HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR JENN ON ST. PADDY'S DAY!!! We hope it was a fabulous one! St. Paddy's is not celebrated here but we drank a beer for you anyway!!
Our grandchildren and children of friends are very much in my mind as I write this blog. One of the many advantages of living in one place for a time, is that we get to see and experience the community. We are learning so much by interacting with the locals and we want to share some of what we have learned.
A local Uruguayan told us that when the sky is filled with dragonflies, as we witnessed a couple of weeks ago, rain is on it's way.
Summer holidays ended here and school commenced on March 8th. We have a school very close to our house and it was both interesting and delightful to watch the kids walking past our place.
All children up to Grade 8 wear smocks. Kindergarten boys wear blue checkered smocks and girls wear pink checkered smocks. When they move into Grade 1, they all "graduate" with a ceremony where the mothers, in front of the entire school, remove the kindergarten smocks and replace them with white smocks with large black bows. This will be every child's uniform until they graduate Grade 8.
Below is an example of how innovative people are in this town when it comes to transporting their little people.
Last Friday set out once again, for Santa Teresa National Park for a four hour walk. When we left the beach to enter the park, this vehicle appeared before us. A 1988 VW van with California license plates. No one was around and we hoped that at some time, we would get to meet the travellers. On our way out of the park and back to the beach, we saw the van coming slowly toward us. Bob flagged them down and we met a great couple from Long Beach, California; our age and living their dream. They have been travelling around South America for 7 months and will return home in May for the birth of their first grandchild. What stories they told us! All fascinating and educational. We saw them camped by the ocean in Diablo, a perfect site, free of charge! Beside them was camped a couple from Switzerland who have been on the road for 10 years. They return home for 3 months each year and plan to keep on trucking as long as they can. Apparently there is another family in town who have been travelling for at least 6 years. The little girl is 5 and has never lived in a house....only a tent. She is home-schooled, bright and highly educated. We didn't meet them but heard all about them from the Americans and the Swiss.
Early Saturday morning, Diana dropped in to let us know that there was to be a "liberation" ceremony down at the town beach. A juvenile Green turtle that was being tested and studied at a research centre in the next town north, was to be released at 5 pm on Saturday. The research team was there all day and Bob and I headed down to check it out. The organization is called Karumbe and the biologists and volunteers from all over the world, devote their time to learning more about turtles in this part of South America. The Green turtle lays it's eggs on the beaches near the Brazilian border however the juveniles are found here around Punta del Diablo and so the intention is to determine what occurs between hatching and the juvenile stage.
We always seem to have great breezes here however on Saturday the wind was quite strong. As we walked down the hill to the beach, we noticed a fishing boat towing a catamaran that seemed to be on it's side. Everyone was rushing to the waters edge to see what was going on and we were relieved to see someone onboard the fishing boat dressed in a wet suit. He got caught fairly far out into the ocean and one of the fishing boats went out to rescue him.
With that excitement out of the way, we bombarded the Karumbe team with turtle questions.
The blonde fellow above is Gus, the biologist. He is fantastic with children and the children pretty much wanted to adopt him.
Below: Carrying "Freddy" (that's the name Bob gave him) to the waters edge; The Liberation! "Freddy" performed brilliantly with his little feet propelling him faster than we expected.
Meanwhile, as we were all applauding Freddy down by the water, this little fellow jumped into Freddy's pool. Even after the water was emptied, he sat on the wet ground.
Sunday morning as we set out for our daily walk, we learned that the research team was on Playa Grande (the next beach) and were capturing turtles for further study. We caught up with them and watched as they worked with Maria, a juvenile that had been tagged and released this past January. They measured her, removed some of her shedding shell as well as leaches that had burrowed into her skin. She also had quite a few barnacles on her and we were told that some of the turtles have as much as 3 kg attached to their shells. They have re-caught as many as 20 turtles and have learned a lot about their rate of growth and their trek from Brazil. We asked them how many turtles they catch on a daily basis have ingested plastic. Sadly, they said that almost all of them have plastic inside them. They operate or attempt to remove it naturally. When a turtle has too much plastic inside them, it creates air bubbles that prevent the turtle from diving and eating and eventually it will die. A very sad story about the careless behavior of man. More on that in another blog.
Below: Gus with Maria
Below: The Karumbe Team. Only Gus is a paid employee, the rest are volunteers from Czech Republic, Norway, U.S.A. and Argentina (the child attached herself to this volunteer).
Back in Diablo, we watched a horse-drawn cart meet a fishing boat and pick up a few boxes of fish for delivery somewhere....we know not where....
Below is how the surfing school transports surfboards back from the beach
Below: An interesting relic parked near our cabana
For the readers who are plant lovers (Christine?? Margaret??), what do you think of this yucca plant? The bloom is about 15 feet high.
Monday morning we decided to visit Cabo Polonio and drove around 20 kms south to get there. This place is protected and therefore, we had to be transported 7 kms by truck to the town of Cabo Polonio. We thought that Diablo was rustic....well....this place is beyond rustic. A charming and beautiful place. We boarded the truck...Bob and I scrambled up top at the front to get a good view and to get some rocking and rolling experiences to prepare us for our trip to Africa (some time in the near future...we pray).
We drove among sand dunes on a very rutty road and were amazed to see owls on the ground right beside us as we passed. Sorry folks, no pics....too rough! Finally we could see the ocean and in the distance, the town.
We then drove right along the beach where there were several interesting huts for rent!
Arriving in town, we wandered around and found a terrific restaurant right on the beach. The "Paella for Two" was fantastico!!
Walking along the rocks we encountered this really unusual sea lion. Body like a sea lion and a head like a big shaggy dog or lion.
Below: I appear to be showing off for the camera but in actual fact, am trying to get the sea lion to roar up behind Bob and startle him. No luck on that one! Must have lost my charm!!
There are several ships at the bottom of the ocean around this lighthouse. The Captains didn't pay attention and ran onto the treacherous rocks just off shore.
We are told that after 9 pm, all generators are turned off and the only light is from the stars and the lighthouse. A truly beautiful and peaceful place.
Below: A cute little insect we found sitting on top of our car. Notice the pom-poms on it's antenna? Unfortunately, the white of the car prevented the camera from picking up the brilliant orange and green of the body.
Below: A cute little insect we found sitting on top of our car. Notice the pom-poms on it's antenna? Unfortunately, the white of the car prevented the camera from picking up the brilliant orange and green of the body.
Below: A great little shop in Diablo that sells fruit soaked in liquor, cheese and our fave dessert!
Only one week left in Diablo and two weeks until we return to Toronto. We just cannot believe that the time has passed so quickly. We will be at Margarita and Michael's in Punta Bellina from the 26th to the 29th when we will be in Montevideo until the 31st when we fly via Santiago to JFK then home.
I plan to publish one more blog prior to our return. Be well everyone!
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