Leg 62 SBPK - Pelotas (Brazil) to SUDU - Durazno (Uruguay)
SBPK - Airport Info
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ICAO code: SBPK
Airport name: Pelotas Airport
Location: Pelotas
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-3
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Pelotas Airport Info
Pelotas, city in southern Brazil, in Rio Grande do Sul State, near Rio Grande. It has a considerable export trade in hides, dried beef, wool, and timber. The leading industries are meat packing, flour milling, and tanning. In the city are the Federal University of Pelotas (1883) and the Catholic University of Pelotas (1960). Pelotas was founded about 1780. Population (1996) 307,667.
SUDU - Airport Info
ICAO code: SUDU
Airport name: Santa Bernardina Airport
Location: Durazno
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-3
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Durazno Info
Durazno is in Uruguay (Spanish República Oriental del Uruguay), republic in east central South America, second smallest country on the continent, bounded on the north by Brazil, on the east by Brazil and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and the Río de la Plata, and on the west by Argentina. The Uruguay River forms the entire western boundary. The area of Uruguay is 176,215 sq km (68,037 sq mi). Montevideo is the country’s capital, chief port, and economic center.
Uruguay was a part of Spain’s colonial empire in the Americas until the early 1800s, when revolutionary forces ousted the Spanish. Both Argentina and Brazil then laid claim to Uruguayan territory and lent support to the opposing political factions struggling to control the region. International mediation of the dispute led to the establishment of Uruguay as an independent nation in 1828. Throughout most of its history, Uruguay has been a democracy. However, a leftist guerrilla movement in the 1970s led to a harsh crackdown that resulted in more than a decade of repressive military dictatorship. Democracy was restored in the 1980s.
Unlike most South American nations, Uruguay has a population that is largely of European origin, with few mestizos (people of mixed European and Native American ancestry) and no remaining indigenous people. Uruguay is a highly urbanized country, even though its economy is based largely on agriculture, particularly livestock raising, which flourishes on the rolling plains of the countryside. Tourism is also important, with foreign travelers attracted to the fine beaches along the Atlantic coast.
Uruguay is in many ways a transition zone between the plains of the Argentine Pampas and the hilly Brazilian uplands. The terrain varies from rolling plains to low plateaus and hills. Uruguay has 660 km (410 mi) of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and its estuary, the Río de la Plata. The country has an additional 813 km (505 mi) of frontage along its boundary rivers, including 435 km (270 mi) on the Uruguay River.
The terrain in the south consists of grassy, rolling plains. Along the Atlantic coast, lagoons, sandy beaches, and sand dunes extend inland for 8 km (5 mi) or more. In the north and northwest is a low plateau, the Cuchilla de Haedo, diversified by ridges of hills that rise to an extreme height of 377 m (1,237 ft) above sea level. The eastern portion of the country is dominated by the Cuchilla Grande, a hilly region that extends generally south from Brazil to a point near Punta del Este; the Cuchilla Grande rises to 501 m (1,644 ft) at Mirador Nacional, the highest elevation in Uruguay.
The Cuchilla Grande acts as a drainage divide between the shorter streams flowing east to the Atlantic and streams flowing west to the Uruguay River. West of the divide the country is gently rolling; the only breaks in this surface occur along the relatively narrow river valleys. Woodland occurs chiefly along the riverbanks. The Río Negro is the principal river of the Uruguayan interior; only its lower portion is navigable. The Uruguay River is navigable from its mouth to Salto.
The people of Uruguay are predominantly of European origin, and many of them are foreign-born. They came chiefly from Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and France, although after World War II (1939-1945) some immigrants arrived from eastern and central Europe. Only about 5 to 10 percent are mestizos (persons of mixed European and Native American ancestry). None of the small original Native American population remains.
Uruguay has a large middle class, which developed in the 20th century, partly because the government employed a large portion of the population in white-collar jobs. These jobs afforded many people slow but steady upward social mobility, but they also created a considerable gap between the urban rich and the rural poor.
The population of Uruguay is 3,413,329 (2003 estimate). The average population density is 19 persons per sq km (50 per sq mi). The population is concentrated near the coast. Only 8 percent of the population is rural. Migration from farms to cities and the resultant strain on cities has been a serious social and economic problem. Since the 1960s tourism has stimulated the development of beach resorts east of Montevideo. The most famous of these resorts, Punta del Este, draws vacationers from all over the world. In the interior cities, economic activity centers on agriculture.
The principal cities of Uruguay are Montevideo (population, 1996, 1,378,707), the country’s capital, chief port, and economic center; Salto (93,420), a center of commerce, shipping, and the meat-salting and meat-packing industries; and Paysandú (111,509), a port and center of the meat-packing and frozen-meat industries.