Montevideo, our final stop...this year.

Montevideo Feb 26 – Mar 4th

It feels like the end, we are emotionally and physically drained. We can now let ourselves feel what we have been ignoring for a while, and we sleep in until 8am. I know...what radical behavior. Truth is we were just plain tired and needed a couple extra hours of sleep. Our hotel is across the street from the Supreme and Judicial Court buildings which allows us some early morning people watching from the restaurant. After a few days we start to recognize people and their patterns, there is the “smoker guy”, the “smoking cop”, the old guy with the chocolate lab that leaves a large present on the tree in front of the courthouse (the dog not the old guy), the cool chauffeur who wears Terminator sunglasses, etc etc. They are all just going about their everyday routine and we are catching a glimpse into everyday life in the city.

As mentioned I perform a little maintenance on the bikes in preparation for storage, first we visit a car wash to get the bikes cleaned. 

This guy spends about 45 minutes on each bike cleaning them with what smells like nafta, whatever it is the bikes look cleaner than new when done. Unfortunately all that pressure washing caused a short somewhere and my bike would not start. After using the air hose on the gauges and hand controls the thumper fires up and we make our way to the shop. For the first time in two weeks my dash is working, damn electrical ghosts. At the shop I change the motor oil and the brake fluids, make a list of parts to bring back with me next time, but forget to clean the air filters. I will have to do that when we return. This all takes a few hours and Willi is kind enough to only charge me for the oil, he said something in Castellano that I could not understand, sorry Willi.

So now the bikes are ready for storage on Saturday, well almost, I must have got an air bubble in the brake line as Brenda’s bike has no front brakes, this gets fixed at the parking garage, much to the amusement of the attendants.

Montevideo is a great city to walk around in, every block has at least one old building so there is always something to look at. They even a have a few streets blocked off to traffic which is always a nice feature. These streets are lined with shops, restaurants, bars, buskers, you name it they have it. 

Canadian Embassy

 

One of the best parts of Uruguay is their love of BBQ’d meat, they call it Asado and it looks like this

This market restaurant is close to the waterfront and is set up to catch the tourists as they come off of the cruise ships. It also works as a great evening hangout with live music, lively bars and of course the “we don’t close until you leave” policy. We were introduced to this market by Henri, a rider from Quebec who we met the day before. He rides a BMW 1200GS so we were drawn to it like moths to light. He was parked on the Municipal Square and as we walked by we said hello and that started a conversation that ended with us agreeing to meet for lunch the next day and getting a bit of a tour of the city. Henri lives part time in MV and he keeps his bike down there full time. He took us on riding tour of the old town and then along the rambla to the ritzy area of the city which included a stop at a German bakery. When it was time for lunch we went to the “meat market” where Brenda and I shared a plate of steak and mashed potatoes. We have learned to order one entre and see how big it is, then decide if a second one is required, usually it is not.

The rest of our days in MV are spent walking the city and enjoying the old buildings, we found a Automovil Museo that has a nice collection of old cars and a few newer ones on display. The museum was on the sixth floor of a building above a gas station so it may belong to the station owner but there was no admission charged in any event. The weather was perfect for our walking tours, 25C all day every day.

Then it was time to pack up our stuff and make our way to the airport for the long flight home. We got on the plane at 3am and landed in Calgary at 10pm, with 5 hours lost due to timechanges. March 4^th, 25C to -32C, welcome home! Now get back to work. Brrr 

Last bike travel day.

We pack for the last bike-travel day of the trip, Montevideo is about 150km away so it is also a short travel day that we try and stretch out by taking our own city tour down by the waterfront and through some of the residential areas. Then we added a couple of side trips to the coastal towns and even stop to see a couple of tourist attractions along the way. There is a set of fingers in the sand in del Este modelled after the more famous Hand in Sand along the Chilean coast.

Then in Punta Bellena there is a large house/castle constructed with no 90°angles. The house is now a museum and place for special events and based on the swarm of people we had to ride through to get to the parking lot it must be popular. We decided to skip the interior tour as there were just too many people; instead we kept putzing our way down the coast until we connected to the Rambla. 

