I don't think I ever wrote about our
attempt to extend our Brazilian visa for another 90 days. Canadians
need a visa because Brazilians must get one to enter Canada.
Canadians can stay in Brazil for 90 days, and then extend the visa
for another 90 days. How easy your visa extension process will be
depends on where you are from. Canadians and Americans have a harder
time. I wonder why? However, the Europeans living in the CR house
didn't seem to have as much trouble. Our friend Mike told us that he
knew that extending his visa wasn't going to be a problem when the
officer looked at his Polish passport and said, “the Pope is from
Poland”. Our attempt was a complete flop but I guess it could have
been a lot worse. We did all the necessary banking and paperwork,
took the bus from one end of the city to the airport on the other end, and waited in line for a long time to be told that our visa
had already expired, and that we were, “illegal in my country” and
“you need to leave my country immediately” by the not so friendly
staffer. For a few seconds, I was scared. I wondered if they were
just going to escort us to a room, keep us there and then force us to
leave right away. Then I remembered that we're in Brazil, and that
half the people that live in the house are illegal with expired
visas. So after telling us we were illegals he just let us walk right
out of the office!
It turns out that the problem began
when we entered Tabatinga six months earlier. The federal police
officer who looked at our passports saw that we had been to Brazil in
2010 and asked Ramanan how long we had been in Rio. To which he
replied a week. So rather than give us 90 days, he gave 83. There was
an 83 in the bunch of jibberish numbers written on the form he gave
us, but it definitely didn't look like a date and he said nothing of
it to either of us. We had just taken his questions to be the routine
process of giving people a hard time since the Brazilian visa clearly
states that you have 90 days every year. So why am I telling this
story now? Well because I wasn't sure how things were going to go
when we actually left Brazil, heading to Uruguay. The fine for
overstaying is 8 rias a day per person for every day that you
overstay. You can pay the fine when you leave or when you return, but
really everything depends on the federal officer you get. So when the
bus company taking us to Uruguay asked for our passports and
paperwork, we hesitatingly gave it to the them. It was an overnight
bus and it was bedtime before we knew it. When we woke, we were in
Uruguay and we couldn't believe how easy it had been to leave. The
stewardess politely told us that we have to pay some money the next
time we go to Brazil! It was pretty damned awesome! I was liking
Uruguay already!
As our bus rode on, most of the
landscape was small rolling hills, and farmland. Uruguay has received
a lot of attention recently in the media for being an innovating and
progressive country. Recently the country has legalized marijuana,
same-sex marriage and abortions are legal, and overall people have a
pretty high quality of life. Of the 3.3 million people in the
country, 1.8 live in Montevideo. Our plan was to spend two days in
Montevideo and then head to the city of Colonia del Sacramento, from
where you can take a ferry to Buenos Aires.
When you live in a big city like
Toronto, most others seem very small. Montevideo felt like that. We
decided to take a walking tour to explore the city and the guide
explained to us how seriously people take their herba mate, which is
a bitter tea that Uruguayans love to drink. I saw so many people
walking around with a thermos in arm, and holding their gourd full of
mate in the same hand. It is a lot of dedication to mate! Basically
your one hand is never free. Somehow whether it is balancing on a
rickety bus, or walking with your toddler, people seem to pass life
with their mate!
I think my favourite spot in the city
is the Mercado del Puerto, which is very similar to St. Lawrence
Market in Toronto. There are people selling trinkets, various stores
and shops and best of all, the food is fabulous! In this case, the
parilla or barbecue was fabulous. As you walk through the Mercado,
the wood burning barbecues were smoking and sizzling with different
cuts of meat being grilled to perfection. The two hardest decisions
to make were where to eat since everywhere looked delicious, and what
cuts of meat to get. The menus are very specific. You can order
specific parts and cuts (South Americans eat every part of the
animal!) and or you can choose combos, which is the amount of meat I
would eat in a month in one serving. Uruguayans like their
Argentinian and Brazilians neighbours love their parilla, and seem to
be able to consume shocking amounts of meat. So after walking in
circles, we made our decision and sat down to watch the chef work his
magic. A simple meal of warm crusty bread and wine, three different
freshly made salsas to accompany the bread, a light salad and
perfectly grilled meat! I don't think I ever realized how much more
flavour there is in cooking over burning wood than a gas barbecue.
The smoky flavour is subtle but really enhances the taste of the
meat, and the slow process of grilling the meat makes it super tender
and juicy. It was definitely one of the most satisfying meals I've
had all year, and the ambiance of the Mercado just added to an
amazing food experience.
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