Montevideo, Uruguay

34 54.485 S, 056 07.855 W

We arrived on Friday morning at the Yacht Club Uruguayo at Puerto Buceo and were tied up by 9:30 am. After getting settled and a quick shower we went to see the Prefectura which was conveniently located here at the yacht club.

Everything was fine with our paperwork so we got a taxi and went to Immigration to get our passports stamped. This was a bit of a bummer as the taxi driver told us we owed him 2400 Uruguayan pesos instead of 240 pesos. So we paid him only to find out that we actually gave him $78 instead of the $7.82 we should have paid him. Argh.

Anyway, we went to find the Immigration office. It looked a little like the office in Beetlejuice, with papers stacked up along the walls, older desks and nothing resembling a computer but we got our passports stamped after paying a fee of 80 pesos or about $2.60. That was easy.

We got a little lost trying to get back to the main thoroughfare but we met Sylvia. She works in the area and speaks excellent English and took us under her wing! Through Sylvia we got tourist maps, found out where the Brazilian consulate is, found a place to catch a tour bus to see Montevideo and an excellent place for lunch. All good and certainly made up for the taxi driver.

Today we walked to the Montevideo Mall next door to the World Trade Center and just a few blocks from the yacht club. The mall has a great supermarket which we checked out. It even has peanut butter (could not find this in Argentina). So we will definitely provision there. After a quick lunch we caught the tour bus. We managed to see a lot of Montevideo in 3 hours! I will try to send some photos later. There is a mixture of architecture styles from French to Spanish to Neoclassicism to Art Deco (Rich's least favorite). It is quite an interesting place. In the center old city we found pedestrian malls with great shops and outdoor cafes. We also heard a band with a woman in a very skimpy costume dancing like Carnival which is very popular here and lasts for a month. There is even a Carnival museum!

Since Montevideo is along the Rio de la Plata there are numerous beaches with people enjoying the sun and playing beach volleyball. The yacht club has two pools as well.

As tomorrow is Sunday we plan to do a few boat chores before we do any more exploring. Monday we will visit the Brazilian consulate to see about getting our visas.

Cheers,
Elaine and Rich

Day 3 to Uruguay

34 56.851 S, 57 17.500 W

Wednesday we stayed at the anchorage in Canal Mitre, did a few chores and read our books.

This morning we were up anchor at 9 am after using the scythe to clear the shrubbery that had collected on the anchor chain.

Today the passage has been pretty uneventful but hot and humid. We are looking forward to being at Montevideo, Uruguay in the morning.

Cheers

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Don't sigh for me, Argentina

34 19.298 S, 058 29.139 W

Sorry I could not resist the pun. Since we have been in Buenos Aires, that song keeps running through my head.

Yesterday the Prefectura arrived on time. One fellow checked all of our documents while the other went below with Rich to check on our PFDs, flares, fire extinguishers, etc. No problemo! Everything was okay. They were nice and polite.

We dropped off the last bit of paperwork with the yacht club and with the help of the lancha, untied our lines and went to the fuel dock. This was the first time in a long time, since Puerto Montt, Chile that we went to a fuel dock. Now we are topped off.

We passed through Canal Honda with no hitches, no running aground, no drama except going against the current for most of the way. Last night we anchored along side Canal Mitre in 5 meters of water. We are thinking of staying here today as well until the winds switch around. It is about 140 nautical miles from here to Montevideo and we will have to follow the channels for most of the way and it does not make sense to have to bash into the wind and the current as the wind drives the current as well.

We have plenty of books to read and boat projects and chores to keep us busy.

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Checking out of Argentina

Today we were all prepared in the morning to check out of Argentina and head for Montevideo, Uruguay early in the morning. We went to the office and Fernando helped us with the forms, making copies and then calling a remis to take us on the various stops - Immigration, Customs and Prefectura or Coast Guard. At the first stop they explained that since we were leaving in the morning we could not check out now at 11:00 am but we had to come back at 5:00 pm. Okay, no problem, the remis took us to the Shell station for oil and then to the bank for a few more pesos and then back to the yacht club.
 
Rich and I did a few chores, like changing the oil in the engine, filling the water tanks, fixing the reefing lines and adding shock cords to the lazy jacks to help keep them away from the battens. This last bit involved Elaine going part way up the mast which she has not done in a long time. A bit of an adrenaline rush.
 
 At 4:30 pm, Fernando called another remis and off we went back to immigration. No problem and our passports and some forms are stamped for us to leave Argentina. Next stop customs which is conveniently in the next office in the El Tigre area. Customs fills out a zarpe form and stamps it but we need to have the Prefectura stamp and sign some forms and bring them back to Customs. Ok, back in the remis and off to the Prefectura. We show them the forms, plus they want a copy of our boat document, our passports and the form we filled out in Mar del Plata stating we would not go to the Malvinas (Falklands). More stamping and signing of forms, some discussion of where we entered Argentina and were we going straight to Montevideo. Back in the remis and back to Customs and we hand in 3 forms and next a stop at the grocery store. Rich pays the remis and sends him off as the Carrefours is within walking distance to the YCA. I recharge our phones and we buy a few groceries and walk back to the yacht club.
 
The office is close so we go to get the lancha to take us to the boat. The lancha driver explains that the Prefectura called and want us to call them back. Ok, now what. It turns out they want to stop by the boat before we leave at 7:30 am. Okay, so we will see what happens in the morning. The last time we had someone visit the boat was in Iquique, Chile over 2 years ago.
 
