Travel Diary: Buenos Aires & Uruguay

After the last-minute panic at the airline check-in counters and with a very expensive, but refundable, return ticket that showed our intention to return to South Africa we enjoyed our last few hours on South African soil indulging in some drinks and food at an airline lounge (courtesy of our banking account rewards program).  We were both emotionally shattered from the last week’s chaos and couldn’t yet find it in ourselves to be excited but at least we knew that the journey was now well and truly underway.  Ahead lay 35 hours of airplanes and airports as with no direct flights from South Africa to South America we were flying first to Ethiopia, then Brazil and then finally Argentina.

We were determined to make the most of our time in Buenos Aires and to “live the city life” so after a good first night’s sleep took off on foot to explore the neighborhood we had an Airbnb in, San Telmo.  First priority was to get some cash as we were not sure if the use of credit cards was common practice or not,  ATM’s however did not appear to be in plentiful supply but after 1km or so of walking we did find one.  With Peso in hand we headed back towards our apartment and across to the other side of the neighborhood in search of the San Telmo Mercado.  It is a large indoor historical market that still retains some fresh fruit and vegetable stores together with a few bakeries but is mostly aimed at the lunch and supper crowd with many different small eateries to choose from.  From her research of the area, Tania had her eye on one particular parrilla which is famous for its excellent slow grilled meat over an open fire but they were still preparing their grills when we walked past so instead we settled down for a beer and to soak up the atmosphere at a chorizo stall just next door.  

We had just received our beers when the activity and noise levels all around us increased and then a fireman walked past with a large hose!  At this point we didn’t need any Spanish to understand that something unusual was happening, nor did we need Spanish to understand the urgent language when a policeman arrived to urge everyone to evacuate…   It turns out that the exhaust vent at the parrilla we had hoped to eat at, had caught fire.

On the positive side we evacuated via a different entrance to the one we arrived at and right in front if us was a reasonable sized supermarket, so we took the opportunity to browse availability and prices.  Our first takeaways from this excursion were that bread, cheese, tomatoes and beer are incredibly expensive in Argentina but wine is very well priced.  For South America we are going to attempt to maintain a “cost of living” comparison table in order to show readers the differences in prices across countries of various standard living purchases.  Our resident accountant is still trying to learn how to embed an excel spreadsheet into the blog so this will follow in due course…. 

By the time we had finished browsing the supermarket the mercado was open again and so we headed back to re-order our beers and grab a “pan y chorizo” (sausage on a roll) for lunch before heading back to apartment for some down time.  We very quickly discovered over the next days that we could only do 4 – 5 hours out and about before feeling rather tired and needing to retreat.  We imagine this is perhaps what a 1-year old baby must feel like, being constantly surrounded by new sounds, sights and language all while trying your best to absorb and start to understand…

Each day we would head out from our apartment in a different direction, initially on foot and then later by subway once we had a sube (public transport) card, to explore a new district which were usually very different from each other.  Apart from a fairly extensive exploration of San Telmo as we sought out butcheries, launderettes and alternative superettes, we visited the areas of Puerto Madero, Montserrat, Avenida 18 de Julio, Plaza de Mayo, Recoletta, Palermo Soha and Palermo Hollywood.   

One fairly regular stop on all our outings was at a restaurant near to our apartment, not for the food but for the simple reason being that we had found they did “Blue Dollar” exchanges.  Argentina has since 2019 been experiencing a significant economic crisis with inflation at the time of writing, running at 50+% per annum!  This means that portenas (term for Buenos Aires residents) with disposable cash are constantly looking for a way to preserve their wealth by obtaining a hard currency and are prepared to pay a premium for American dollars.  This black-market exchange is known as the blue dollar and there is even a website which updates the exchange rate on a daily basis.  At the time of our visit, the blue dollar rate was almost twice the official rate and if you can obtain Peso at this rate it can effectively halve your travelling costs in Argentina.  The cost of a beer and an empanada was therefore well worth the peso gained, the only issue being that liquidity seemed to be an issue and so we could often only exchange USD100 at a time.

