World Tour - Europe, Asia, North and South America - Entries for: Uruguay
29° | sunny | km 488
Celebration in Montevideo
on 2018-03-08 in Uruguay
[Basti] Raphael and I made it over the border to Uruguay the same day we left Buenos Aires. Without Christoph we made use of the opportunity to camp in the wild and thanks to iOverlander we found a spot right in front of the gate of a huge ranch. While I was putting up my tent Raphael used two trees to hook up his hammock. At night we played a bit around with our cameras to catch a nice photo of the incredible starry sky.
Our first impression of Uruguay was characterized by fresh cut grass next to the roads. A sight I haven't seen for a very long time.
Other than that there were mainly huge slightly hilly grasslands for cows.
The next day we arrived as planned in Montevideo and met up with Christoph and Franzi. We walked through the nice pedestrian area, listened to a band performing live on the street and celebrated Franzi's birthday with a nice dinner followed by some drinks in a bar. Montevideo was also a nice little city which to my surprise even had some European flair.
For the next couple of days we found a nice solution that made everybody happy: a Beach for Franzi and Christoph, Surfing for Raphael and Kite Surfing for me. All was possible at La Paloma.
On our way we spotted a truck covert completely with Touratech stickers. Of course we stopped to say hi! The super nice guy runs the only Touratech store in Uruguay and was happy to give us tips. One in particular gained our interest: In Brazil right after the border of Uruguay it would be possible to ride the longest beach in the world!
Further on we checked out the kite surfing spot and figured out that we will have to ride 80 km around the protected area of the Laguna de Rocha to reach La Paloma and a big portion of it was gravel. Anyway I couldn't have been more excited to come back the next day!
Our first impression of Uruguay was characterized by fresh cut grass next to the roads. A sight I haven't seen for a very long time.
Other than that there were mainly huge slightly hilly grasslands for cows.
The next day we arrived as planned in Montevideo and met up with Christoph and Franzi. We walked through the nice pedestrian area, listened to a band performing live on the street and celebrated Franzi's birthday with a nice dinner followed by some drinks in a bar. Montevideo was also a nice little city which to my surprise even had some European flair.
For the next couple of days we found a nice solution that made everybody happy: a Beach for Franzi and Christoph, Surfing for Raphael and Kite Surfing for me. All was possible at La Paloma.
On our way we spotted a truck covert completely with Touratech stickers. Of course we stopped to say hi! The super nice guy runs the only Touratech store in Uruguay and was happy to give us tips. One in particular gained our interest: In Brazil right after the border of Uruguay it would be possible to ride the longest beach in the world!
Further on we checked out the kite surfing spot and figured out that we will have to ride 80 km around the protected area of the Laguna de Rocha to reach La Paloma and a big portion of it was gravel. Anyway I couldn't have been more excited to come back the next day!
30° | sunny | km 456
Fun in a cabin
on 2018-03-11 in Uruguay
[Basti] When we arrived in La Paloma at the cabin we had booked via AirBnB nobody was there and we couldn't reach the owner. Raphael and me went to buy groceries while Franzi and Christoph would wait at the cabin. We had planned to do some barbecue and therefore we came back with quite some stuff. But still no sign of the owner.
The sun was already setting when we decided to look for an other place. It was a holiday town but completely off season. Everything was closed or locked up. It was hard to find something but in the end a nice family agreed to rent their beautiful cabin to us. It was build out of whole tree trunks, had a super cozy living room and 2 bedrooms in the attic as well as a nice terrace with a grill. The perfect location to relax for a couple of days.
I went for a day to Laura's Kite and Windsurfing school at the laguna Garzón. Laura is a super friendly American lady and we quickly agreed on a good price for the rent of the equipment for the whole day.
Most of the time I was the only one on the water and I had blast. It was a bit tricky because the wind was bumpy from time to time and I was out of shape. But I was able to make breaks and switch kites as needed. Midday I even got invited to some lunch with the rest of the crew. Laura gave me her phone number so she could hook me up with a friend of hers in Argentina. I arrived at the cabin that evening exhausted but very happy! Thank you Laura for a perfect kite surfing day!
After so much fun I was all in for more water sports and together with Raphael we rented some surf boards in town. Since the good waves would be on an other beach that day Raphael got on the back of my bike carrying the huge board.
Christoph and Franzi joined us later and we enjoyed a surfing day on the beach. In the evening again some barbecue in our beautiful cabin. I really enjoyed the sporty time there!
While Christoph had to drive Franzi back to the airport in Buenos Aires in a couple of days Raphael and I decided to check out the beach in Brazil. The plan was to meet in Iguazú again.
We tried to drive as close to the coast as possible and wanted to check out the fort Fortaleza de Santa Teresa. Sadly it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and unfortunately it was a Tuesday.
In the border town Chuy we got lost. According to our GPS the main road in the city center was the border. One line was in Uruguay, the other line was in Brazil. But no border!
We bought groceries for the night and filled up the bikes in a supermarket and a gas station located already on Brazilian soil. We could still pay in Uruguay Pesos.
Only after the city we found a Brazilian border control station. Of course they did send us back to the Uruguay side as we didn't have an exit stamp yet. After driving around of Chuy we found the Uruguay border control again pretty much outside the city. We got our stamps quickly and drove back to the Brazilian side.
The sun was already setting when we decided to look for an other place. It was a holiday town but completely off season. Everything was closed or locked up. It was hard to find something but in the end a nice family agreed to rent their beautiful cabin to us. It was build out of whole tree trunks, had a super cozy living room and 2 bedrooms in the attic as well as a nice terrace with a grill. The perfect location to relax for a couple of days.
I went for a day to Laura's Kite and Windsurfing school at the laguna Garzón. Laura is a super friendly American lady and we quickly agreed on a good price for the rent of the equipment for the whole day.
Most of the time I was the only one on the water and I had blast. It was a bit tricky because the wind was bumpy from time to time and I was out of shape. But I was able to make breaks and switch kites as needed. Midday I even got invited to some lunch with the rest of the crew. Laura gave me her phone number so she could hook me up with a friend of hers in Argentina. I arrived at the cabin that evening exhausted but very happy! Thank you Laura for a perfect kite surfing day!
After so much fun I was all in for more water sports and together with Raphael we rented some surf boards in town. Since the good waves would be on an other beach that day Raphael got on the back of my bike carrying the huge board.
Christoph and Franzi joined us later and we enjoyed a surfing day on the beach. In the evening again some barbecue in our beautiful cabin. I really enjoyed the sporty time there!
While Christoph had to drive Franzi back to the airport in Buenos Aires in a couple of days Raphael and I decided to check out the beach in Brazil. The plan was to meet in Iguazú again.
We tried to drive as close to the coast as possible and wanted to check out the fort Fortaleza de Santa Teresa. Sadly it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and unfortunately it was a Tuesday.
In the border town Chuy we got lost. According to our GPS the main road in the city center was the border. One line was in Uruguay, the other line was in Brazil. But no border!
We bought groceries for the night and filled up the bikes in a supermarket and a gas station located already on Brazilian soil. We could still pay in Uruguay Pesos.
Only after the city we found a Brazilian border control station. Of course they did send us back to the Uruguay side as we didn't have an exit stamp yet. After driving around of Chuy we found the Uruguay border control again pretty much outside the city. We got our stamps quickly and drove back to the Brazilian side.