So, if all goes well tomorrow we will leave Yacht Club Argentino San Fernando, pick up fuel at the fuel dock nearby and head out Canal Honda and Canal Mitre and hopefully not run aground. It is about 150 nautical miles to Montevideo and to the Uruguayan Yacht Club at Buceo just outside of Montevideo. If all goes well we will arrive sometime on Wednesday.
 
The adventure continues.... 

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

25 41.12 S, 054 26.41 W

On Tuesday, Jan 5, we flew from Buenos Aires (AEP) to Puerto Iguazu (IGR) and into the humid subtropical rainforest in northern Argentina, where it borders of Paraguay and Brazil to see the famous falls or cataratas in Spanish. The first European credited with recording the existence of the falls was the Spaniard, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541. The name, Iguazu, is from the Guarani words meaning ‘big water’.

According to Wikipedia, “Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipi, who fled with her mortal lover, Taroba, in a canoe. In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.”

By the numbers, the maximum height of the falls is 269 feet, with 275 drops or separate falls over a width of 1.7 miles. On average the flow rate is 62,010 cubic feet of water per second. As this year is an El Nino year and there has been much flooding in this area, I would not be surprised if the average is being raised.

The Iguazu National Park was created in 1934, just four years after Yellowstone was made a national park. In 1984, it was established as a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO and covers an area of 212 square miles. Inside the park is a narrow gage train that takes you part of the way to Garganta del Diablo or the Devil’s Throat. From the end of the tracks you walk on an elevated steel walkway that takes you over the forest floor and the river to the lookouts over the falls. It is extremely impressive. There are other walkways around the park to different falls both from above and then below. We tried to get on a boat tour which not only goes close to the falls but through but all of the trips were booked while we were there, so we skipped the showers! As it was, we were misted on the walkways, which felt great in the 95 plus temperatures and 90 plus humidity. We were both very impressed with this park. The facilities are first rate and the walkways provide up close viewing of the falls.

Rich on the train

Devil's Throat

Looking across the falls, see the people in the upper right hand corner for scale

Elaine posing in front of the falls

Looking down over the falls, see the people on the left and the lower paths in the center of the photo

The park is home to spotted jaguars, butterflies, coatis, prego monkeys, coral snakes, toucans, parrots and yellow breasted caimans. We only saw butterflies and coatis. The coatis are in the raccoon family with ringed tails but a long snout almost like an anteater. They beg and steal food from the tourists who are crazy enough to ignore the warning signs which show nasty looking bites and scratches from these animals.

A coati

A butterfly landed on Rich's hand

Rich caught a picture of this butterfly visiting a flower.

We spent three nights in Puerto Iguazu and returned on Friday. The weather report forecasted rain for the whole time but we only experienced two short showers when we were back at the hotel. Having air conditioning at the hotel was a must. If you get a chance, we would recommend going. You can also get a Brazilian visa and see the falls from the other side as well. My ‘foo’ with the visa website was not good before we left so this did not work out for us but there was plenty to see on the Argentinian side.

Up the river

Oh no, Mr. Bill!

We checked out of YCA Puerto Madero and decided to go 'up river' to the San Fernando / Tigre area. This is where we agreed to meet with the sailmaker, plus there are supposed to be some chandleries in the area.

As some of you know, the Rio de la Plata, or River of Silver, is shallow and there are some channels that are dredged to allow shipping to move. The direct route from Puerto Madero to San Fernando is 13 nautical mile (nm). It may only be transited with a rising tide and winds from the southeast as parts are only one meter in depth. We opted for caution and went the long route of 40 nm, through the dredged channels of Canal Mitre and Canal Honda. Our electronic charts only provided depths for Canal Mitre, a main shipping channel that continues to Paraguay. For Canal Honda, it was more Braille and a steady eye on the depth meter.

With less than 3 miles to go we ran aground. Conventional wisdom would say to stay near the center of a channel for the deepest water. Well, not in this case. Several powerboats went zipping by. One fellow in a small powerboat offered to help pull us to deeper water but his boat could not move us. A short time later another two powerboats, with English speakers, offered to help and there was success. The 5 meter depth was just a few feet away from the 1.3 meters that stopped Windarra in her tracks. With great relief and many thank you and gracias, we continued on. 

The original plan was to stop at Club Barlovento. I had been in contact with Lisa of SV Randivag about the club (thank you SV Joyant for the contact). Unfortunately communication (our Spanish failed us) with them over the VHF and telephone was not working so we went to YCA San Fernando instead. 

This is a large facility for over 300 boats in the water and 400 small powerboats stacked on shelves. It also has a full service yard with 2 travel lifts, a restaurant, bar, showers and swimming pools. We are med moored bow in but a little too far from shore so we need to call the lancha to get off the boat (and I am feeling too lazy to get the dingy off the foredeck).

We met Vivian, who is a lifeguard here at the pool. She works here 4 months of the year and spends the rest of her year living and working as crew on yachts in Europe. She speaks excellent English and she has been very helpful.

San Fernando is an upscale bedroom community for Buenos Aires. There are son beautiful homes but most have large, imposing fences and gates, each home a mini-fortress. A short walk away is a Carrefours super mercado. Yes a full store and not an express which we only found in downtown. 

As today is New Year's Day, everything is closed so we will stay aboard. Tomorrow we will explore some more.

Happy New Year, 2016 to all from Elaine and Rich