Arrival: Chuí
Fuel at the Posto Ipiranga before settling in for the night. Chuí, the southernmost sede municipal in Brazil, sits on the Arroio Chuí, where the Uruguay border was contested since the 18th century. The Portuguese post founded by Cristóvão Pereira de Abreu was destroyed and rebuilt amid struggles over the Campos Neutrais, settled only in 1851.
What remains is a town of about six thousand, split from its Uruguayan twin, Chuy, by one avenue — Avenida Uruguai on one side, Avenida Brasil on the other — whose width alone is the frontier. Residents cross freely; Brazilian supermarkets and Uruguayan free shops serve both sides, and Portuguese, Spanish, and portuñol mix daily. A Palestinian-Brazilian community adds its own mosque.