, Villa Argentina norte, Uruguay

Blue dots represent trash locations; Syd probably knows more. Light blue area is generally littered. And yes, there is a pile of broken TVs and other appliances just meters from the streets that have trash receptacles, and no, not all the trash predates the receptacles.

You may recall the dog we found and the mess its owner couldn’t be bothered to clean up.

An Uruguayan friend in nearby Parque del Plata told me that he and his wife spent a considerable amount of time cleaning up the corner lot opposite them, where neighbors left their trash, when the trash containers arrived. (OBTW there was trash pickup before the containers.) Shortly after, he watched a man in his 50s walk past the trash container to dump his trash in the open lot. When confronted, the guy said, this is the way I’ve done it all my life. He was eventually trained out of that habit. It took about a year.

Inexplicable

OK, not really inexplicable. There is some way that vehicle launched itself into the concrete separators.

"Parking," Uruguay style

But — how and why exactly?

"Parking," Uruguay style

Notice the totally trashed wheel. The rim was broken into pieces.

"Parking," Uruguay style

Perhaps a reminder not to do this while driving?

My drive to Montevideo in one minute

For anyone who has dealt with driving in Uruguay, there is nothing here particularly unusual: a pedestrian wandering into a highway, curious interpretations of the meanings of those lines in the road, red lights that don’t apply to city buses.

Chemtrail plane identified

Strange combination of wispy clouds and fluffy ones today. But this west-east streak is clearly spraying.

Chemtrail from Lufthansa flight over Atlántida, Uruguay

I guessed 10-15 minutes old, when to planefinder.com and found the culprit:

It seemed a little off course, or pointing the wrong way.

But a half hour later, it’s out to sea and passage over us seems much more feasible.

And the wind’s from the north, which makes sense. The trail drifted south a little.

Five minutes later, it has turned northeast

en route to Dakar, Senegal, about exactly halfway to Frankfurt. Spraying the whole way, or just over populated areas?

2012/05/17: A chemtrail in Uruguay

2013/05/09: Chemtrail in Uruguay: rare, but unmistakable

2014/09/28: Not a good sign

Design notebook 20160919

Garden gnome, Atlántida, Uruguay

Beach, street, hand, dog, roof

I was talking with an Uruguayan today about our arrival in Uruguay, how people always asked why we’d want to live here when we could live in the Untied Snakes (OK, they didn’t say it exactly like that). This picture I took yesterday reminds me of the answer (especially after almost three years in Mexico): tranquilidad.

Then this, a “garbage” photo that I don’t think I took but I like. Shades of Henri Cartier-Bresson, perhaps. Or maybe it’s the weirdness of the street reflector looking like a sixth finger? Whatever.

street/hand, Cuzco, Peru

Cuzco, Perú, July 2016

And then, this, from a week and a half ago. Dog barking from a tile roof. Of course.

A little windy

As in 2012, we’ve had some pretty serious wind the last couple days.

wind map during Uruguay storm

Yesterday evening, between two trips to the garage to get firewood, a couple of clay roof tiles blew off, landing directly where I would have been walking. (I still haven’t replaced the couple from the front that blew off in 2012, given the height of the roof.) I felt a little lucky.

Storm damage, Atlántida, Uruguay

Especially when, from upstairs this morning, we saw that a neighbor has suffered slightly more roof removal.

wind-damage-1

When we first saw it, the white area top center was a hole completely through the roof.

wind-damage-2jpg

Not much more visible from the road. I don’t know what the roof was, but obviously not very sturdily built. And equally obviously, not a good idea here to build that way.

Busy sky!

Atlántida, Uruguay

I try to limit posts to a photo or two, but there are times, like yesterday, where one or two photos don’t do justice.

There appears to be a congress above the neighbors’ house.

Not to difficult to see faces interacting.

A dragon?

A dinosaur?

All leading up to …

… a spectacular finale!

Sunset clouds and moon, Atlántida, Uruguay

Close call

The best rule for driving in Uruguay is to try to watch every person and vehicle — pedestrians, bicyclists, motos, and other cars and trucks, constantly imagine the stupidest thing they could do — step into traffic, swerve in front of you without notice, run stop and yield signs — and plan for it.

In this case, I might have been distracted by the conversation and so didn’t see the approaching out the side window. Fortunately, the passenger’s field of view allowed her to see it before it cleared the A-column for my view, and warn me. Locals will recognize the voice 😉

When we bought this vehicle in 2010, the blind spot was one of the more pronounced criticisms I could find online.

The triangle caused by the A-pillar split should be helpful, but since my eye level is near the top, it provides no help. Still, I have most often had problems with the passenger side, so perhaps I had a lapse of attention.

Which — when driving in Uruguay — can prove expensive, dangerous, or worse, as perhaps you can imagine.