La Paloma

We left the beach Dinday morning and I have to say Rusty seemed ready. I put GANNET2 in travel mode which takes ten minutes at most and then I called him he came with no fuss. Half an hour later with one brief stop to dump trash we were in town, at the supermarket.

At this point Layne would go into the store while Rusty and I go for a walk except there is no Layne, not until Thursday, so I took Rusty for a walk. I put him on his leash as he seems to like that, being connected to me, but he leads the way and I follow.

We wandered across some random open space which it turns out is dedicated to the other big industry in this tourist town: fishing. 

They posted a bunch of photos celebrating the work:

In a country where being publicly laid back is an art form La Paloma, this small fishing village of less than 4,000 inhabitants is quiet out of tourist season.

Rusty didn’t mind. After I shopped I took him a few blocks down the main drag and found a brilliant way to park the tank in the corner of the lot so GANNET2’s snout didn’t stick out. This is possible on a cold during Sunday when most beach goers are at home. In summer this place would be crawling.

Rusty is about 14 years old and his hind legs are weak ever since his strike but when he wants to walk nothing stops him. He doesn’t run for three hours anymore but stumped up and down sniffing everything. He’s a long way from dead. 

Summer starts around Christmas and vacation ends in March and then you’re done. This year Spring isn’t showing up and that doesn’t help. 

One gets the feeling a lot of these homes are used maybe two months a year…

Then the plan was to drive across town to a rather special spot in La Paloma. The city is known for an RV parking area - no tents allowed. A “casa rodante” is a traveling home or RV: 

Basically it’s a shade-free parking lot offering potable water, a dump station and a place to park for free.

Having been here before I knew where everything was so I dumped the porta potty and drove to the marina down the street. Outside business hours the security guard sells the shower tokens. And he’s in the blue trailer. Easy when you know! 

The cost of a shower has doubled over the past months from 75 cents to $1:50. Oh well. You get eight minutes of steaming hot water and it’s lovely. 

I was wishing I’d bought two tokens because I could hang around for another one of these abc the showers are clean and a pleasure to use. You notice this stuff when you’re a nomad.

Then we parked and I chose a spot close to some bushes for himself. But first the little bugger wanted another walk. Okay then the beach it is.

Behind theirs is a long crest of sand, wind blown, cold and completely empty. The only people visible were on the water. 

I could see swimming here in the right weather.

The old boy tripped on the sand but he went with it and laid down expecting a tummy rub, which I dutifully provided. 

My neighbor came by with a bag of lamb bones which I loved. No seriously they were for Rusty and they didn’t last long. My neighbor is a Trump fan and we talked and debated like civilized people until it got too cold and we went out separate ways to check the results of the Brazilian election.

Of course I’m delighted Lula won. I’ll see what my neighbor says in the morning. He may want his bones back but I think he’s too nice to ask. 

Off The Beach

Five days alone on the beach, alone, without obligation of any kind, is a privilege; I am well aware of that. 

I well remember a three week vacation wrangled by moving around my days off, swapping with colleagues and being careful to take the time with the least impact on my rather strange 24 hour schedule so as to use the least number of days off. 

Nowadays my time is my own, my obligations are to take care of the three of us and to use my time wisely. Solitude has been my portion in Uruguay, and I have used my time considering what might come next.

I enjoy reading about the history of our species not least because I find it encouraging to learn there is nothing new under the sun, no matter the catastrophe it turns out some generation has already had it worse and managed to get back on track. This knowledge allows me to bypass predictions of the end of the US or France or paper currency or whatever avalanche of disaster may be rolling across the news wires. However I cannot escape the sense that we are at a pivot in human affairs, a time when the path ahead may switch direction and cause misery as it goes. I think of the end of the 18th century or the revolutions of 1848 in Europe, the struggles of the 1930s and the new world order post World  War Two. Now we find change sweeping us all aside  once again. Discontent, protests, war, and a new class of gilded robber barons organizing our world to their liking. 

There is a surreal quality to being a tourist in these strange times. I have no idea what good it might do me to be at home but it feels odd to be living so far away in a world so far removed from all the noise of a world in chaos. Webb Chiles is fond of pointing out the southern hemisphere is more appealing than the north with far fewer people, less than ten percent of the population of this planet lives south of the equator.

