On the Frontera

On a whim, we drove to Brazil today. We cannot officially visit Brazil until we get visas, but we got a very small taste of the Portuguese speaking nation to our north by visiting the border town of Chuy. We knew we were getting close when we saw the mandatory Aduana (Customs) stops we would have to come through on the way back, but did not realize we were in Brazil until we noticed the road signs were in Portuguese. Being border ignoring scofflaws was not our intent, so we quickly turned around headed into town.

Chuy (Chui in Brazil) has a reputation as being a rough place. Other than the dude I saw walking down the street with tattoos covering his face (sorry, I may be brave enough to chase a bull, but was not brave/stupid enough to ask this dude for his photo), we did not see the rough side of it. Let’s just leave it as saying it is cool to see once, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Most people go there for the duty free shopping. The main road through the center of town – one side Uruguay, the other, Brazil – is lined with duty free shops on the Uruguayan side. Prices seem pretty good – a 750ml bottle of Chivas was $25, and we saw Johnny Walker Blue Label for $150. We passed on the Scotch and purchased a bottle of Penfolds 2006 Koonunga Hill Shiraz, mainly because seeing an Australian wine here is such a novelty. We also bought some Frey Swiss chocolate, a hand-made hammock, and a dress for me. Eating lunch at a parilla we noticed that most of the patrons were speaking Portuguese. We were both hoping for some good Brazilian style black beans and rice (probably impossible to find on a menu in “Euro” Uruguay), but settled for a tortilla Espanola and chicken brochettes. The surprise of the day was running into an expat couple from Canada who we knew through http://www.uruguayliving.com/. I had met Gundy only once and knew her husband Syd only by his photograph, but recognized them walking down the street. What a small world it is. Then we slipped across the border again to take this photo of the Brazilian side:

Uruguayans are limited in the value of goods they are allowed to bring back from Chuy. However, with an American passport, Aduana does not even ask what we purchased. All I had to say to the Aduana official was “somos Americanos” and he waved us by with a friendly “muy bien” and a thumbs-up sign. Ah, I love my U.S. passport!