While it is true Uruguay is expensive we have found one way to save money here is to free camp and that is made easy by the low level of crime in this country. We awoke Tuesday at Solymar Beach to the beginnings of a sunny day which inspired Rusty to walk.
We were far from the only dog walking people on the beach but I think I was the only one with a camera and I took pictures to record Rusty’s energy.
It was a lovely crisp morning which inspired Rusty was determined to enjoy as the forecast for later in the week is promising rainy days ahead. Summer is slow arriving this year locals tell me.
The plan was to drop Layne off at an Indian restaurant for Layne to meet Julia while Rusty and I got a day off together.
First we had some laundry to do and as this wasn’t our first visit up Montevideo we knew where to go - to the shopping mall.
To get to our favorite self service underground, credit card operated laundry in the mall parking lot we had to of drive through Montevideo, not only the neat tidy expensive upper class neighborhoods but also the regular shabby streets of this largely rundown city.
Montevideo is the southernmost capital city of mainland South America but it also carries, at least in my mind, the title of least loved by its managers. Street surfaces are decrepit, decoration is reduced to infernal graffiti everywhere and the city just feels shabby and sad.
The shopping mall was modern clean and busy though.
There’s an electronics store where previously we bought a small Bluetooth speaker so we stopped by to see if they had a single suitable for our new phones. We use a device to download pictures from our camera but the one that worked for our iPhone 12 slots doesn’t work for the iPhone 18.
Theirs looked different but miraculously they had one that works. It’s always a triumph when you find what you need in South America and we snatched up two. $10 in the states and just a little less here; even the price was right. Amazing.
The supermarket had everything, sauces and condiments to make Laynes heart sing and I found shaving cream which I prefer to foam in an aerosol. Which cost US$7:50 and I just could not bring myself to pay it. I hear prices are up in the States but Uruguay to our minds rooted in memories of 2023 seems excessive.
One other gripe I have regards South American shopping carts while I’m having a gringo moment. Nowhere in any country do they have a cross bar at the bottom between the two rear wheels and it drives me nuts. It means you can’t adopt the shoppers’ slouch with your arms folded on the handle with one foot raised on the cross bar. Grrr.
Oh and salsa is $7:50 a jar. Forget it.
While Layne was watching the dryer in the underground parking lot I took the shopping back to GANNET2 in the open air section of the lot reserved for trucks and tall vehicles. Some youngsters on lunch break were attracted to the foreign van. 
We had a long chat about van life and not paying rent which evolved into a discussion about the relative cost of living in Uruguay and the US. I am at pains in these discussions to pontoon we head more in the States but costs are higher, and upon food out how migrants in low paying jobs hot bunk and live a dozen to an apartment to save money to send home. I always stress how much better their lives will be if they stay home near their families and support network. Then one of them brought up the cost of medical care in the US a subject that shocks foreigners used to free health care. It was an interesting conversation. 
Then we drove across town to a shop Layne found that sells lubricants.
Usually I go to Ram/Jeep/Fiat dealers to get the oils and filters I need but in Montevideo Zucchino the service center turned me away saying they don’t sell those products to the public. Uruguayan businesses will do anything not to make a sale. Weird.
But Layne’s find was brilliant beyond my expectations. Not only did they have my rare 5W-20 weight oil but also my filter (used in Jeep Wranglers and thus widely available) but they also had the special OAT (organic acid technology) coolant required for the aluminum Pentastar engine. I was delighted and prices were inline with what I’m used to, about ten bucks a liter. I was delighted. 
Here’s the kicker: he also can make me a new air filter when I need one. The Promaster uses a special air filter I have not found for sale outside the US but this guy has a machine that moulded air filters from any shape. Bring him the old one and he’ll make a replacement, he says. Amazing.
Now I have a source for the filters I’ll be back next year after our planned dusty drive through Patagonia.
I dropped Layne off in a rather attractive pedestrian zone to meet Julia and took off up the court looking for somewhere to park.
I happened upon a green space as I drive toward my favorite beach areas.
Note the light traffic, typical of Uruguay land of regular gas at $8:46 a gallon.
Parque Rodó is named for a writer apparently, not for a soldier or an Admiral or a battle. It’s the kind of place I would happily park for the night on my next visit to Uruguay.
Rusty loved it, walking indefatigably all over the place, and I was delighted to see him so energetic. There was a statue in the park of course, but in this Uruguayan case celebrating… a teacher. A woman teacher from 1938.
It’s a 100 acre park and we only walked a bit of it but I’d like to go back.
Dogs are welcome but they also have an off leash area of no interest to my elderly frail misanthropic dog.
Layne and Julia showed up in an Uber and we said good by. We had a 90 minute drive back to Colonia Valdense to get our rehabilitated cabin heater reinstalled. 
Don’t leave home without your maté gear (above).
Beware farm equipment. In the freeway.
We got to our wild camp spot a couple of miles from Adrian’s shop well before dark.
Scrambled eggs and matzoh that I brought back from the Key Largo Publix just last week. Flavors from home.
