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Posted on May 21, 2012 by angela
I’ve read that Uruguay is South America’s smallest Spanish-speaking country. So we decided to drive most of it (south to north) in one day.
Rolling hills and farmland. John Deere dealerships. We saw lots of cattle for 5 hours. Then, we got to the real gems of western Uruguay. Thermals!
It is no secret that Bode is a (Alameda-county) hot-tubber. Obviously, we hit the one with camping. Next door- the one with the giant hot water slide…well that one was closed until September. It did look cool though.
Besides 2 thermal pools, our campground had a few donkeys, sheep and 2 lambs. So, all in all, a great place to stay.
The best and weirdest thing about this town, was that everyone walked around in bathrobes (of course, with thermos and mate). It was funny at first, but then we all wanted bathrobes. They even wore them in restaurants.
Posted on May 17, 2012 by angela
No one opened up the campsite the next day, so we parked the bus in one of the town’s plazas and spent much of the day enjoying Colonia.
It was charming and quaint – everything you see pictured here. It was the ideal place for us after hectic Buenos Aires. There are lots of visitors here – mostly day trippers from BA. The prices are high, and quoted in UR pesos, Argentina pesos and US dollars.
The town is an old Portuguese smuggling port established to interfere with shipping to Buenos Aires. It’s only 5 kilometers away by water. Bode still seems enamored with old cannons and fort walls. Someone mentioned that it reminded them of St. Petersburg, Florida, and I can see that. Except everyone here is drinking mate. All day.
Posted on May 15, 2012 by angela
We had a fantastic time in Buenos Aires. We parked the bus in a lot for the week and stayed in a penthouse. Yeah, you heard that right. Honestly, it was just a large room on the top floor of the hostel, but we had a great balcony and they brought in an extra mattress for Bode.
I spent most of my time shopping. My mom is coming to visit in a week so I figured it was my chance to buy a few things to send back with her. My custom-made leather coat turned out great, too. It was pretty fun to take an existing coat design and change up the cuffs, collar, buttons…I even had them add in some extra pockets on the inside. Totally one of kind. All for not much more than off the rack.
A tango show, a few nice meals out and it was time to get out of the big city. We’d splurged, but enjoyed it. Simon and MC were flying back to Montreal, and we headed the other way- to the ferry terminal. On to Uruguay.
We wandered around Buenos Aires for another couple of hours before we had to check in for the ferry. I was expecting we’d return to drive the bus onto the ferry, but once we’d checked we were sent right through a very efficient Argentina/Uruguay customs process. Bode and I were ushered into a waiting area that was equivalent to a very nice airport. Jason was sent to the bus to load the car.
I didn’t have anything with me, no backpack, no money no entertainment for Bode. I was freezing in a skirt and the flip flops I’d changed into after walking B.A. I had planned to change on the ferry because it was getting cold.
Meanwhile , Jason got the complimentary drug dog inspection at the bus. Finally, we were allowed on the boat, which was very exciting to Bode. It was a hydrofoil, and looked like a fancy cruise ship inside, complete with duty-free store and snack bar. Jason finally showed up with some entertainment for Bode and a bottle of wine for us.
About an hour later, we were in Colonia, Uruguay. After unloading the car, we were pulled out of line since we had the only ‘foreign’ plate. The cops gave us a hand-written note that appears to be our temporary vehicle permission.
It was dark, but the town looked nice. The gate to the municipal campground was open, but it was closed down and the bathroom doors were locked. Since it was late, we just popped the top anyway.
Posted on May 10, 2012 by angela
We swung by the airport to meet up with our friends Simon and MC. They’d just sold their bus in Chile and were spending 5 days in Buenos Aires before returning home to Montreal.
Off we went to Kombi Rock- an all day concert by and for kombi lovers. Great music and fun folks.
Afterwards, we hit the municipal campground next door.
Posted on May 2, 2012 by angela
We arrived at the beach town resort of Las Grutas after dark. We spotted about six campsites that were closed before we found a place to pop the top. While we were driving around, we found that almost every place in town was shuttered up. Restaurants, grocery stores, even the hotels.
The next day we went exploring. And this place looks like a great time in summer. The wide beach has water slides, places to rent umbrellas and get fruity drinks. All closed up for winter now though. We were able to find a store so we could get some food. Bode finally got a haircut, we had good internet service, and there is something nice about having a town almost to yourself. But, after a while we got tired of looking at shuttered storefronts and took off again, trying to find a little more life on the coast.
Oh, and watch out for those cement sinks when backing out of the campsite. They just jump out at you. This is our 2nd dent by permanent campsite installation this year. The first was a gash on the side of the bus from a BBQ.
