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92 countries and still counting .. that's Crusoe owner Betsy Schwartz
Welcome to our first 'What Did You Do on a Friday?" Travel Story of the Moment!
Many of you are familiar with one of the most adventurous of the 10,000+ BF owners: Betsy Schwartz, email bikenbets@yahoo.com
Bets has what is probably the dreamiest, creamiest job of all (besides being an official Haagen-Daaz taster) - she travels the world for 6 months of the year, then spends the other 6 months as a schoolteacher showing kids her slides and talking of faraway places... With a job like that it is no wonder she has visited 92 countries and still counting... more often that not with her Crusoe called "Pumpkin".
Sit forward and enjoy her latest journey...
- Lynette Chiang
SLIDE SHOW: See Betsy's slides of Uruguay here
I RECENTLY returned from a wonderful 2 week bicycle adventure in Uruguay. Pumpkin was my steed of choice and my friend, LillyAnn went on her bike, not a BF! Uruguay is a wonderful cycling country and I think, probably one not a lot of people have been to. It helps if you speak Spanish as there is not a whiole lot of English spoken there. BUT, the prices are excellent value, the food is delicious, and the people love visitors and are very warm and helpful... Greetings from Piriapolis, Uruguay, We arrived in Uruguay's capital city, Montevideo, and checked into a well located 4 star hotel ($55/night/2 persons/with breakfast!). Right away we fell in love with this tiny South American country as we began to cycle thru the tree lined boulevards sporting their fall colors.
Entering the Saturday market of antique items, I began a conversation with a curious older vendor, Risso, who had been a cyclist many years ago and who had owned 2 bike shops in Montevideo and Buenos Aires until he was forced to close both because of the ongoing economic situation. We were chatting away a mile a minute (in Spanish, of course!) and people began to gather around looking at these 2 women with their lovely bicycles, until Risso said to us, "Look around you! You 2 are stars here, just like Marilyn Monroe!" The next day as we made ready for our trip and left our hotel at 12:15 to head to the bus station, we heard a lot of loud sirens heading our way. Montevideo's main boulevard was lined with citizens as far as the eye could see. The Tour de Uruguay was just finishing after the 76 cyclists from mostly South and North America had been riding in 6 different stages each consisting of not more than 200 kilometers, and they were riding past our hotel to the velodrome.
Well, we jumped into the street and started pedaling with our fully loaded panniers, not knowing exactly how long before the cyclists would arrive. The first pack came hauling by so fast I could not even get my camera out to catch a photo. But then something really wonderful started to happen. The crowd who had been cheering for the racers, now turned their attention to us and now they were cheering and waving to us as we continued down the last mile of the blvd towards the velodrome!!!!! Yes, all the waving now and shouting was for LillyAnn and me and our heavily leaden slow moving bicycles! Can you believe it? I was waving and sounding the bell on little Pumpkin and the children smiled and so did everyone. But I think I had the biggest grin of everyone! I felt so special and it was so much fun. I was a hero for all of 5 minutes, and that feeling has lasted until today! Today had 2 more special moments that I must tell you about:
It has to begin with yesterday when we got rained out and had to "Hail a taxi" to take us thru the thunder, lightning and giant storm to our destination town of Minas, up in the mountains. Well, this morning as we were preparing to hit the road which happens to be one of the hilliest roads in the country, some people gathered and began asking me a bunch of questions about where we were going and why we chose Uruguay and how we liked the country and how old we were! Well, that last question stopped them!
Then the townﳳ newspaper photographer came over and then next thing we knew the paper's jounalist was there interviewing me and they were photographing us and making a big deal because we were so brave to be doing this bike ride all by ourselves at this advanced age, etc etc etc!! Again , we were made to feel so special. And that is what happens in this wonderfully friendly country where no one is a stranger after you say HOLA to them. They love that we are from USA and don't blame us for Bush's war! They are so open and kind. And they think my Spanish is wonderful!! (That always makes me feel good.) Now since I said to you 2 moments, so I must tell you the next thing:
We were cycling along on this road that is very hilly and we had taken food with us as we were told there would be no place to stop enroute to buy anything. We had cycled 20 miles and I always get hungry after 20 miles so I said to LillyAnn, Let's stop soon and eat our meager lunch. She said, "Let's go a little further to that group of buildings over there. Maybe there will be some a place we can sit down." So we continued on and it turned out to be a big farm house and it did have a place by the road where we could lean our bikes and sit down to rest. As we sat, a bunch of dogs came running over, barking loudly. I jumped up and grabbed Pumpkin and flew off. LillyAnn who moves a little more slowly put the bike between herself and the dogs and was yelling at them. The owner came out immediately and called the dogs. I yelled to the man we had wanted to rest a little and eat our lunch! He came over and started talking. He is a cyclist himself (has an injured leg and could not race in the recent Tour de Uruguay) and asked if we would like to come and sit in his house. I said yes and off we went pushing our bikes past the dogs who now became our best friends. We went inside where his mother and the farm's owner sat eating a delicious parrillada (a typical Uruguayan meal = lots of meat of all kinds grilled over the open fireplace in the kitchen). We were now invited to partake in this wonderful meal. We had arrived there right at lunch time exactly as if someone had planned the whole event. It was a marvelous experience to step into the house of an 80 year old gaucho who had always been a large cattle rancher, and share a meal with him and his family. This is a little part of the story of our trip to this tiny but very friendly country. There are so many other experiences we have had but I must leave some things for you to discover on your own for I know you all will want to grab your bike and come on down. You wonﲧt be sorry! Much love, Betsy and Pumpkin
May 4, 2003
Hi,
I came home yesterday from Uruguay. Thanks to the seniority status of my flight attendant companion and the low number of travelers as this area of South America rapidly approaches winter, we rode First Class all the way home. What a marvelous experience all in its own!
I feel compelled to write one last newsletter. Uruguay reminds me a bit of the Baltic countries I visited last summer in that it is a tiny country, population of 3.5 million, squeezed between two giants, Brazil and Argentina.
To its credit, Uruguay has managed to have a culture and national identity all of its own. They are a very proud people. Proud of their athletes, their artists and writers, and their gauchos. Also, these friendly people enjoy a temperate climate all year long, good roads, wonderfully picturesque villages along the Atlantic coast, and beautiful grazing land with lots of fresh water for raising cattle, sheep and horses. Their beef is the most delicious I have yet to taste.
However, with gasoline soaring at over $4.00 /gallon and many people trying to survive on just $100/month salary; with the economies of Brazil and Argentina at rock bottom; the Uruguayans find themselves in a crisis also. People are now riding bicycles! As they said to me, not to stay healthy but as a necessity! Most of the hotels and restaurants in the small towns are now closed due to lack of visitors. Whereas only three years ago you might have found 3 or 4 lovely hotels at $50/night/person, today you will find only 1 hotel costing maybe 300 Uruguayan pesos ($11) for 2 people including breakfast! Uruguay has always been dependent on the Argentines and Brazilians who today have no money to visit.
That said, I want to move on with a few more fun incidents from our two-week bike ride along the southern coast of Uruguay. The people we met had everything to do with our delightful trip. There was 75 year old Archangel who immediately came out to converse with us about our bikes as we had picked his little bar to stop at to have a rest and drink a refresco. He, a retired racing cyclist, had a marvelous collection of various antiques decorating the walls of the bar that had been the family business for almost a century.
One item of special interest was a 1913 British kerosene bicycle light. He then led us through the back door that took us into his house where we were kissed politely by his wife and 96-year-old mother. He opened his glass door showcase to show us all his racing trophies and pulled out his winning cycling jersey from an important race back in the late 30?s. He was glowing with pride at his accomplishments. His adorable wife related how when she was 16, she used to stand out in her yard and admire the handsome teenager that kept cycling by her house! A special moment was recorded as I clicked the camera capturing and making a memory of this charming family smiling proudly in front of their bar.
We found that we enjoyed the hard pack dirt roads more than the main highways which had quite a few busses and trucks traveling from Argentina to Brazil. But sometimes the dirt roads presented problems! It was to be a 100 kilometer day, and we had been told we would be able to get across the lagoon that empties into the ocean as there was a small 2-car ferry. However, when we arrived we discovered the ferry had broken just 4 days before. Our sad faces brought the 2 men working in the area to say they would be happy to take our bikes and us across in their small motorboat. Pushing our bikes to the end of the pier, the smaller of the two men lowered each of them down into the tiny boat.
We then eased ourselves off the pier and into the boat, carefully, placing ourselves where the boat would remain balanced. Crossing the small lagoon was quick but the boat could not be beached and we were going to have to jump into the water. The men quick to act, removed their shoes and socks, jumped into the water and one of them carried each of our bikes to shore, while the other steadied the boat. The small man returned after leaving the bikes onshore, and tapped his hands to his shoulders, indicating to me to get on his back so I wouldn?t get wet! I laughed and made a gesture as to how big I was compared to him. He laughed back and said, ?Subate!? ?Get on!?
I gently climbed over the side of the boat onto his back and he ferried me across the remaining bit of water. I reached for my camera as he went back to get LillyAnn who was practically having a fit of hysteria over what was happening! I asked the man to stand still for a moment, in the water, while I readied my camera. I clicked on a small man filled with pride and a woman riding piggyback, hysterically laughing!
According to some information I read, Uruguay is 6th in the world for interest and concern in the environment (the Scandinavian countries were at the head of the list). They have some beautifully preserved national parks. We decided to go into one of these areas, a natural monument of sand dunes. Because it is such a fragile ecosystem, no motorized vehicles may enter.
Until recently only horse carts could take people into this tiny village. Today, you leave your vehicle at the entrance and are driven in 4 X 4?s thru the dunes to the village of Cabo Polonio, which was formerly a small fishing village of 30 people. Today about 100 people live here, surviving on fishing and tourism. The small posada (inn) we stayed in, located only 10 meters from the high tide line, has a generator that provides the posada with the town?s only electricity from 6 PM until 10 PM.
Two small islands with a huge population of sea lions lay right off the coast. (Penguins also come here at a certain time of year.) Walking up and down the dunes was not only incredibly beautiful but a reflective experience and made me think about my recent trip to Timbuktu and the much hotter Sahara desert. We met a group of Americans from Elder Hostel that was enjoying this preserve also.
Due to the fact that the tourist season runs from December 15 to March 15th, by late April you are well into autumn and there are few tourists. Therefore, accommodations can be quite difficult to find. We traveled on average 50 miles each day and always ended in a small town. Each day presented a new experience as to how we would be able to find that one hotel/posada/apartment/shared house that we would be sleeping in that night. We looked forward to whatever the experience might be. Once we had some racing cyclists out on a training ride escort us to the town and point us in the right direction. Another time a father ordered his 30 year old son to go with us and help us find a place. But the most enjoyable for me was the day the 3 high school girls had just gotten out of school and had mounted their bicycles to head for home. As they had only 2 bikes, the third girl rode on the handlebars sitting facing her friend who was pedaling. We found ourselves cycling side by side, so I struck up a conversation with them and soon all 3 girls were laughing and enjoying our chat.
They became very curious about us and questioned why we had chosen Uruguay, etc, etc, etc. So, chatting and pedaling as we continued on into the town they asked where we were staying. I said I didn?t know and needed someone to help us find a place. Immediately the girls said they would and knew a place a ways away that for sure would be open. We arrived at their hotel only to find it closed but we did find out that when open, that hotel owns camels and you can have a camel ride on the beaches there!!! I asked from where the camels had come. They were flown over from the Canary Islands!!!! There used to be so much tourism and money in Uruguay.
We were referred to another hotel that willingly the girls led us to. Again I clicked the camera catching their happy faces now that they had succeeded in finding us our bed for the night.
I loved everything about Uruguay and our bike ride. Whether it was Casapueblo, an enormous creation designed, lived in, and built completely by the hands of Carlos Paez Vilaro, Uruguay?s most famous author and artist, who is also an incredible architect. Or whether it was talking with any of the interesting characters I met (the retired Tango dancer, the newspaper reporter, the retired racing cyclists, the gaucho, or the youth of today). Whether it was eating those fantastic parrilladas (meats of all kinds grilled over the hot wood fires), or the buffets where for a little over $2.00 you could gorge yourself with vegetables, salads and meats, and a 2 liter bottle of a soft drink! Whatever it was, it seemed to just fit perfectly with the need of the day.
Country #92 was indeed filled with all these fine highlights. I might even do something I don?t very often do--- return to that one, one day!
Love,
Betsy, Stay tuned for Mongolia, coming in July!