The farmlands of Uruguay

Nov. 9&10

(We are sitting in the insurance office in BA as I type this portion of the blog, I will post it later when I have i-net connection. We are in need of moto insurance and it will take a couple of hours to process the paperwork. Might as well utilize the downtime. Now what happened in the last 48hrs?)

After a rather unorganized start to the day we finally get out the door and onto the road. The route is quickly messed up by some sort of marathon that has the Rambla closed to traffic and we had to find an alternate route down residential streets. This also allowed us to re-visit the downtown area where we stayed in March. The weather is already quite hot and although it is only 10am it is already above 20C and rising quickly. We had decided to follow along Rte#1 to the north-west of MVD along the river/inlet but were surprised to find that the highway did not follow close enough to the river to see anything, instead we were granted ample opportunity to gaze at the rolling farmlands that flanked both sides of the road. This is considered one of the main routes to Argentina but there was very little traffic, maybe because it was Sunday??  At one point we got passed by a R1200GS motorbike and within a mile he got pulled over at a speed trap, I don’t think he would have been able to talk his way out of a ticket as he passed us like we were standing still. Yet another advantage to the smaller bikes; less temptation to speed.

Aside from that the route to Mercedes was uneventful and made for a good first day to evaluate the new luggage and rearrange a few items for convenience. Oh ya, there was a small cattle drive along the roadside that caused traffic to slow in case one of the cows had the urge to commit suicide. 

Mercedes has a nice feel to it, not too big or small, and a nice central park as well as a riverside rambla. The river had flooded and part of the shoreline was completely underwater and some streets closed off. According to the city map there is an island park in the middle of the river but we could only see tree tops and no land.

 We did find a nice little hotel with excellent covered parking, we were not the only Canadians staying at the hotel, as there was a young lady from Quebec who was cycling around Uruguay. Cycling is quite common so we were not surprised by this until the next morning when we were saying our goodbyes and seen her bike. It is one of those little folding models, not exactly the greatest touring bike with the little tires but she said it was fast enough and could be packed on a bus if needed much easier than a full sized road bike.  When we left town we passed her about 5 miles out, she seemed to be making good time.

This portion of Uruguay is very different than the coastal area East of MVD, here there is only farmland and there it is all sand.

Today would also mark our first entrance into Argentina on this trip. We chose the bridge crossing at Frey Bentos as the best option as we would not have to wait for a ferry and/or make a large loop to the North and then back South to Buenos Aires. We really don’t want to go into BA but I need a new windshield for my bike (remember the duct tape since Bolivia) and the dealer is in BA. So after a short wait at an otherwise easy border crossing we are back on the move and now in Argentina. The scenery stays the same most of the way to BA, with the exception of more water, swamps and boggs. But with more water comes more large bridges which break up the monotony of the otherwise boring ride. I did manage to find one dirt route that shaved about 20km off route, and it was nice to see the reaction of the locals as we passed by. Pretty sure this was not the usual route for gringos on motos, and cutting through the meridian when we rejoined the divided highway was fun as well.

The fun turned into a long relatively straight road south into BA, the bike shop is on the North-ish side of the city so we do not actually need to go into the downtown area. Finding the shop was a little tricky even with the address punched into the GPS. It turns out they do not have a sign out front and the place looks like a residence and not a store.

After talking with Ricardo, the owner of W&N Curtains (their term for windscreens) he informs us that the Argentine folks have no problems finding his business, but then they are familiar with the system. He quickly installs a new windshield on Brenda’s bike and I put Brenda’s old one on mine. The new one is transparent and Brenda likes being able to see through it. I generally look over the top so the black one is fine for me. Ricardo says they make screens for every type of motorcycle made and after looking in his shop I think he correct. There are stacks of windshields and barrels of hardware waiting to be sent out around the world. I have bought 4 screens from him so far, not including the one he just installed, that one was a gift from him. Wow, this is awesome, free stuff. He is glad that we like his products and I suppose the kind nature of the Argentine people is starting to show.

Now that we have that sorted out, it is time to find a hotel, it is also raining now. We make our way to a hotel identified by the GPS, it turns out top be a romance hotel with hourly rates. A little early in the trip to experience the joy of one of these establishments. Beside the love hotel is and Auto-Bar, it is still raining quite heavily so we decide to stop for a coffee and figure out where to go next. The bartender is helpful in providing directions to a hotel and the waiter buys us a coffee as we wait for the rain to pass. We sit outside on the covered patio and enjoy our coffee while watching the goings on at the Auto-Bar. This place is the same as the love hotel except your car is the hotel. The waiter brings food and drink to the vehicle like at A&W, and the patrons make out in the privacy of their car. All kinds of entrepreneurs down here. We decide to have a bite to eat and then all we have to do is find a hotel after the rain passes, the food is excellent and we enjoy a few laughs with the waiter.

Yay, the rain has stopped and we can make our way to the hotel, the first one we stopped at was another romance hotel. Who is the programmer at Garmin? As we sit in the entrance and figure out how to get to the next place the receptionist come out and tells us to move off the entrance. I ask her where is another hotel in the area and this starts a comical exchange that ends with the receptionist and one of the girls for hire taking pictures with us.

You just never know what is going to happen next. We find the next hotel, a dump, and then the next which turns out to be suffice but not cheap at $50USD, in Canada you would not stay at a place like this. We have and expectation to pay under $30 for hotels, maybe we have to adjust that amount up a bit for Argentina. This also explains why many bike travellers tent in Argentina and Chile.