ullo de uruguay

ola!! estoy en uruguay!! final-mente!! buenos dias (or should i say buenas noches to you :)!!

we´ve finally made it across the uruguay border last night after a gruelling 700km drive across two brazilian states (santa catarina and rio grande do sul), crossing some of the most dramatically-varied landscapes (rolling green fields, flat mongolian steppes, cows cows and more cows, eucalyptus trees, broad meandering rivers, horse farms - you name it, we`ve seen it in the past two days) , experiencing some totally amazing climatic variations (from blistering hot brazilian summer heat, to stormy gloomy english weather and even cool breezy humid in-between weather which is my favourite) and seeing some really mindblowingly beautiful skies (fluffy clouds, giant towering mushrooms of dark storm clouds, sunsets of purple-lilac-pink hues and mountains that look like they are on fire, with the setting sun behind them lighting the sky deep orange, red and yellow). it´s really only when you are driving across a huge country that you really feel the immensity of it... you could drive for an hour and not see another car pass, or even a house... just makes you feel insignificant.. if you know what i mean..

we crossed at this border crossing called Quarai in south brazil (after my bad navigation - which turned out to be a blessing in disguise (read on!) - caused us to take a wrong turning and we ended up some 120km away from this other place - Santana do Livramento- we were originally intending to cross at..) to cut the long story short, the land rover actually has some problems with immigration as it has been overstaying in the country for more than two years, so we had to sort of "smuggle" it out of the country or end up paying the brazilian authorities a hefty fine or even end up getting the car confiscated (worst-case scenario)! Ironically, the car is called Santana and Livramento means "freedom" so we had wanted to get through that particular border for symbolic reasons :p anyhow, Quarai turned out to be much easier in the end ´cos it was so relaxed that people were practically walking across without checks! as a matter of fact, the Carnaval was just happening on the Uruguay side last night and truckloads of outrageously-dressed, drunken, laughing, cheering, marijuana-smoking brazilians were just dancing across while the customs officials jested with passers-by!! wow wow wow!! and the Carnaval was great!! wait till i show you the pictures!

so we are now finally free and headed for Patagonia!! to the great south!! the Earth of Fire!!