Local life in Durazno

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 – Friday, January 14, 2011

Ana and I have just returned from dropping Antonieta at the bus station.  I leave this afternoon to travel further north into Uruguay to Tacuarembó and then an estancia, so Ana insisted I stay for lunch.  It has been an interesting couple of days getting a glimpse into the lives of normal Uruguayans.  I never imagined having this opportunity – a real authentic homestay.  Let’s go back to Wednesday.

On the two hour plus bus ride from Montevideo I watched the countryside go by.  There were a few vineyards close to Montevideo which opened up onto fields and more fields.  The country is extremely flat and trees occasionally dotted the horizon.  I did take a short nap when the lack of sleep from last night caught up with me, but the remainder of the journey I kept my eyes wide open.

Arriving in Durazno, the bus station was more substantial than I would have pictured, with about five bus spots and an attached building with a couple shops and bus companies.  A few buses arrived at the same time, so the terminal was crowded and I didn’t see any familiar faces.  I wandered around the station before sitting down on the bench to read.  Once the crowds had cleared, I looked up from my book and saw Anto.  Turned out we’d reached Durazno at the same time.  She introduced me to her mother, Ana, and Carlos (who I later found out is her mother’s boyfriend) and we walked to their car, some type of old two-door Chevrolet.  I wasn’t even sure my backpack would fit in the trunk, but it was surprisingly spacious, and Anto and I climbed into the backseats.

We drove through town to their house on a tree-lined street.  Two dogs enthusiastically greeted us when we entered the garage.  I had forgotten that after I accepted Anto’s offer she mentioned she had two dogs.  Ana is in the process of moving to Colonia so there were a number of boxes lining the walls.  Compared to the rest of the one-story house, the garage seemed quite large with much higher ceilings; they used to have a small shop at the front of the house but I’m not sure how it was used after.  The computer desk sat at the wall to the side of the room which led to the kitchen area, a bathroom to the left and three small bedrooms to the right.  It’s hard to say what the house looked like normally, as I’m certain many wall items have been packed into boxes.  What is left are mostly necessities and furniture, although Ana still needs to sell the house and find a new one in Colonia.

Anto and her sister's room

It was only 7pm, so Antonieta suggested we grab some mate and walk with her brother to the supermarket to pick up meat for a parrilla (grill).  My first taste of mate!  It’s basically like a strong green tea but with a bit more of a grassy taste.  You drink the liquid through a metal straw like filter, finishing all the liquid before passing it to the next person.  One person is in charge of refilling the hot water and keeping the strong flavor by moving the leaves around in the mate cup.  If you say “gracias” when handing the cup over, it means you have finished your share (but as a guest it is hard to avoid saying gracias).  Mate is popular in Argentina and Uruguay, and I’ve seen tons of people with their mate cups and thermoses in Uruguay.

First taste of mate

At the supermercado, we purchased some chorizo and asado along with some vegetables for salad.  Ana also went to the store to pick up ice cream for dessert.  Then we strolled back to her house through one of the plazas.  All the streets are lined with trees in this town of approximately 36,000.  At almost every house we passed people were sitting around drinking mate.

Dinner was at the normal hour of 10pm.  We moved the kitchen table outside to the enormous backyard (they have a lot of outdoor space considering the size of the house) and sat beneath the star filled sky enjoying a delicious grill before topping it off with three flavored ice cream (in the same way you’d get a napoleon in the States, this mix is eggnog-like, dulce de leche and chocolate).  Anto and Ana both speak English, but her brother and Carlos don’t, so there were a number of times that I just sat quietly listening.  They speak pretty fast here and, like Argentina, use the “sh” sound for the “y” and “ll” instead of the “y” sound.  I’m trying not to pick up on the “sh” because it’s not used in the rest of South American and isn’t the way I learned Spanish, but it makes it much harder to understand.

After clearing the dishes, I got ready for bed, and climbed into the top bunk in Anto’s room for a bit of reading before bed.  I seemed to have picked up a number of bug bites in Montevideo (pretty sure they are bed bug bites, yuck) and was extremely itchy on my right arm, chin, and left foot (they bit me on the side and in between my big toe) so I took half an Ambien to make sure I slept through the night.

Thursday was a very lazy day.  I woke up around 9:30am, but Anto was still sleeping, so I read until finally getting out of bed around 11.  We kind of lazed around the house while Ana prepared some Milanese and salad for lunch with flan for dessert.  Somehow we didn’t eat until 1:30pm but I’m not sure where the time went.  After lunch, Anto suggested we head to the bus station to buy tickets for today.  Sin mate, we walked to the station and found out, to my relief, I could get a bus to Tacuarembó at 3:30pm (I thought my only option was 8pm or later). 