Each day we would also monitor the progress of Mr Jones on his journey towards Uruguay and as he stopped on schedule or close to schedule,  attempt to guess whether his arrival would be on time or not.  From Durban he sailed to Salvador (Brazil),  Vitoria (Brazil) and Santos (Brazil) before finally arriving in Montevideo (Uruguay).   And so, with only one stop to go, Santos, and the vessel appearing to be on schedule we made the decision to book our ferry crossing to Uruguay.   Only one hurdle remained in the way, another PCR test, for which we were rather nervous because in general we found the Covid hygiene standards much more relaxed in Buenos Aires than we had been used to in South Africa.  Thankfully though we failed again/tested negative and were free to travel across to Uruguay.

To celebrate we headed back to the San Telmo Mercado and the parrilla that had caught fire 2 weeks prior for lunch.

The ferry ride across the Rio del Plata to Uruguay is a simple affair although a fairly lengthy one, as you need to be at the ferry terminal 2 hours before departure to process through customs which is followed by a 1,5 hour ferry ride to Colonia del Sacramento and then a further 3 hours by bus to Montevideo.  

Attached to the bus terminal in Montevideo is a very busy shopping center which was just perfect, as it enabled us to quickly get sorted with some local currency from an ATM and to purchase a local SIM card for our hotspot cellphone.   

Priority number one for us, was to sort out the customs clearance of Mr J and to avoid a repeat of the stress we had experienced in Durban, although we were already more hopeful as so far, all our communications with the clearing agent we had selected had been prompt and to the point despite the language barrier and time zone differences.  So, on our first morning in Montevideo we popped into their office to finalize any outstanding paperwork and they then took Stuart to the immigration office in order for him to obtain a certificado de llegada (arrival certificate) which was required for customs.  With that out the way, we set about exploring the old town of Montevideo where we were staying.

18 Days after we had dropped Mr Jones at Durban harbor, the Morning Chorus with him safely tucked in its hold sailed into Montevideo.  Coincidentally it was exactly 2 years since South Africa had gone into Covid lockdown and all our travel plans had been paused.  Ahead lay a few nervous days, as Mr Jones sat on the dock, and therefore vulnerable to pilferage, while the customs processes played out. Further prolonging the process was that the ship had arrived on a weekend.

Late morning on the second working day we got the great news that we could go through to the clearing agent’s offices and that they would take us into the port to collect Mr Jones.  Tania hadn’t been cleared to go into the port so hung around at the entrance, the smile that greeted Stuart & Mr J as they exited said it all: “the stress and hassle of shipping our home had all been worth it!”

There were still 3 hours of daylight left and knowing that we would struggle to put our travel bags inside given how full he was packed for the shipping we decided to make the most of that time and see how much of him we could re-assemble.  The only possible place with any space in the area was the Ramblas promenade and once we had found a parking spot, we popped open his roof and set about the process of re-assembly.  In that limited time, we managed to reinstall both the roof box and the solar panels, and have a number of stunted conversations in Spanish with interested passerby’s, before we deposited him in a parking garage for his last night alone.

The reason so much re-assembly was required is that we had removed everything bar the roof rack from the top of Mr Jones and we had hidden all his tools and other valuable items deep inside the interior under the roof items.  The reason for this was twofold, firstly to reduce the cost of shipping as RORO charges on volume, so by lowering his height we saved quite a lot and then secondly it was a security aspect.  By placing everything inside we had hoped to make any potential pilferage during the shipping much harder.

The following morning after putting the surfboards on the roof rack, we headed out into Montevideo to find a place to refill our gas cylinders.  One of our big concerns for South America is that it will be a major hassle to fill our South African bottles as the fittings are a different standard in South America.  Stuart entered the first gas shop we found, armed with google translate, and a whole lot of potential adapters he had been building up over the years and as luck would have it one of the adapters was a perfect size!  Twenty minutes later we were on our way with our ability to cook and shower with warm water restored.  We can only hope that future refills go as easily but won’t be surprised if they don’t hence why we carry two gas bottles, to buy time when one runs out while we hunt down a suitable refill place.

