Please, don’t play with the live animals!

October 9, 2011:  I couldn’t find the fishing village named Punta del Jesus, so I settled for the small fishing village named Punta del Diablo.  The conglomeration of sand, garbage and dead corpses made this my favorite beach in Uruguay and might even make the list of one of my top beaches in South America.  A peaceful place that lacked cement roads, high-rises, human whales and large groups of people made it an ideal place to stop and relax before crossing over into Brazil where I plan to pick up my speed.   

The South American way of disposing trash where ever you please are obvious even here, on the seemingly infinite stretch of beaches as garbage speckled the beaches.  Intertwined between the remains of the trash, laid a large number sea lions…dead sea lions to be more specific, resembling the aftermath of a mass clubbing.  Stopping to record the carnage with my camera, at times, the smell of death burned my eyes as I was only a foot or two away from the bloody or leathered fly infested bodies.

Yes, it is true…a dead animal cannot balance a beach ball on its nose, nor will it listen to any of your commands or silly noises so it will look in your direction as you attempt to take “THAT” photo.  But, if you enjoy taking photos of sea lions, the dead ones can be a lot easier. 

Seeing a sea lion laying on the beach just as still as the other bloated, leathered or decaying seal loins were, I thought there was a pattern forming.  So in my mental calculations, he was also dead.  Happy to see that the vultures have not yet made holes in him, I was thinking it was my lucky day.  Casually walking up to him...he picked up his head - Rule #1: if you enjoy taking photos of dead animals…you must first make sure they are dead.  Turning around toward me there was an incredibly loud scream coming from deep within him as he turned on the juice coming at me at top speeds.  I levitated backwards as the sea lion successfully made me fall for his bluff as he made a break for the water. 

Not thinking – for the second time today…from the one being chased I now became the chaser as I ran to cut him off from the ocean – must be “middle child syndrome” missing the art of teasing.  The sea lion stopped…and was about to turn around to go back up the beach, but then I realized that he was probably ill, laying on the beach for a reason.  I tried to get out of his way so he could continue to lounge around the beach but it was too late as he made a speedy waddle for the ocean.

Punta del Diablo is my last stop here in Uruguay before crossing over into Brazil.  In two more days I will be completely lost in a language I have not yet begun to study.  Perhaps tonight…or tomorrow, I will learn the basics of Portuguese before making it to that imaginary line that cuts across an real piece of land.