Milanese lunch

We returned to her house around 4pm to pick up some mate and head to the square, but Anto turned on the TV and we ended up sitting around for a couple of hours.  I felt a bit antsy, like we should get out and do something, but I tried to go with the flow and avoid the dogs as best as possible.  I used their computer to check email and search for a place to stay in Tacuarembó.  Very limited options, so I asked Anto to call an estancia nearby to see about going there instead of staying a night in Tacuarembó. 

Sometime after 6pm, we strolled to the square with our mate and sat on a bench people watching and talking.  Even though Anto speaks English, I found I had trouble making conversation, so I asked about life in Uruguay and schooling in Durazno.  Seems that most people finish high school around 18 or 19 and then look for jobs, or head to Montevideo for the free state-run universities.  Anto’s sister, who is 18, just moved to Colonia for a job at a B&B thinking she would be making minimum wage (which is somewhere between 4,400 and 6,000 Uruguayan pesos, or $220 to $300 a month) and finding out that her salary will only be in the form of free accommodation.  She’d called home crying.

Drinking mate in the plaza

Since its summer right now, Ana (who is an English teacher) is on break and hoping to start the new school year in March in Colonia.  Her house is on the market for $50,000, which won’t be enough to get her a house in Colonia, but is reasonable for Durazno.  Plus, the house is in an area of the city which doesn’t flood.  Apparently in the rainy season, a number of houses become flooded.  The worst floods were in 2007 when the water level in the river rose to 13 meters, two meters shy of flooding the main bridge which connects the next town. 

Anto wanted to show me the river and its beach, so she texted her mom to pick us up in the square.  We drove a few minutes out of town to the “beach”.  I was shocked at the number of tents on the camping grounds – there must have been at least 100, if not 200 – near the river.  Hard to believe that in the rainy season the whole area is under water.  We crossed over one of the two bridges (the lower one which always floods) which was Ana’s main road for the school where she taught.  She explained that in 2007, she had to go all the way to the other bridge since this one was submerged. 

The beach

After driving through the neighboring town, we came back to Durazno via the larger bridge.  Before returning home, Ana drove to the nearby park, a huge green space where she comes each day to relax for an hour or so.  There was a small pool of water and a stage where concerts are held.  No camping allowed, just a quiet area away from the city.   I think it was 9pm by the time we got back, and Anto’s brother had picked up more chorizo for the grill. 

At 10:30pm we sat down for a dinner of chorizo, Milanese and salad.  Anto’s friend from Canada (a guy she met on an exchange program, who just arrived in Uruguay yesterday and is planning to move here to start a hostel or something) and her brother’s friend joined us for dinner.  It was another quiet meal for me since the majority of the conversation was in Spanish, even though Anto’s friend speaks English and French as well.  Tired from the lack of activity during the day, frustrated by not understanding the conversation and not wishing to inhale any further cigarette smoke, I chose to go to bed rather than take a short walk with Anto and her friend.

Me and Anto at dinner

This morning I got up to go to the bus station with Anto and Ana.  She had a 10am bus back to Colonia and will be back at work at the hostel starting at 4pm.  Originally I was going to spend the five hours until my bus at the station, but Ana insisted I stay for lunch.  We stopped by the supermarket to pick up some meat, and she’s making meat pie.  I offered to help in various ways a number of times, but she won’t have it.  As she said, “You are only here for a few days and you are a guest.  If you were here for a month I’d expect you to help out.”  I don’t really like standing around watching, which is why I’m sitting in Anto’s room writing.  As nice as it is to be at someone’s home and get a sense of normal daily life, I’ve found it hard to play an active role.  I greatly appreciate being a guest here, but it’s a challenge to not feel like I’m imposing. 

Time to finish packing.  It’s noon already so I only have a few more hours until my bus.

(on the bus)

The rest of the morning passed slowly.  We ate lunch (meat pie and salad) at noon, so I still had over two hours before my bus.  I asked to go online so that I could check email one last time before the estancia.  When I got out my Kindle to do some reading, Ana asked me what it was, and I explained.  She was fascinated.  Carolos came over just before I needed to leave for the bus, so he and Ana drove me to the station.  Now I’m just looking out the window taking in the uninhabited countryside.