Chuy - Geography

Geography

The town lies on National Route 9, 340 kilometres northeast of the capital, Montevideo, and only a few feet from Brazil's Route BR 471. Chuy is only 15 km from the Atlantic Ocean, and in the northern hinterland is located a similar distance from the Lagoa Mirim.

The BR 471 in Brazil running from Porto Alegre and Pelotas borders the Chui town and passes through to Uruguay where it becomes Ruta 9. Each country's immigration office is located at the entry to the town. The main street, which is a two-lane road, is known as Avenida Uruguai ("Uruguay Avenue") in Brazil and as it passes to Uruguay, its name changes to Avenida Brasil ("Brazil Avenue"). The Brazilian town, Chui, has shops selling clothes, shoes and household goods while on the Uruguayan side, Chuy has duty free shops and a casino.

Chuy is one of the easternmost settlements in Uruguay, separated from Brazil by the Chuí Stream. The Chui rises in a small swamp in the sandy coastal plains of far southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, runs initially southward, then turns east before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. The Chui is only a few tens of kilometres long and its water volume is unimpressive; indeed, this is why it is called an arroio or arroyo, a stream rather than a river. It would be unremarkable, were it not for the fact that Arroio Chuí is known throughout Brazil as being the country's southernmost point. The actual extreme point is on a bend of the stream approximately 2.7 km (1.7 mi) upstream from its mouth on the sea, near the twin coastal villages of Barra do Chuí (Brazil) and Barra del Chuy (Uruguay), at 33°45′03.49″S 53°23′40.90″W / 33.7509694°S 53.394694°W / -33.7509694; -53.394694.