We awoke to a cold wet drizzly gray Saturday morning in Uruguay so all three of us promptly put our heads down to get a few more minutes refreshing sleep. I don’t know how 14 year old Rusty does it but he goes all night quite comfortably without peeing, twelve hours easily, he must have a bladder of steel so if it’s cold out he curls up next to me and starts snoring as I lie in bed wondering if Lady Blakeney will ever figure out that her husband Lord Percy is actually not a dandy but the dreaded Scarlet Pimpernel, savior of the cream of French society threatened by Madame La Guillotine.
Back to reality of a Saturday morning in cold wet Colonia Valdense, the French travelers blocked the communal toilet so Adrián has been forced to act and called in the builder (and his son) to get an estimate on rebuilding the drain pipe.
Meanwhile he’s had to bow to reality and installed a waste basket for toilet paper which is normal across South America where drains can’t cope with toilet paper debris. The only country south of the Rio Grande where you flush toilet paper is Suriname. Go figure why.
Rusty excluded from lunch in a house full of cats. Saturday lunch was at two in the afternoon.
José the Spanish businessman with the small dog is in the GAP shirt and the French couple sit next to him. Grilled beef, roasted root vegetables, a Spanish potato omelette confusingly called a tortilla in Spain…
The French lady was a patissiercin her former life where she owned a pastry shop in the Savoie region of France near the Italian border. She spoke wistfully of her creations and the mountains and the winter snow which she will look forward to seeing in November when they go home. She produced some superb lemon pies for us:
She is also expecting their first child. I’m guessing travel may no longer be a priority.
I was ready for a nap but we had a date two hours away Sunday so it made sense to get on the road and make some inroads. Driving away on the open road is always a pleasure.
Uruguay has little traffic, no hills to speak off, an orderly tidy unpretentious country you never hear about as there is no drama here, no corruption, the peso has been pegged at 40 to the dollar as long as anyone can remember.
Education is free, as is healthcare, gasoline is $9 a gallon so driving is an expensive pastime, nothing happens, motivation is low in this backwater and energy is not wasted on being speedy or efficient.
For me it is a pleasant break traveling South America but I think it might be too laid back for me to live here permanently.
It is becoming a popular place to retire to, as it’s easy to qualify for residence and you get ten years tax free if you settle here. In an uncertain world Uruguay is far off the path of drug dealers or intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The beach had chosen for the nights in iOverlander, the travelers’ app. It looked promising.
If it didn’t work out there were gas stations nearby for back up places to sleep. We had a place to aim for.
There was a large clearing and we pulled to one side to park for the night. Of three cars there before dark all had left by sunset (7pm-ish).
The River Plate looking south toward invisible Argentina.
Rusty got into it and sniffed the whole place out.
Snake warning. Don’t panic. No one has died of snakebite in Uruguay since 1986 which seemed reassuring. This is a popular spot in summer apparently.
A possibly seasonal pizza shack:
“I love N Y C” I think. The beach is down a steep escarpment slippery after rain.
Memories of youth:
We ran our space heater off the batteries which was enough to stay warm till we went to bed.
Back to reality of a Saturday morning in cold wet Colonia Valdense, the French travelers blocked the communal toilet so Adrián has been forced to act and called in the builder (and his son) to get an estimate on rebuilding the drain pipe. 
Meanwhile he’s had to bow to reality and installed a waste basket for toilet paper which is normal across South America where drains can’t cope with toilet paper debris. The only country south of the Rio Grande where you flush toilet paper is Suriname. Go figure why.
Rusty excluded from lunch in a house full of cats. Saturday lunch was at two in the afternoon. 
