Back in the Saddle.

The last I wrote we were just getting back to Canada and preparing to get back to work, well that was March and now it is November 30th and we are just about to depart for the next leg of our travels. The bikes are still in Montevideo so that is of course the starting point once again. All the bags are packed, house and yard stuff taken care of, ride to the airport arranged...time to go.

30 long hours later we arrive in MVD and 18C weather, just perfect, although the cab driver seemed to think it was dreadfully cold. That is until we told her that it was -10C back at home. After a little wait for our host to show up we finally get to have a shower and a proper sleep. We used www.airbnb.com to find a nice place within a few blocks to the bike shop so that we can come and go easily for the next couple of days while I check over the bikes and we shake off the jet lag.

Tire changes, bearing changes, another new battery, and last of all some windshield mending, the bikes are ready to go. Now we had to pack all this stuff and hit the trail. The first day of riding is only planned to be to Punta del Este which is only 150km up the coast, Willi has contacted a friend and we are to stay at this house that overlooks the ocean. We try to contact him via telephone when we get to del Este but are unsuccessful. Oh well, on we go to Punta del Diablo which is another 150km farther up the coast, for some reason the GPS picked a weird route and I didn’t notice. 

We ended up taking a loop out into the countryside, partially on sparsely populated dirt roads which we normally like, however, we had not filled our jerry cans yet and the fuel light was on for quite a while. Brenda gets the prize for first flat tire, although it was on the front she managed to get stopped without incident. 

My bike actually stalled out before I could turn off the ignition at the gas station. Whew that was close. It is now dark, and we are not in Diablo yet. Well this trip is off to a great start, adventure all over the place. So after a missed meeting in del Este and a mixed up route to Diablo we are finally checking into a hotel at 10pm or is it only 9pm, we are not sure if we crossed another time zone or not.

No matter, we wake to sunny sky and 18C, all is good. We first visited Punta del Diablo in Feb of 2014, just before the end of our first trip to South America, the area is touted as the next hot beach destination in this area of the world, due in part to miles of affordable ocean front land and ease of access from both and international and municipal airport. But maybe one very well kept secret is that Uruguay is a tax haven, no questions asked, no secrets shared, and when was the last time you heard about Uruguay in the news...that's right never.

Willi and I enjoying some ice-cream.