NOS GUSTA MUCHO 26/1 – 13/2/2016
In the town of Chuy at the Brazilian border there is an Avenida of which one side is Uruguayan and the other Brazilian. We can make taxfree purchases and the petrol costs only € 0.75/liter, half of what it costs in Uruguay, where the petrol price is the highest of the whole of South-America. Michel stays with the car for security reasons while Roos goes from shop to shop trying in vain to find a new electric toothbrush. The replacement brushes are there but not the holder. She gets no answer to her question who buys the brushes when they cannot find the holder. Late in the afternoon we drive inland and see lots of birds: storks, flamingos, seriemas (South-Amerikaanse secretary birds), ibis, rheas (local ostriches) and round mud nests of horneros on electricity poles. In the evening we find a free campsite near the laguna Merim. It is windy and cold. The next morning Michel repairs the pump that brings petrol from the spare tank to the main one and gets sand all over him and his tools. We leave the windy place and look for the free municipal camping mentioned in our travel guide. We need to take a free ferry over the Rio Cebollati to reach the campsite in La Charqueada. The captain of the ferry, Nicolas, sees our registration plate and ask where we come from. We enquire about canoes and, as it is not possible to hire one, he says we can use his for free. We make an appointment for the next day to go and get the canoe and we do a wonderful trip on the river. We enjoy it so much that we make plans to buy a canoe. Nicolas advises us to buy a inflatable one because of our lack of space. He orders one via internet and we pay him in dollars. A couple of days later we are the happy owners of an inflatable kayak. Meanwhile we make another trip to Chuy with our neighbour, Hugo, and Michel buys fishing gear. As we are again on Brazilian ground we take lunch in a Churrascaria, very cheap, lots of meat and vegetables. For more than a week we paddle, fish, swim and enjoy the quietness, the birds, the lovely beaches on the riverside. The campsite is big and reasonably well kept. There is power and warm showers, all for free. Nobody can tell us any more that only the sun comes up for free. We like La Charqueada very much! The nearest ATM is in the town Treinta y Tres and, as we are running out of cash, Roos takes the bus to get there. In the main square there are statues of popular carnival figures and there is also a shop with an amazing range of sweet potatoes. After 15 days we leave La Charqueda. The rain is pouring down when we head for Treinta y Tres to see the carnival corso there.
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