My business partner, the Copperhead, also had plans for that weekend in BA, so he agreed to travel with me there and back, and go off on his own in the interim.

So, first class reservations we made and tickets purchased for pickup at the terminal.

We arrived at the terminal at dusk for the evening ferry. I was actually taken aback by the high quality of the terminal–it was as good as any first class train station or airport. I guess in the back of my mind I was comparing it to ferries in the West Indies which belch diesel fumes and the “terminals” for which are rum shacks along to wharf. I didn’t see a goat or a crate of chickens anywhere.

The staff at Buquebus in Montevideo were marvelous! They had previously been called by my assistant and someone immediately came out to help with the wheelchair and our luggage. We got checked in and they asked if we wanted to go to the first class lounge right away, or wait a bit. We agreed that NOW was a good time, as you seldom get that offer in South America.

The gentleman from Buquebus took us to the head of the immigration line, we passed about 100 people waiting and got those formalities taken care of while we waited on the side.

Immigration is handled very efficiently at both ends. At each terminal there are officials from both Uruguay and Argentina sitting side by side. When you clear immigration from Uruguay the official hands your passport to his Argentine colleague and you then clear immigration into Argentina. Coming back the reverse occurs in BA. You still have to clear customs when you get to your destination port, but experience shows that is usually perfunctory.

We were then taken in the elevator/ascensor/lift to the first class lounge to await boarding. When the time came, I was pre-boarded. Copperhead pushed the wheelchair as our luggage was already checked. The ramp onto the ferry was a bit steep, but manageable. But at the very bottom, instead of flattening out for an easy transition, the ramp was rounded off in a 90 degree arc; so much so that I had to get onto my two canes while Copperhead handled the chair. If I were a paraplegic, it would have been very difficult.

On that particular ferry the main difference between first and economy class seems to be that the first class passengers board first to choose the good seats. we got one right up front where I could park the wheelchair and look out the front window. Unfortunately it was dark so I didn’t see much.

Much to Copperhead’s annoyance, I fell asleep in my wheelchair about 30 seconds after we left the dock. The next thing I knew, we were two hours out. When I woke up, Copperhead looked vexed and said, “you b*****d, I’ve been trying to sleep for two hours and you dozed off imediately”. I replied that I was sorry, shifted in the chair and promptly fell back asleep. The next thing I knew I was in BA.

We waited until the other passengers disembarked before attempting our own landing.

The ferry ramp in BA was the same as in Montevideo, except now I had to get up over the rounded arc at the bottom, which I did, again with two canes and even more difficulty. At least the ramp was more level.

When we got inside the terminal there was no one to help us. In fact it was almost empty. We found an elevator, but when we got to the bottom, the only door was marked “Entry Prohibited – prohibida la entrada”. So we went back upstairs and Copperhead left me at the top of the down escalator while he went for help. A few minutes later he returned with a Buquebus baggage handler in tow. He took us back down the selfsame elevator we had been on previously and then through the “Entry Prohibited” doors. This brought us to customs. As we were literally the very last travelers of the night, they were anxious for us to get the heck out of there so they could go home. I think we could have had rifle barrels sticking out of our luggage and still gotten through without being checked.

Needless to say, Buquebus did not get high marks for helpfulness in BA.

The return trip was similar, but with regard to being handicapped, perhaps a bit worse. No one at Buquebus in BA would help with the wheelchair! After literally 6 requests, one employee agreed to lead us through immigration to the first class lounge, but would NOT lift a single finger to help.

In contradistinction to Montevideo, you have to go through a metal detector in BA – undoubtedly to prevent the ferry from being hijacked to the Falkland Islands…

I had a Swiss Army Knife in my coat pocket, which set off an alarm. I had to check it before I could proceed. In all fairness, the Buquebus employee did agree to take the knife and check it and return with the receipt. I hope he didn’t strain a hernia or something.

Immigration was as previously described. After which we were taken to the first class lounge.

When the time for boarding came, there was no pre-boarding, and the crowd pushed past us. Again no help from Buquebus personnel, and the same terrible ramp again.

This time we were on a much bigger ferry. it had a separate first class section–which was up 4 steps with no ramp. Once again I did the crab walk with two canes for the trip.

I stayed awake on this trip, since it was daylight and there was something to see. Copperhead put his coat over his head and passed out. He must had had a really fun weekend…

I had high hopes that Buquebus in Montevideo would perform as well on our return as they had on our departure.

One more vain hope dashed upon the cruel rocks…

There is no elevator that goes from the disembarkation area to customs! Instead you are taken back out through the embarkation area! We ended up back in the main lobby at least 100 meters from our luggage and customs clearance.

Copperhead left me and went to collect our luggage, which he did without a problem. We took a taxi and left…

In summary: The Trip on the “fast” boat from MVD to BA takes 3 hours in each direction and usually leaves withing a half hour of the scheduled departure time. The trip is comfortable in airline style seats and there is ample food and drinks available for purchase during the trip. The lounges are really nice at both ends. This is a really low tension alternative to flying and takes you from downtown to downtown. However, during the highseason the lines can be very long and if you are not traveling 1st Class you must arrive early and stand in line waiting to board you may be left with a poor seating choice.

