Yes, Obrigada, the only word I know in Portugese, it means thank you, and I´m using it a lot at the moment. So, I´m in Brazil but want to update you on my last 2 days in Uruguay.
In Tacuarembo, the population seemed to have 2 addictions - drinking mate and riding a scooter. It appeared that everyone walked around with the obligatory thermal flask in one hand (for the mate) and a helmet in the other. Which is another interesting observation for me, the use of helmets ... this town seems to be the only one in South America that has taken on board the current `please wear a helmet`safety campaign ... what was so pleasing to see was even the babies and children, who are regularly squeezed in between their parents on bikes, were wearing them too.
So, I left Tacuarembo to get a bus to the border town of Rivera, whilst at the bus station I was latched on to by an old woman who seemed to think that by wishing me good luck she deserved a present of some sort - ie. cash, and I had to be at my rudest to get rid of her. The journey was only about an hour to Rivera and I expected to find the border and cross over to the Brazilian town of Santana do Livramento ..... a little bit more complicated than that ...
I got off the bus in town and asked someone where the actual border was and he told me down a couple of blocks and just by the casino (strange place for a casino I thought) and I asked if that was where the migration was and he said no and directed me in the opposite direction about 11 blocks. So off I trotted to find the migration offices to get myself stamped out of Uruguay. In the same offices there was a Brazilian tourist office so I asked her where do I get stamped into Brazil. She was very helpful and directed my to the other side of town and gave me a street map - it was at that point I realised that the border goes right through the town, one half of town is in Uruguay and it´s called Rivera, the other half of town is in Brazil and is called Livramento - oh, ok then. Before I went into the other half of town I thought I´d better change some money so I asked where I could do this and was told a woman is outside who changes money but she wasn´t around at the time. I hung about for a bit but no joy so I thought .."hey, it´s a border town, they´ll be loads of places" so I started to follow my map to find the Brazilian National Police offices to get my entry stamp, got a taxi in the end, too bloody far ! My Uruguayan taxi driver informed me half way there that we were now in Brazil - weird, I can´t say I saw a line or anything but the signs were in a different language, the dreaded Portugese.
So, my extremely grumpy Brazilian police officer asked me how long I was to stay in Brazil - 2 months I replied (not exactly but I always ask for longer) ... "TWO MONTHS ????" he said and looked at me with disbelief and a lot of shaking the head, "will you be working here ? Do you have cash ?" - I replied I had no intention of working whilst thinking, ey up, is he after a bribe ?? I just kept my mouth shut and smiled sweetly and eventually he stamped my passport and flung it back at me, lovely man. I then asked where I could change money and he just said "Uruguay" - great. Of course, what he meant was you can change money on the other side of town but it was the abrupt "Uruguay" that made me smile. So, I was officially stamped out of Urugauy and into Brazil but I wandered back into Uruaguay to get some Reals, the Brazilian currecy. All very strange.
Found the bus station (the Brazilian one) and had my first experience of not understanding a damn word (those people who say Portugese is similar to Spanish need to think again) ... I became the person in a foreign country who justs points at things and says thank you a lot. Having read that Brazilians find it offensive if you speak Spanish and expect them to understand I am becoming paranoid about accidentally saying Gracias !
It feels really strange and uncomfortable for me to not understand or not to be able to make myself understood. I´ve been trying to remember if I felt like this when I first arrived in Central America, I´m not sure. I´m actually in the town of Porto Alegre at the moment in Southern Brazil but all I can think about is heading back down to Argentina. That is probably really wimpy and pathetic of me but, although I am nowhere near fluent in Spanish, I feel I can confidently deal with any situation in the Spanish language. Next week I am meeting Sonja in Foz do Iguacu which is the town on the Brazilian side of the Iguazu falls and then we are heading over to Puerto Iguazu on the Argentine side, from there I will decide what to do. I really want to head up to Rio de Janeiro at least, I mean I really should shouldn´t I ??! I´ve just got to get over this feeling crappy about not speaking the language - agh !!
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