Paysandú

The thing about driving is you have to be awake and I had trouble with that concept on Wednesday. Lack of sleep meant I was feeling every mile of the road as we drove north to cross the Uruguay River to Argentina.

It’s a curious feeling for us to be on familiar turf, to know what’s coming up the road and to make plans based on previous experience in the road.

The weather had turned perfect on Wednesday morning, sunny and bright, 75 degrees and invigorating, fresh cool air filled our home as we pottered about making the bed and chatting to our overnight neighbors as mentioned previously.  By 10:30 we were in the road northwest following the big Dutch expedition truck up the highway at a sedate 45 miles per hour.

It feels at last like Spring in Uruguay with fresh green leaves and luscious thick grass everywhere proclaiming a return to life just in time for summer. 

Easy driving just how I like it. 

We came across a pull out rest stop shaded by huge eucalyptus trees and populated by caracara and noisy southern lapwing birds licking up the usual fuss as we invaded their peaceful turf. Especially Rusty who had spoke around before crashing in the grass. 

Someone must have had an asado, a grill, typical of this country, and tossed the bones to be found by my malnourished hound. While he hunted we had other plans for this was an ideal exercise stop.

I call it tai chi for elderly westerners a series of videos by a self deprecating Englishman doing physical jerks to keep us capable of moving and which breaks up the physical monotony of driving. We’ve used Team Body Project tapes for years to keep the aches of aging at bay.  Rusty tolerates the eccentricity. 

Daniel, a retired boxer frequently loses his microphone, pauses for a loose shoelace, gets berated by his wife or mocked by his colleagues. It’s exercise in the style of Team Lost but he keeps us surprisingly mobile through the arthritic aches of the decades. We hadn’t quite finished the thirty minute cardio tape when a stranger pulled up. 

He was curious about our journey do we chatted so we set Daniel aside a few minutes early. It turns out he has a camper shell he puts on his pick up truck and he loves to go camping in it. His son has one as well so they frequently go together. He gets the summer months off work (!) and he likes to go north to Brazil or south to Argentina. 

I didn’t get his name but he fumigates agricultural crops in silos for a living to keep the seeds from going off and he drives around the country getting it done. 

I have no idea why suddenly people are coming up to engage us in conversation but Layne thinks it’s because the prospect of  summer is bringing them out of their winter shells and they see us traveling as they themselves plan to do. Who knows but it’s rather nice.  

We stopped for hot showers at a familiar gas station five minutes up the road in Palmitas and paid $3:25 for the privilege. We designed GANNET2 without a dedicated shower but with a porta potty only on purpose. Showers add complexity to the build especially with water heaters and so forth and adding humidity in a small space isn’t optimal.

In warm weather we use a solar shower and in cold weather we make do with  wipes but we have found anywhere there are trucks there are facilities with showers when we go stretches between formal campgrounds. It works for us. 

Layne is convinced the Argentine customs agents are less rigorous at the Paysandú border crossing than at Fray Bentos an hour south where a few weeks ago we had one guy practically empty our fridge and she dreads meeting him again. 

So we spent Wednesday night at a gas station thirty minutes from the border crossing on the banks of the Uruguay River. 

The idea is to drive from the Uruguay to the Paraná across the Argentine province of Entre Ríos (between the rivers) to the city of Santa Fé (holy faith) which will probably be enough for our elderly dog. Then two slow days north to Asunción the capital of Paraguay to deal with our intermittent coolant leak.  Easygoing travel just as I like it.

Pay attention when they actually tell you overnight parking is prohibited. 

Following the Dutch truck:

Slow Motion

 Layne surprised me Tuesday afternoon when we stopped for a late lunch and she suggested we might stay the night in the rest area barely an hour north Colonia Helvecia where we had loaded up with cheese and said goodbye to Adrián our Victron expert.  It was a usable spot if not charming. I took this photo this Wednesday morning after a night of rain:

We were both awake much of the night as we are two hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (South America doesn’t use daylight saving time) but it was impossible to sleep with the superb election results restoring  some hope for a better future. I was pleased to note the president’s statesmanlike address to the nation congratulating the winners and taking pride in an orderly and peaceful election. Not really. We’ll have to wait for 2028 for that sort of statesmanship. 

