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Other entries in Buenos Aires

A Short Time in Uruguay

We didn't stay there very long (6 days to be precise) but we really liked the place.   

We crossed the border from Brazil in the East and made our way further inland.  You could easily have been in the English countryside.  It was green and damp with gentle rolling hills inhabited by sheep and cattle and twisty paved roads.  Add this to the (relatively) poor state of repair of the (non toll) roads and the hideously expensive petrol and Uruguay appeared almost exactly the same as England! 

The big difference though was the fact that the roads were almost completely empty, therefore great for biking.  In fact  it soon became evident that pretty much all of the country outside Montevideo was devoid of population.  Not surprising really as 2 of the 3 million Uruguayans live in or around Montevideo.  Towns were few and far between on the road and when you did happen across one it was usually small with a distinct lack of hotels.  Thus the first night in Uruguay, as it was getting late, we made do with a dreary town not too far from the border that didn't seem too friendly.

Things picked up immeasurably the next day though.  We headed to Minas, about 120 km north of Montevideo, and as usual stopped in the centre to look for accommodation.  A woman with her kiddie came to speak to me while Maria was in the tourist information.  We had a long chat (despite my still shamefully poor Spanish) and then with a kiss on the cheek she and the kiddie got on their bicycle and disappeared into the distance.  You wouldn't get that in England! 

The tourist information directed us to an area about 10km out of town, near to the municipal campsite, where there were cabañas for rent.  The first place we tried had a great little cabaña (being guarded by a huge tame sheep of all things) but you needed your own bedding - no good for us as all our sleeping bags had been stolen in Brazil.  The owner suggested a place over the road called Los Nietos.   There we took a lovely cabaña with a little covered terrace outside the front door with table and chairs looking out over the beautiful landscape and horses; which lived right outside the front door.  It was so peaceful after the hurley burley of Brazil.  The only noise in the morning was birdsong and the occasional neighing horse. 

One day we took a walk only to be confronted in the driveway by a huge pig and her 6 piglets which had appeared to have escaped from the pig farm next door.  No one seemed too concerned and the family seemed to be heading back there of its own accord - probably feeding time.  We gave it a wide berth none the less.  At night the entire field was covered in fireflies - quite a sight but not quite generating enough light for us to navigate the lane when we went out one night without a torch.  What a fantastic place.  We ended up staying 3 days (2 days longer than originally planned)!

The weather also reminded me a bit of England - very changeable.  It was dreary when we crossed the border, stunning sunshine and blue skies in Minas and then we hit an enormous storm on the way to Colonia.  We haven't seen that much rain since Colombia!  Then back to blue sky and sunshine in Colonia. 

Can't say too much about the food as we ended up cooking ourselves most of the time but we did have a couple of excellent pasta dishes with home made pasta and the other national dish (apart from meat of course) appeared to be ham and cheese toasted sandwiches.  Last but not least, Uruguay has the best beer on the continent.  The stuff we've had elsewhere is tasteless by comparison, but obviously not as bad as the excuse for lager (i.e. p1ss) they sell in the UK!

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