Posted on May 1, 2012 by angela
I’ve been looking forward to visiting the famous Peninsula Valdez for about 2 years. It is most famous for whales. We’ve heard tales that in the right season, they are breaching 15 feet from your free campsite.
Well, it isn’t the right season (June-Dec). But, we came anyway because we heard the orcas may still be here eating baby sea lions right off the beach.
We’d been camping on the south side of Puerto Madryn. That’s where I’d wiped out on a see-saw surfing competition. I had to jump off and landed on the side of my foot, my left ankle swelling to about the size of a baseball. Still, Bode gave me a score of 5 and I came in third place.
I couldn’t walk, but we decided to go to the park anyway. I’d missed the part in all the guidebooks about the steep entrance fee, collected 20 miles before the first and only town in the park. $18 USD per person– which wouldn’t be that bad, except it is a 1 day only pass and we arrived at 4pm.
If you stay in Puerto Pirimides (the only town) you can get a receipt and the entrance fee is good longer. Camping was closed for the season. There is no camping anywhere else in the park. The park is 1400 square miles.
We thought we could still find somewhere to park, but the wind was really blowing and the sand was making it impossible to even stand outside of the car. OK, we’ll get a room for tonight, see the park tomorrow. Oh, but the electricity is out in the town. No one knows when it will come back on, but probably not soon. In the end, we found a small, decent cabana and pulled out all our headlamps and candles. I still couldn’t walk, but the owners lent me an ice pack. Of course, in the bus we’d have light– but the wind was unreal. Sand was blowing all over the roads, signs were coming down and we were glad to be out of the wind.
We’d been told to be at Punto Norte, the farthest point in the park at 11am, so we left early and got there about 10:20am. Good thing, there were some killer whales (or as Bode likes to remind us, “orcas are really just big dolphins”. Whatevs, they are cool.
We were hoping to be a little closer to the sea lion colony so we’d get an up close and personal breakfast, but of course they were really far away. Still we could spot the orcas’ dorsal fins swimming around nearby. Since they were there when we got there, we expected things to get better as we waited.
Nature doesn’t always want to cooperate, and even before high tide at 11:30, we saw the fins of the 2 orcas getting farther and farther away. Bode gave up and went to the car. I waited.
Cute little sea lion pups were swimming in the shallow waters below. They looked just like a big Jimmy Dean sausage and I was yelling “look how tasty!”. No more orca.
This hadn’t exactly been the experience we’d been hoping for, so we took the long way round the park to see some penguins. Yep, there were 6 behind the fence. Another one of those, “this would be cool if I hadn’t already been to Cabo Dos Bahias at sunrise and sunset” moments.
Last stop, elephant seals. This one required a hike, so I let the boys go while I made lunch. I They came back after a long time a bit disappointed. 220 km through the park. Beautiful, but filled with signs saying we couldn’t get out of our car, no picnicking, no stopping. Finally back to Puerto Pirimides to find there was still no electricity. We filled up with our spare tanks (no electricity at the gas pumps either) and headed out of the park. It was cold again, so I tried to roll up the window. Why does the handle always break with the window is down?
We drove another 300km against the wind that afternoon… Someday, we will return in the right season.
Posted on April 26, 2012 by angela
We parted ways with Fern, MC and Simon, but we’re sure we’ll run into them again somewhere down the road. For now, we have tentative plans to meet up and snowboard in Kashmir, kayak the Amazon, and race Baja.
It was a little sad not to have another red bus behind us on the drive. It’s been nice having a caravan and having friends around. It makes me miss my friends back in the States (as well as all those I’ve met along the way) a lot more.
But, it was also nice to get back to our [I'd like to insert 'routine' here, but we don't really have one] normal way of life.
So, we headed west to the beach. Jason and Bode hadn’t seen an elephant seal yet, so we drove several hours on a bad gravel road to Punta Ninfa.
There’s a pretty weird old fiberglass lighthouse here, and the elephant seals were down on the beach below us. We found a rope and started climbing down the cliff. Sliding down in some parts. The earth was really soft and crumbly and often it was difficult to find a place to put your foot without setting off an avalanche.
We made it down to the beach and got to see several seals, but no older male. We waited a little while to see if he would come back to shore, as there were lots in the water playing. But soon it got too windy and cold to enjoy sitting around.
Climbing up the cliff was actually a lot easier than climbing down. We had planned to camp here, but the wind was bad, and that huge cliff outside the bus was not ‘child peeing in the night-friendly’. I’d already had enough stress worrying about him on the hike, so we decided to keep driving to a proper campsite in Puerto Madryn.
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