Uruguay Sun

I took two separate day trips the last couple of days to el pinar, the montevideo suburb with white sandy beaches, and water of questionable clarity, and then again to Colonia, the oldest settlement of Europeans in Uruguay.

The first trip to El Pinar took place on an incredibly sunny day.  We went out way too close to midday and the sun was high overhead and the UV index had to have been out of this world.  A lot of the senior citizen set was out — you know the type — like the old gray haired, sun spotted, senior, tanning themselves with the aid of a silver reflective screen in order to intensify the color and size of their age spots and wrinkled, sagging sun damaged skin.  Sun spot removal is one of the staples of the large plastic surgery and dermatologist business in both Argentina and Brazil — not as much here.

I hid myself under a sun umbrella and copious amounts of sunblock.  My sunscreens were rated at 50 SPF, 60 SPF, and 80 SPF.  Sunscreens and tanning oils, etc are incredibly expensive in Uruguay for some reason, but I had to have it.  You see, apparently there is some ‘hole’ in the ozone layer here that makes the sun’s ultraviolet rays really, really, dangerous and the white skinned people of Uruguay have some of the highest incidences of skin cancer on the planet.

Since the outgoing president is an oncologist this has gotten a lot of play lately, with big public health campaigns to encourage the sun worshipping south americans to wear protective clothing, use sunblock and to stay out of the direct UV during the peak hours of the late morning to early afternoon.

To wit, just as we were leaving in sunburned shape for the shade and some rest, the beach started filling up with dozens of car loads of families and younger people arriving in time to enjoy the safer late-afternoon light.

A visitor I’m hosting in town wasn’t very impressed.

I think that a majority of the ‘beautiful people’ are probably in Punta del Este this time of year (the first half of January) as seemingly the entire country takes the month off to go sit on the beach, tan themselves in the sun, sleep in, and drink heavily and party until sunrise.