How about some alternative tourism?' Jorge asked.

[More:]

'Sure! Where?'

'Just a quarter of an hour's drive from your house.'

I couldn't think of anything remotely alternative that close to my house, but was keen to learn. I put on my strongest shoes and grabbed my camera.

In Jorge's pickup, I learnt that we were going to the Parque Bañados de Carrasco – the Carrasco wetlands, a 1500-hectare area behind the airport. He told me about ABC Rural, an association which aims to get together all the landowners and people living or working in the area, and support any projects which valorise it. ABC welcomes anyone who wishes to support it: it has no political, economic, or cultural bias. They believe that striving together for a common goal, the future will be better for all concerned.

Bañados de Carrasco

The wetlands were 'reclaimed', or dried out, by the military government during the dictatorship in the 70s. The area was then rather abandoned, but the new government has decided to try and do something about it. In the last semester of 2007 a private consultant group P.E.C.A.C. ( Plan Estrategico para la Cuenca del Arroyo Carrasco) was designated by the authorities of the Intendencias of Montevideo and Canelones to raise awareness. The UNDP financed this study of more than 400 pages. So far no action has been taken.

APRAC (Association for the Protection of the Carrasco River), a private initiative, has been active for more than 15 years, preparing reports, helping local groups, and developing the ecological awareness in schools and interested groups.

Recently, the U.N.D.P. provided US$5,000 to fund a biologist to give workshops about the water cycle to primary school children. This will include trips to the area to help raise awareness. Twelve tour guides are being trained, another move to raise the profile of the area.

Unfortunately the area has huge social problems. The area around the Bañados is designated as rural – in fact it is an 'Ecological Priority Area' - which means it can't be broken up into plots of less than three hectares. However, people who are finding inner city living too expensive are building shacks there, letting them to people even worse off than themselves, building more, and so on.

Illegal Settlements

There are 83 illegal settlements in the area, 80% of which have become businesses. The people are cutting down trees for fuel and taking soil which ends up in the fancy nurseries in the chic suburb of Carrasco.

Future Tea-room?

Our first stop was on the road between the airport and Zonamerica, a tax free business park. We visited a late 18th century ruined building which has been bought by a bakery owner who hopes to restore it and make it into a tea house. Originally, in Uruguay, cow hides were the only part of the animal considered to be of any value, and the meat and fat were simply thrown away. But later they started making candles from the fat, and this building used to be a wax factory.

Focolare Community House

From there we drove on to visit a community of nuns from the Focolare Movement, who have been in the area for forty years. They grow pecan and fruit trees, make jam, and work in education in some of the rough areas of Montevideo. ABC Rural held their first meetings here The huge hall is been used for activities with children from other areas and also for yoga retreats.

Hall

From there we went on to Jorge's 42-acre orchard, where he is growing organic apples, pears and peaches. He told me he used to have animals, but it's impossible to keep them now as the neighbours just steal them. He had taught a man to keep bees, and the man went off back to his slum taking many of Jorge´s beehives with him. Initially he used to distribute all their surplus fruit to anyone who wanted it, but this proved to be a security disaster.

Zonamerica

Zonamerica was next. I'd heard about it, but had never been. The complex is a business and technology park, housing investment banks, call centres, computer companies, and biotechnological labs. The 7,000 employees are mostly young graduates. The place received rather bad press when it started up fifteen years ago, as it was considered insular, exclusive, and hard to get into. The contrast between the hi-tec buildings and the shanty towns outside its gates is stark. In 2002 the Fundación Zonamerica was opened, with a mission to help Uruguayan society through the application of knowledge and economic improvement of the area. The Fundación has joined forces with ABC Rural to give a new value to the Bañados de Carrasco and development of productive activities for income generation.

Church in Jacksonville

From Zonamerica a tree-lined driveway took us into another world: Jacksonville. It used to be a Salesian school over a hundred years ago. Its chapel was restored recently by the Zonamerica owners and it contains paintings from the fifties by the Italian artist Lino Dinetto.

The influence of Picasso is clearly visible in his frescoes in the cupola, and in the huge, vibrant paintings of the Stations of the Cross.

It seems that the school is to be converted into a service area for Zonamerica with shops, restaurants and a hotel.

The Salesian School

Our next port of call was a carefully restored 1788 house belonging to German, a large-scale producer of organic fruit and vegetables. After over twenty years living in Spain, Greece and Portugal, he returned to his homeland and dedicated himself to his project. He's a softy at heart, but he's learnt to be tough: he, like Jorge, has had to stop keeping animals – apart from a few guard dogs.
German's House

Our last stop was perhaps the most interesting: the La Chacarita de los Padres River. Just near here, twenty-seven families were recently relocated to temporary housing. They had been living on three metres of rubbish. Beside them was a dog shelter, where people were caring and feeding the dogs, cleaning the cages, and running a profitable business.

The Chacarita

The Chacarita is the most contaminated river in the area, and one of the most horrible places I've seen in my life.

Garbage is a huge problem in Montevideo. In all areas, rich and poor, you will see rag and bone men with their horses and carts, stopping to fish through our fancy green hard plastic rubbish bins. They recycle what they can, and the rest ends up in the river, and ultimately, at the bridge I visited today. 'I have a strong stomach,' I said to Jorge, 'I can handle most things, but please take me home.'

We passed elegant vineyards and an expensive housing estate, just a couple of hundred yards from the river. Back home, I checked a few statistics. Uruguay is ranked 63 in GDP per capita. Ireland is 7, United Kingdom 20, Brazil 78, and Tanzania, where we lived before coming here, 156. I got to thinking about tourism. How many of us, having visited a country, are really aware of what's going on there? And is tourism just about seeing the pretty parts, or about getting a feel for the whole country? My visit today was one of my most valuable moments of my four years here. And perhaps one day the area will be returned to its natural state: the ‘tourists’ visiting the Bañados today may be able to pave the way for more ‘traditional’ tourists of tomorrow, who are looking for a peaceful area near Montevideo in which they can enjoy nature, watch birds, and feel at peace.

ABC Rural has a website and a blogspot (only in Spanish at the moment):
http://www.abcrural.org.uy/
http://www.abcrural.blogspot.com/

For more details on information contained in this article, please check
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
http://www.zonamerica.com/web/