Boy Howdy! Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, came as a surprise. 
The Promaster shares its six cylinder gasoline Pentastar engine with the Jeep Wrangler so when I need filters or fluids I go by the dealer and tell them I have a Jeep…
Parking was hopeless but we found a spot three blocks away which involved me walking the obstacle course to get six quarts of coolant designed specifically for the aluminum Pentastar engine.
We have found a radiator specialist who did a pressure test on the engine when it had cooled down.
Sure enough he found a leaking hose clamp and said he wants to do a proper job by replacing the hose so we got an appointment for first thing Wednesday.
I knew there was a leak because after five years and 130,000 miles I know where the fluid sits normally and it was low. It helps to be taken seriously by the mechanic. 
Rusty got his walk while Layne went food shopping and he liked the smelly nasty sidewalks.
A carefully locked and inaccessible church:
Our plan is to visit some tourist locations today before we do a load of laundry and see if we can find pretty Montevideo. It looks unlikely thus far.
It’s odd because Buenos Aires across the River Plate is a vibrant modern clean city. It certainly has some rundown areas too but Montevideo is decidedly uninteresting. At least in the areas we have been so far.
Here’s a string of shots I took as we drove around town. Clearly not the tourist zone.
Can you imagine going out for an evening on the town here? Bars? Clubs? Restaurants? Me? I’d be happy at home with Starlink. Exciting stuff.
Our plan was to drive east along the coast to a rather rundown beach front campground. We needed to dump our porta potty and needs must so off we went along the waterfront. Montevideo lived up to billing even here: 
The River Plate. If you want to win a bar bet ask someone which is the southernmost capital city of mainland South America.
Chances are they’ll say Buenos Aires on the southern bank of the river. Ha ha! Montevideo is the correct answer despite being on the north bank of the River Plate.
See? The river curves so Montevideo is further south.
I find the waterfront apartment complexes uninspiring. Maybe I’m biased because of the rest of the city.
Limited parking, almost none, limited beach access points and totally uninspired landscaping. Disappointing.
The 1921 Belle Epoque Hotel Sofitel and casino. Excellent breakfast buffet they say can be your for something around 250 bucks a night.
The campground we stopped at was a wreck with trash everywhere and not one human in sight. The outside toilet flushed though so I dumped ours into it and we left. Weird but effective. Further up the coast ten minutes we found an iOverlander mentioned wild camp on the beach next to a couple of seafood restaurants. Layne doesn’t trust Uruguayan eateries to offer value for money so we had Chinese dumplings aboard and watched some TV, “Bad Monkey” set in the Keys filmed I think in Miami mostly with a rather weak Karl Hiassen plot. I liked the tropical scenery but it’s a lackluster TV show. 
Tuesday is laundry day and explore touristy Montevideo day. Wish us luck.
“Feo” in Spanish means ugly and Montevideo has been hit back and forth by the ugly stick. It is nothing like what I expected, and it was bad enough we didn’t feel like leaving GANNET2 alone on the street for any length of time.
Winter doesn’t help with dead leaves everywhere and not a street cleaner in sight. The sidewalks are all torn up and walking to the Jeep dealer required paying attention. 
I have been noticing a slight but noticeable loss of coolant even after we have Adrian’s mechanic a fortune to solve the problem. I am pissed.
