Our house on Camino Briano in La Palmita
I took the months of December through March to quietly explore the area around Atlantida. I rode my bike to the villages of Soca and Emplame Olmos on the back roads. I spent a bunch of hot afternoons drinking Cafe de Creme at The Passiva in Atlantida while reading Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver; the first book of his Baroque Trilogy..... twice, straight through. I drove the truck down backroads using Google Earth maps to find interesting natural features and buildings. I took Zia to swim at the beach at Parque del Plata some summer evenings so that I could think and let the built up internal pressures gradually deflate. It was what I needed to do to begin to reacquaint myself with myself.
I spent many days rummaging through the shipping container, reorganizing its contents for the next move, which was coming up at the end of April. Many of our boxes had been packed for several years, as we had thought that our property would sell in 2009, or 2010, or 2011, but it didn't sell until the middle of 2012. [Allow me to take this time to send my thanks to the "Masters of the Universe" on Wall Street.] I would be needing to literally empty the entire shipping container, by taking load after load with our truck and trailer (to our as yet unknown new home), so that the container would be light enough to be lifted onto a big flatbed truck. I like organizing things, so this was almost (emphasize "almost") like a meditation.
DiAnna and I needed different things during this time in La Palmita. She engaged the neighborhood and Atlandida like Miss Congeniality woos the audience at the Miss America Pagent. She walked Camino Briano and met everyone living on the road. She was fearless with using her limited Spanish, and learned a lot of language through those unscripted meetings. Mario, our closest neighbor, became a friend, and his elderly Gaucho father, Ryan (Ree-ahn), became a mentor. He would visit us during his morning rounds on his horse. She spent time with them learning about how they lived and what they knew about the plants and creatures who shared the land they farmed. They used two bullocks to plow a large field out back, and grazed them on the edges of the camino near where our container had been dropped. Their chickens, turkeys, and ducks wandered over near our house to find tasty things in the tall grasses. Their cows grazed in the back 7 hectares of the property we had rented, due to an arrangement with our landlord. We bought fresh milk from them to make Farmer's Cheese, and they gave us onions and squash from their gardens. We all overlapped with one another, and we grew to like them very much, and it appeared to be mutual. Even after only six months, it was very painful when it was time to leave them.
DiAnna & Mario's 83 y.o. Father - Ryan (Ree-ahn)
In Atlantida, DiAnna made many new Uruguayo friends by just being open and friendly with everyone she met. She talked with store keepers and their customers. She began conversations with people in Tienda Iglesa or Disco (the SuperMercados). By the time we left Atlantida, DiAnna had a legion of women and several men that knew and liked her. I was both proud of her, and a little intimidated, as she did it so easily.
It took some time for me to get comfortable at the ferias. They are kind of like a farmer's market, but more like "The Shopping Center Comes To Your Neighborhood". Just about everything you can need is available at the (at least) weekly ferias all over Uruguay; always lots of fresh veggies and fruit, meat, seafood, eggs, hardware, kitchen utensils, pots and pans, all kinds of clothing, toys, candy, scooter parts, plants, doors, windows, and more. [The two Atlantida feria occurred on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Sometimes we would go to the Parque del Plata feria on Sunday.] I was overwhelmed with the complexity of this new process: getting in the queue (with a numbered ticket), choosing which items I wanted (with someone who almost never knew English), and then paying for it after hearing the price in pesos, and getting the correct change, was.......... toooooo much at first. I had to take baby steps by purchasing only a few items to gain confidence. I am now seasoned and love going to the feria here in Rocha. [But, that is for the next post. ]
The Feria
One of our commitments here in Uruguay is to warmly greet everyone who makes eye contact with us. On Camino Briano, there were several old Gauchos who rode their horses on the road, moving their herds of cattle and horses from one grazing place to another. I always greeted them and they greeted me. One day I was going to Pando to pay some bills and to figure out why my phone was rarely working. As I was nearing Renacimiento (a country restaurant and hotel) on Camino Briano I saw one of the Gauchos walking toward Ruta 11, probably to catch a bus. I screwed up my courage, stopped, and asked him if he wanted a ride to the highway. He was all smiles and climbed in. We quickly worked out that he was going to Pando, also. So, now I was going to have to figure out how to have a "conversation" with him for the next 20 kilometers. I actually didn't have to. Lucian carried the conversation and I nodded where it felt right. I understood about 3% of what he said, but his tone and cadence was so warm that it didn't matter. I took him to the bus station, where he got me directions to the places I needed to go to. It was a breakthrough for me. Whenever I saw him on the road, we would "talk" for a few minutes and then go on our way. One day he was going south on his horse, with a small group of his herd of horses in tow, and I was going north. As I passed him he smiled and shouted out "Hola mi Amigo!" I had tears in my eyes as continued down the road. He had called me "friend", and it seemed that he meant it. When I last saw him, I was hauling a load of our belongings to Rocha. He asked "Por que?" I told him that we were moving. I saw in his face that he hadn't realized that we would be leaving the Camino. I think about him now and what he did for me. He had expressed with his sincerity and generosity that I was welcome in Uruguay.
We left Camino Briano, La Palmita, and Atlantida on the last day of April, and moved into our new rental in the Sierras de Rocha. Stay tuned for the continuing saga of RyDi's Latest Great Uruguayan Adventure.
I will be attempting to add new posts each week. As blogging is something new for me, feedback and questions will be much appreciated.