After a stop for grocery shopping we were soon on our way out of town heading for a spot we had found on iOverlander called La Chacra Hollendese, which looked like it would be perfect for the continuation of Mr Jones re-assembly, and it was.  Over the course of a couple of days we ticked off the various “to-do” items while at the sometime enjoying the hospitality of Jan & Marieke, which included our first Uruguay asado.  An asado is effectively a braai or barbecue, with many similarities to a South African braai, i.e. lots of meat served with a little bit of salad and perhaps some bread rolls.

It would have been easy to stay longer but we had itchy feet to start exploring Uruguay and so after 3 days we hit the road, heading back in the direction of Colonia del Sacramento which is the historic town the ferry from Argentina had deposited us at 8 days prior.  We weren’t in any hurry though and so wandered the back roads along the way while inching our way up the Rio de La Plata coastline with stops at the tiny villages of Kiyu-Ordeig and Santa Regina, the latter being our first wild/free camp for South America.

The Barrio Historica is an old part of Colonia Del Sacramento and between the period 1680 – 1828 its rulers changed 12 times, initially regularly switching between Spain & Portugal as every conquest took place and then finally between Brazil and Uruguay.  It therefore holds a lot of history and the old town still retains many historical buildings and cobbled streets.  Having walked the streets, photographed the old buildings and been put off having lunch at the many overpriced touristy establishments we wandered a little further and settled down for lunch at a sidewalk spot that was doing a roaring trade with local office workers.   

With food in our tummy’s it was time to find somewhere to camp within the city limits, with no paid options available we drove around eyeing out the possibilities.   We initially stopped in a park nestled between town and what seem like an upmarket suburb but it just didn’t feel right to us and so we went back into the historical area and parked up next to an old combo and pickup camper from Brazil who both looked like they might be planning on spending the night.  This particularly spot enjoys a superb 180-degree view and sunset over the bay as you look towards Buenos Aires, so is extremely popular at sunset for pictures etc.  As Mr Jones is rather conspicuous once his roof is lifted we hung around in our chairs next to him and also enjoyed the sunset until darkness arrived and the majority of sunset seekers had departed.  As with our first free camp the night before we were rather nervous about doing something illegal or being asked to move on during the night by the police, but as it turned out there were no disturbances and we slept incredibly well.  

In contrast to our previous few days of easy travelling and hassle-free wild camping,  the following day and night turned into a very long, exhausting and far from tranquilo one.  We had hoped to stay in a paid-for camp in order to have easy use of the facilities but over the course of 5 different stops and a few villages or towns we kept coming across either closed sites or at the only one that was open we were nearly carried away by mosquitos the moment we stepped out of Mr Jones. Stuart was particularly disappointed in the latter because he is used to the annoying little buggers only biting Tania in Africa whereas here in South America they seem to like his blood just as much!  With daylight running out we eventually settled on a public park on a little island next to the town of Mercedes, which at first seemed quite tranquil and safe but as darkness set in we quickly discovered that it was in fact a “lovers lane” for all the young residents of Mercedes.  They come and went on their little motorcycles resulting in a very disturbed sleep, the last couple arrived at 3am!

By now we were both in need of a good shower and some downtime so headed further inland to an area that has many “Termas” (hot water springs), being unsure of what to expect we initially only booked in for one night and then extended it for a further 3 nights.  During that period the campsite got steadily busier which initially we put down to it being a weekend but then later learnt it was in fact Tourism week.  Uruguay doesn’t as such celebrate Easter, at least not in respect to the Friday and Monday either side of the weekend being public/bank holidays but instead has tourism week which runs from the Saturday prior to Easter.  In terms of people going away on holiday it is very comparable to the weeks surrounding Christmas in South Africa.  While researching the background to tourism week we discovered that the town nearest to the Termas we were at, holds a week-long beer festival over the same period, which sounded like a great way to further immerse ourselves in Uruguayan culture, food and beverage.  As luck would have it, it also appeared that you could camp at the yacht club right next to the festival.