This is a fantastic road that follows the coastline through the city of Montevideo, there are two lanes in each direction separated by a decorated boulevard and accented with a wide Malecon on the water side and condo towers on the land side. It felt like Malibu as people were jogging and rollerblading along the water, surfing, fishing, swimming and tanning all the way along.

We decided to make a quick stop at Willi Motos to touch base with Kevin about storing our bikes. The shop is vey cool with lots of memorabilia on the walls from Willi’s racing days. Willi is Kevin’s dad and we found out that Kevin does not even work at the shop, he is a pilot for a skydiving company in Del Este, he just takes care of the bike storage portion of the business. Willi has a nice collection of old bikes including a ‘56 Indian, a BMW /6, a Douglas, a Bultaco and about half a dozen motorized bicycles that looked ancient. We took our time and snooped through the shop, I also made arrangements to borrow some floor space to complete some maintenance on the bikes before we put them in storage. We also find out that we have to drop the bikes on Saturday as the shop is closed on Sunday and Monday which means we will be without transportation for two days, how do people travel without their own transportation?? I guess we will find out.

Willi's bike, and yes it is an 850cc not an 1150cc. Only about 200 of these ever made.

Prairies to Ocean

From the flat prairie like interior of Uruguay we turned SouthEast to the border with Brasil and the town of Chuy. The weather in the morning was thick fog that reminded us of riding in the high cloud forests of the Andes. We just passed through Chuy and turned West along the coast and after passing through the customs checkpoint we got our first look at the Atlantic Ocean. Taking inventory we have seen the Carribean Sea, the Pacific Ocean and now the Atlantic Ocean, nice...

Rice Paddy

Hotel Fort Miquel

 The coast is peppered with small fishing villages and beach towns, some are more popular for surfing if the waves are good and Punte del Diablo is one of them. Diablo is about 170km East of Montevideo and this allows it to be a popular cottage town. The only paved street is the main access in from Rt.9, the rest of the town has sand streets that criss-cross through the sand dunes. The houses are all different design so it is fun to just walk around and look at all the designs, most have a room or two for rent which indicates a strong tourism industry, and possibly some negotiating room on price. 

We got a room in what is rated as the nicest hostel in town “Hostel El Diablo” $50/night for a nice room with bike parking in the courtyard in front of our door. The hostel has the usual coffee and bread breakfast, good free wifi, A/C, and a nice pool overlooking the ocean. The hostel was also within a short walk of the beaches so the bikes could be left alone while we walked everywhere. The surf beach was popular as the waves were fairly consistent for the beginner to intermediate surfer, and then there would be a big set for advanced people.

Between the two beaches the street is crowded with restaurants, bars, surf shops, souvenir stores, and fresh fish markets. There is literally something for all tastes here. The other beach is not popular with the surfers but is still spectacular, it must have been 3 miles long and mostly vacant, I guess it is a little less convenient than the surf beach but well worth the extra 5 minute walk over the huge sand dunes that are swallowing some houses.

The nightlife is lively and as we found out much later in the trip, the bars in Uruguay do not have a “last call” or closing time. If you want to sit in there all night and drink they stay open to accommodate. How nice is that, of course this means some late night/early morning music playing and of course the occasional drunk yelling at the stars.

Along the way to Pte. Del Este we pass some large estates and ranches that are dispursed between beach towns and beach views. When we met a Porshe on the gravel road we knew that the area was home to some upper income people. Shortly thereafter we seen the entrance to a Polo Club, that was another first.

The road was connected across an estuary by a small ferry, four cars total, or in our case 3 cars and two bikes. The ride across was less than five minutes, then we were back onto pavement the rest of the ride into the city. 
Punta del Este is considered the playground for the rich citizens and tourists alike, it can be seen quite clearly that this is true. Lets see, Ferrari F430, S500 Mercedes, X6 BMW just to name a few of the cars. The highrise buildings are adorned with names like Hilton, Trump, Four Points, Marriot and the like. This is a drastic change from street vendors and $4 rooms. 
We were happy to get out of the rain and into our little boutique hotel, the desk clerk spoke English so that made it even more comfortable. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around in the huge shopping centre down the street where again it reminded us of home. All similar stores, all similar prices, we could have been in West Edmonton Mall or Chinook Centre.