But if you are handicapped, and especially if you are wheelchair bound – it could be pretty rough. I am having this translated and sent to the Managers of Buquebus at both ends, the Society of the Handicapped here, local Letters to the Editor, and the President of Uruguay, who is a physician.

We’ll see if anything changes.

First, a few facts. (If you are among the cognoscenti, you can skip the next paragraphs.)

Uruguay is in South America. It is on the Atlantic Ocean south of Brazil and North of Argentina. It is not connected to Paraguay, which lies North of Uruguay with a big piece of Argentina in between.

Uruguay is about the size of Washington State, and a bit smaller than England and Scotland combined. It has a population of about 3.5 million, which is a bit smaller than Costa Rica. More than 2/3 of the people live in Montevideo and the Atlantic littoral. The rest are thinly scattered through the rest of the country, which is largely agricultural. The language here is Spanish, but with Portuguese and Italian influences. Both here and in Buenos Aires, Argentina (130 miles up the Rio de la Plata) they pronounce the Spanish double L, “ll” as “sh” — they do the same with the “y” when it is a consonant. For example, the word “I — Yo” would be pronounced “show” and the word “key — llave” is pronounced “shah-vay”. One interesting fact: Uruguay has the second greatest reserves of water, per capita, in the world, after Canada.

For the researchers among you, check out:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uy.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/uytoc.html
http://countrystudies.us/uruguay/

At the risk of repeating what I have already written to some of you… After living in the West Indies, former Yugoslavia and Costa Rica, Uruguay (UY) seems NORMAL. Montevideo is a city of about 1.5 million people. It is a combination of old and new, rather like Florida’s St. Augustine. It is at the same relative latitude as the North Carolina Capes. The climate is perfect for me. On average it goes below freezing about 2.5 days/year and above 90F/32C only 6 days per year.

(There is a detailed weather summary at: http://qwikcast.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=058568&refer=.) As we all know, the Good Lord did not intend fat men in wheelchairs to live where it is hot!

The entire city of Montevideo (MVD) is bordered on the south by beautiful wide white beaches. The water color and waves remind me more of the Gulf of Mexico, than the Atlantic. Officially, the beaches are on the Rio de la Plata, or River of Silver, but don’t be fooled, the River here is more than 65 miles across–rather more like Delaware Bay than a river–and widens to officially transform into the Atlantic not too many miles from here.

Arriving:

We landed at Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo after an 8.5 hour nonstop flight from Miami. We left Miami at about 1AM (we were delayed two hours because of mechanical problems) and arrived here at about 1PM (10AM Miami time). As I understand it, almost all flights between this part of South America and the US start at night and arrive in the morning, going both directions. For those who can sleep on planes it is great. I did.

The airport was pretty modern, but with few bridges directly to planes. There was a mobile stairway for our plane. However, since there were people on the plane in wheelchairs, they brought up a special truck with a room on a scissors lift. It was raised to the airplane door opposite the stairway, we rolled onto it, the room lowered, the truck drove us to the terminal, and we were deposited at ground level via a special lift on the truck. I was impressed!

I was even more impressed when they had a big brawny man get behind my wheelchair and take me through immigration, baggage claim, customs and to a waiting van Chris Kohl had arranged for me. Usually they assign a 90 pound woman who can’t push their chair without me in it, much less the half-ton load I add.

Immigration didn’t ask me any questions, but did welcome me to Uruguay. The veterinary official look at the dogs health papers and cleared them both in less than 1 minutes. Customs opened one bag–with my desktop computer–and then waived me through. All of that was accomplished within 45 minutes of the plane touching down.

Contrary to my impressions from afar, a high percentage of people speak some English. Between their English and my limited Spanish, we do pretty well. If it gets intricate, Chris comes to the rescue. If he is not available, I break out my PDA with its Spanish-English dictionary and work my way through it.

Chris had two vans organized. One took Lucy the German Shepherd to a veterinarian for a few days, and the other took me, Harry, Chris and 5 big suitcases to the Pablo Figari Best Western Hotel on the beach in Carrasco. The trip only took 15 minutes, but it gave me my first view of MVD’s wide, well-kept and tree-lined streets.

The hotel room was $70/night including breakfast. The room was small, in the European style, but was well appointed and the bathroom was of a goodly size. A huge “Milanesa”, a steak breaded and covered with ham and cheese, was under U$S4.00 from room service.
Comment on currency symbols: Uruguayans use the $ sign for their Uruguayan Pesos (UYU), which are about 24 to the US Dollar. Consequently, when you see $ on UY websites, it means Pesos, not Dollars. Dollars are usually denominated as U$S. Argentina is similar, but the exchange rate there is 3 Argentine Pesos per U$S1.

Buenos Aires (BA) in next door Argentina (AR) is the big city with about 13 million people in the metropolitan area. It is 45 minutes by commuter plane, or 3 hours by fast Ferry, the Buquebus, from MVD. As far as I can tell, the relationship between BA and MVD is roughly similar to that of New York City and New Jersey, respectively.

After 4 nights in the hotel, we moved into the new house only two blocks away and just across the road from the beach.
On a closing note, I want to mention my observation that the people with whom I have come into contact thus far are friendly and courteous in a manner reminiscent of Florida 30 years ago. Several neighbors have already introduced themselves and offered any assistance needed–I have a bigger collection of home phone numbers already here than after 27 months in Costa Rica.