The yacht club in fact did not offer camping but we did find a rather scruffy looking spot a bit further on, within the festival perimeter but now were undecided if we wanted to camp there or not so decided to go get some much-needed shopping done, have some lunch and then make a final decision.  Murphy though had other plans, as when Tania returned to Mr Jones after a very unsuccessful shop, he would not start!  Stuart’s initial guess was that the starter motor was packing up and this seemed to be confirmed after he applied “Land Rover tool #1” (a hammer) to it and he started shortly thereafter.  Decisions about beer festivals had by now been thrown out the window and the top priority was to see if we could find an auto-electrician which google led us to this tiny “hole in a wall” shop. On appearances we were a bit circumspect but as options were limited Stuart hopped out, armed with his limited Spanish and google translate to chat with Marcelo and see if he could help.  Initially Marcelo also suspected the starter and applied tool #1 but after a bit more testing realized we had a bad connection at the battery isolation switch.  A little bit of soldering and quite a bit of smoke inside Mr Jones and all was sorted.  In the meantime, we had been having a stunted, conversation about our viaje (journey) with Marcelo and his fellow sparky.

Unfortunately, by the time Mr Jones was running it was too late to camp at the beer festival as all roads leading to it had been barricaded to ensure pedestrian only access for the evening festivities but it really didn’t matter as the breakdown and subsequent fix had been such a lovely experience.  It did however mean a bit of a late charge for another termas in order to arrive before dark, which upon arrival we discovered was only accepting 5 day reservations due to the aforementioned tourism week.   Over the course of that week we immersed ourselves in Uruguayan camping culture, it is loud but very family orientated and we absolutely loved it. Needless to say, Mr Jones fan club grew quite a bit with many curious visitors and as a result our Spanish vocabulary grew too.  

This video we posted on Facebook summarises the week

After our extended stay at the termas and with not much more to see in the North Western part of Uruguay we turned around and started working our way back towards the Atlantic coast via a slightly more central route which passes through many kilometers of farm land, we can best describe it as driving through the Orange Free State in South Africa – Largely flat with many maize, cattle and occasional sheep farms.   

An interesting observation for this part of the journey, over a distance of 500km, our average altitude was 35m above sea level and the highest point we observed was 165m – Uruguay is generally very flat.

We had by now been living in Mr Jones for 3 weeks since receiving him off the ship so stopped at La Chacra Hollendese (where we spent our first few nights after leaving Montevideo) for a couple of nights in order to do some laundry, and stock up on some wine they could source from a local Bodega. Once again it turned into a real social affair with this time overlanders in camp from Germany, Holland, Switzerland, the UK and Argentina.   The couple from Switzerland (Emil & Liliana Schmidt) have an incredible story to their names: they are world record holders for overland travel, having been on the road for 37 years in the same vehicle and in that time have visited 186 (unique) countries and clocked up more than 770 000 kilometers.

Well aware of how easy it would be to get marooned for an extended stay and with itchy feet to keep exploring we set off up the Atlantic coastline in the direction off Brazil.  The scenery was constantly changing but in general nothing grabbed us for an extended stay, Punta Del Este is big and brash and not our scene and the other little villages are all pretty and chilled with some interesting features but often limited extended stay camping options.  Eventually we landed up in the Santa Teresa National Park which is very pretty, has many little bays on the coast and quite attractive camping.  Once again Mr Jones grabbed the attention of some fellow campers who come over for a look and introduction, and then invited us around for an asado that evening.  It would be our first asado hosted by Brazilians and one we thoroughly enjoyed and left us thoroughly looking forward to Brazil.

The waves at Santa Teresa were also quite nice and had a few surfers on them so before the asado Stuart snuck in a fun board meeting.  It was a good thing he didn’t procrastinate the session as the next day the weather changed to wet and cold and we spent the better part of the day hiding away inside Mr Jones.

Santa Teresa is only 40km from the Brazilian border, so next stop for us will be somewhere in Brazil.

Below are links to various other pages “supporting” this chapter in our life, including two new items: