Piriapolis, Uruguay

We spent one more night at anchor in Playa Hermosa, another beautiful bay, before the forecast and clouds reminded us that it was time to head into the marina.

We have been in Puerto Piriapolis over a week now and are just getting to know the place. The marina is well protected from most wind directions. We are stern to a good solid wall and the bow is secured to 2 buoys. 

There are no ladders on the quayside, so our first chore was to walk up to a hardware shop and buy one, then lash it to the wall. To go ashore is nice and easy now, we launch the dinghy and pull ourselves to the ladder. 

Now it is easy to get ashore we have been for a walk every day. It's a beautiful place. The marina surroundings are very green and the town is just a short, flat, walk away with everything we need. There is also plenty of countryside around to explore on our bikes.

The most random thing is the chairlift, which goes from just behind the marina boatyard to the top of the hill. It is closed at the moment. 

We found the towns Christmas tree, which is lit up at night, as are the warships in the bay.

We are looking forward to being based here for a few months.

This morning the water level rose more than a metre. The beautiful white beach all but disappeared, as did the rocky shoreline leaving nowhere for the birds to sit. They've moved to the marina instead. 

The seals are in their regular afternoon spot, next to the only ladder in the marina. That's where we climbed out of our dinghy on the first day, but immediately the harbourmaster told us not to leave the dinghy there because 'the lobos' would climb in it!

Now we know what he meant.

Settling in has meant practicing my Spanish and chatting with the Harbourmaster, Prefectura, Butcher, Deli staff in the supermarket, the launderette and people on the quayside. They clearly understand what I say, but some of the answers have puzzled me as I really couldn't work out what words were being said. I've got it now, they are speaking Rioplatense, Spanish but with some very different pronunciation. 

Eg: ll and y are both pronounced sh as in posh. so pollo (chicken) becomes posho

This is spoken in Uruguay and northern Argentina - so back to school. Good job You tube has some specific lessons!

https://youtu.be/06NtdnueQYk?si=QlPe5oXjS2B2ER_q

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