As I struggled with the obtuse new rules for Starlink usage I took great joy in knowing Musk had wasted half a billion dollars last night. Pity it wasn’t spent paying taxes but there we are, later maybe. 

Rusty made himself at home checking out the dogs from the neighboring homes and businesses, snarling them into submission like an elderly grumpy grandpa. The younger dogs get scared and back off which I find pretty funny as at first in Mexico he used to run for cover aboard GANNET2 when the local dogs came sniffing. Not anymore. 

A truck driver came up to ask about our journey and we fell totaling about Uruguay which he says has become much less safe than years ago. I keep telling anyone who will listen that Uruguay is pretty nice for travelers like us but we did both agree that it is expensive. Ugo Bouvier ( he thinks his ancestors and Mrs Kennedy’s might have the same roots)  is 65 and retired  but he’s still working because he says the state pension isn’t enough to live on. 

Uruguay has all these soldiers he said in disgust. They are in barracks all over the country and we have to pay for them. All they do, he added is come out to guard the ballot boxes every five years. I of course tried to remind him Uruguay is a white peaceful  haven in a troubled world but he was having none of it. It’s all going to hell in a hand basket he shrugged. 

He took off, Rusty kept guard, the sun was peaking through the clouds and the solar panels had us close to fully charged already. It was past time to drive to the border. Rusty was busy: 

Then here came George to introduce himself from the Dutch expedition truck that arrived in the pouring rain the evening before. 

George and Monica have been in South America since 2023 and he has a Rich seven of humor. We compared notes about getting lost and breaking down and all the usual struggles. Layne caught him like a fisherman above “it was this big!” Which is how we talk sometimes about hassles on the road!

They are going to northern Chile so we may see them on the way though we are deviating toward Paraguay first. 

Hot showers at a gas station ahead then we pick our border crossing into Argentina. 

A lovely Spring day so far with sunshine and a cool breeze. 

Argentina Bound

Somewhat to my surprise I am sorry to say goodbye to Uruguay after a month here but it’s time to go north to fix our coolant leak once and for all, I hope, in Paraguay. Chris the German mechanic has received our parts from Rock Auto in Wisconsin and we are set to be in his workshop on Monday so now it’s time to get our skates on.

We had lunch with Julia in Montevideo Monday, she is settling in to her apartment:

And we promised of course to return in a year or so and see how she will be getting on after a year of residence in Uruguay.

Seafood stew for them above and grilled fish in a creamy scallop sauce for me. A $75 lunch so definitely first world prices. We had a shrimp empanada to go for dinner: $4 each…

Uruguay is vacation land for me, easy driving, lots of free overnight camping out of season, and even though Uruguayans are extremely reserved and shy if you do manage to break through they are as kind and cheerful as anyone. Really delightfully proud of their funny little country so often  overlooked by overlanders seeking dramatic scenery and hair raising stories to tell. I like it here and I think it shows to the locals. These guys offered any help I might need when they met me on the sidewalk in the town of Melo: 

Driving out of Montevideo we got several honks and waves and one guy pulled alongside on a four lane street and asked about our journey through open windows at 30mph…I have forgotten the man my age who came up to me outside the supermarket and introduced himself as “Roo” who spent twenty years in Australia and came home to retire. He laughed at my surprise when he addressed me in English.

Layne wants to cross the border at Paysandú because she believes the Argentine fridge check is less rigorous there. Once at the Fray Bentos border she got cleaved out by an unpleasant customs officer who took everything and we believe had lunch and dinner at our expense. By now we know what allowed and what isn’t but they have the last word. So we’ll have one more night in Uruguay, two or three days to get to Paraguay and a few days at the campground and then we want to drive at long last to Salta, a town known to us in arid northern Argentina. Time for some exploration as summer is supposedly about to start. 

Ugly Montevideo on the waterfront with its neo-Stalinist apartment blocks:

Everyone out to enjoy this year’s rare sunshine. 

This is where overlanders from Hamburg are reunited with their vehicles. That is the most popular shipping route across the Atlantic but we aren’t very keen on taking GANNET2 to Europe at the moment. 

And the cheese and salami guy we had to stop to check out. The best cheese in South America is in  Uruguay:

Don’t be fooled, he loves dairy: 

Unvarying Uruguayan countryside:

We are one hour ahead of eastern time so we might have to stay up tonight later than we like. 

Fingers crossed for the election results. I’m trying to think about other things.