We took a few days to drive south from Iguazú to the border town of Gualeguaychu, where we once again went through the process of getting Piper’s paper work in order before driving Seymour over a bridge and into his last South American country of the trip. We arrived in Uruguay, resupplied our fridge (at remarkably high prices!), and made our way to Colonia del Sacramento.
A truck loaded up with what we suspect is mate, a tea like drink that Argentinians consume by the ton. Traditionally, it is drunk from a gourd with a metal straw and it is very common to see Argentinians with a gourd in one hand and a thermos bottle of hot water to replenish the mate under his arm. Shops in Argentina often advertise that they have hot water for mate available for free to their customers. We even saw a hot water vending machine outside a garage.Argentinian gauchos riding the ditch.A huge toad at one of camps in Argentina….I wanted my shoe in the picture to show how big he was, but I didn’t want to get too close!Piper needed a good brushing…poor dog, she had just regrown a bunch of fur down in Ushuaia and now was shedding it all again. Who’s that old sheep herder in the picture?Derek applies the Uruguay flag sticker to our camper….the last flag we get to add on this trip.Looking out to the ocean from Uruguay…wait, not ocean, THAT is actually a river, the Rio de la Plata.The town of Colonia del Sacramento contains the remnants of an old walled city founded by the Portuguese in 1680.You can see some tables and chairs set up at the end of the street…there were many restaurants and shops catering to tourists in the old town.Tourist come for the day to Colonia del Sacramento on a ferry from Buenos Aires.The evening view from our free camping spot at the harbour. A nice sunset over the ocean…wait, not ocean, that is still the Rio de la Plata….such a huge river! In the right light and when it’s clear one can see the tops of tall buildings in Buenos Aires on the other side, about 50 km away. This car was parked outside of an aquarium and had 2 fake dolphins sitting in the front seats….not sure what make the car is maybe a Fiat. In Uruguay antique cars and trucks are often displayed as marketing props in front of businesses.Here is another one, maybe a Willys……and more!We walked about 10 km round trip with Piper one day to see this old bull fighting ring. It is no longer in use and parts of it look very unstable. Note the red pickup truck on the left hand side of the photo for scale.The streets in the old part of Colonia del Sacramento were lovely. Lots of cobblestone and trees.
We had a rather disappointing, but still expensive, dinner out on the town (we had so looked forward to it, all you can eat parilla (grill), but the meat was tough and the veggies were cold), and the next morning we decided to move on. We had our shipping dates for the truck arranged but we still had a few weeks until the truck would get loaded, so we decided to keep heading east and see what we could see.
