Si dios quiere

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 As I write this Ive been trapped in Uruguay for several days. My husband and I left Buenos Aires last week for a weekend getaway to the beautiful beaches of nearby Uruguay "across the pond" and a short high-speed ferry ride away. We arrived in Montevideo to unseasonal cold weather and became worried that we didnt have enough warm clothes. No sweaters, no jackets. Being on the coast, there is almost always a brisk ocean breeze and I lost my fancy panama hat many times.













We decided to rent a car to drive down the coast of Uruguay to the fancy resort town of Punta del Este, considered the Monaco of South America. Turns out, when you dig a little bit, that the wealthy of Brazil and Argentina move their money and assets to protected Uruguay and often plan to retire here. Its pretty, safe, and way more import-focused than the neighbours which creates a more open and global economy. The banking systems and currency is way more stable than the nearby countries, with inflation, interest rates and access to credit more comparable to the USA.

Its also much more of a police state. The police are everywhere, on the streets, doing roadblocks, and Ive had a whole batallion camped out at my hotel this week.

So as we were heading to the beaches of Punta del Este, my money bag with my credit cards, debit card, and passport, with a sprinkling of cash from Argentina, vanished. I simply can not explain it. We turned everything upside down to find it but got nowhere. This was Saturday night.

Then we started to panic. Called the embassy. Closed until Monday morning. Called the Canada emergency number in Ottawa. Recording says to call the embassy. Searched online and everything seemed a contradiction. We had nothing to do until Monday morning so we did what we could (police station to file a report, passport pictures, delayed our return ferry to Monday night and crossed our fingers).

Si dios quiere. A common phrase here to say the future is in Gods hands. Ex. “Ill see you tomorrow?” “Si dios quiere” “The passport can be sent tomorrow?” “Si dios quiere”

When we arrived at the embassy, the assistant consular was quite pessimistic. A week is the best case. Apparently the passports are made at the Canadian embassy in Buenos Aires and we need to file it by noon if we are to have any chance. I overhear her talking to them many times deciphering key words in very fast Spanish. Something is happening.

Turns out everything in Argentina is closed on Thursday and Friday, including DHL  for the diplomatic transport bag because of the Day of the Immaculate Conception. We have to rush. Maybe we can try and get it shipped before everything shuts down. But I was going to be stuck 3-4 more days.

I was teaching a 3 hour executive class on resilience that Monday night. So my DH set me up in the hotel next to the embassy and I strung together my ipad and iphone to do my class. The wifi was pretty bad, but if everyone turned off the video it worked ok. Not my best class, but I had some good will banked and of course I had a great story about resiliency.

Next I had to tackle a big project deliverable due on Friday and there was no way I could do it on my ipad. While I considered buying a used laptop, I actually scored one through the conference centre of the hotel as a loaner. Aside from the keyboard, apps and language in Spanish, I hammered out some good work in those 3 days of peace and quiet especially once I switched the keyboard to french. I did lots of zoom meetings, and was pretty productive overall.

We tracked the DHL package and I was at the embassy minutes after it was dropped off. I ran to the ferry to catch the next one out. And as I finish this post I have now arrived in my “home away from home” and happy to get back to my BA routine.

Uruguay was lovely and I will always have a piece of me there. 😁 But in all seriousness, I would go back for a beach or nature centric stay although it is 3-5 times more expensive than Argentina. For now we have the remaining side trips inside the country. Next up, Patagonia on horseback.




Comments

  1. DomDecember 10, 2022 at 10:24 AM

    This is wild and terrifying. You have a better sense of humor than I do!!

    ReplyDelete

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