In South America prices are high for locals already but there are no huge increases, no shortage of fuel except as always in Bolivia which has its own problems. There is no protesting, there is no more malaise than usual. South America is peaceful and that poses an interesting dilemma for me.

Is there a reason to go home I ask myself.  Layne is doing heroic work in California stepping in to help her friend call in hospice for her husband, helping her organize her life in anticipation of solitude, buoying her friend up, helping her to find a routine amid the difficulties of the end of life of a long time partner. Perhaps that’s how one moves ahead, flying visits home, short journeys here in South America by van not to wear out our dog, forced to a life in the slow lane for a while. 

Young Rusty has spent most of this week sleeping, taking some short walks, curled up out of the wind outside until the weather got too wet or cold and in he’d come and sleep on the bed with me next to him reading, as GANNET2 rocked to the gusts. As we go forward he will need more time to rest and less time in motion, it is inevitable. Should we do that at  home? South America is much more easy going for dogs, so that too is a question of what to do. Stay or go? 

There are no answers, no clear cut choices, no signposts. But I feel privileged still to have choices. It feels to me as though the door on my past is closing and that’s unsettling. I like to think that among all countries the US has the greatest capacity for reinvention, to come out of this global change with a fresh new image of itself and always I hope, a brighter future for all of us. 

At this moment I’m trying to figure where do I want to be sitting and watching as this struggle for global change plays itself out. I would like to go home but as L P Hartley famously put it “the past is a foreign country, they do things differently over there.” 

The United States I left in 2023 has been obliterated in my absence. I find the irony of sitting in a South American republic, at peace with kits neighbors, free of rancor and social unrest, watching my beloved United States descending to the status of a corrupt banana republic, where the rule of law hangs by a thread. I never imagined such a thing were possible. 

A half mile walk is plenty for  two old dogs. 

I hear a lot of people rejoicing at the fall of the American Empire but I ask myself how much more will they enjoy the Chinese domination to come. I think we will look back on the loss of Pax Americana with sadness; I know I do. So maybe I really do have to consider not going home for at least a while. Allow the rage and confusion to subside, allow the country to breathe and find a new way forward. It’s on my mind.  

To The Beach

Thursday morning dawned slightly overcast with some sunshine and more cold wind blowing in off the Atlantic. By noon the solar panels had us up to 80% charged by one pm once again. 

Yesterday’s irritation was Starlink shutting us down as they caught up with our location away from the US where we had registered our service. For us it’s a disappointment but for those who work on the road  Starlink’s new restrictions are catastrophic as it will now cost $650 a month for 500GB for travelers switching countries frequently. You can re- register in a new country every 90 days so maybe we’ll do that later. For now we rely on Verizon’s international cell service which is a decent stop gap. Updating this page when we are in the wilderness may not happen…

The road to the beach pictures which completes the drive on Monday is below, downloaded with a cell signal. Adaptation is a human trait.

First I said goodbye to the free roaming horses in the park where we had stopped to take a break in Treinta Y Tres:

Then we got driving again much to Rusty’s disgust. 

Arroyo of the Dead Indian Woman, below. Every river bridge in Latin America is labeled though where the roots of the names lie is any traveler’s guess. 

Unlike Argentina in Uruguay they repair roads and build new ones, inconvenient but nice to see. 

Like most Uruguayan towns Rocha, the capital of the department, feels run down and not well loved, neglected and allowed to deteriorate. I saw several large parks and my goal, another Ta Ta supermarket to get a few perishables for my planned stay at the beach.

The first Christmas offerings I have spotted. 

And Rusty got his urban walk, not far, just tree sniffing on all four blocks radiating from where GANNET2 was parked.

Forty minutes from Rocha is the beach we first stopped at on arrival in Uruguay. I want to see if I like it as much a second time (I do), but it has no facilities.

The turn off to the beach, nice and smooth and about a mile long. Easy peasy. 

Thank you iOverlander as always. 

Rusty came up to me and gave me a big kiss after we arrived. He does that when he’s happy I’ve brought him to a place he likes.

Rain is forecast but for now it’s 62 degrees and sunny and windy day after day. Rusty rests.