Costa Uruguaya

This five-day trip started with me taking the ferry across the “Rio de la Plata” into Colonia, Uruguay. After successfully arriving from Buenos Aires, I rented a car and began driving. After not having driven for nearly six months, it was quite an experience. Everything came back to me quicker than I thought it would. It felt like I was doing something semi-normal again and inspired the return of many good memories. Initially, I was planning to stay in Montevideo. However, after being underwhelmed with the nominal offerings directly in the city, I opted to stay far from Montevideo, three hours away.

The quaint little community (or hick town, whichever you choose) I stayed in is called Punta Rubia. Here, there are several beach houses, many of them Airbnb’s. The price wasn’t too bad in comparison to others. A storm came in the night I arrived, so the weather from that point was quite chilly throughout my stay. I learned Buenos Aires tends to be warmer than these parts of Uruguay.

I drove nearly 2,000 kilometres in five days. Certainly a satisfactory amount for me! Fortunately, I had no issues with my rental car, a Renault Logan, one you can buy brand new in Argentina for less than $10,000 USD. I still feel agitated with how many speed cameras there are in this country. Time will tell if I got caught doing something I shouldn’t. Sometimes, it can take a month to process those petty violations. The other thing that pained me quite severely was the tolls – 17 times was I tolled! At the end of my trip, I had to fork out over $76 US dollars for these! I found gas and food considerably more expensive than I would have thought. I think they admire the Canadian way of costly. From what I saw, they have a good bus system connecting many towns. Although this is the case, hitchhiking is a common way of getting around.

I travelled on the “Rocha 9” multiple times. They are doing considerable expansion work on this highway, doubling the lanes. There are a few photos in this post of that project. I was glad to see so many excavators, dump trucks, rollers, and other construction equipment. I felt at home passing the heavy equipment dealerships like John Deere. It’s just too bad the excavator I took a picture of was a Doosan, not a Hitachi. That would have been better for me to see.

During my stay, I was able to travel south from my rental to Punta del Este and Montevideo. I didn’t do anything significant in Punta del Este or take photos there. Going to Montevideo was more interesting. I went to a couple of malls, drove past the famous beaches, and spent some time in the port area where the indoor market is. Also, while in that area, I went for an americano and affogato at Jacinto and checked the touristy Plaza Zabala. I have some photos of Mercado del Puerto and some garden shots at the art museum in this collection. The following day, I travelled north to visit Barra del Chuy. The beach there was incredible, very quiet, and cool to see the southernmost state in Brazil. I even saw a couple of border agents making sure I wasn’t about to swim across the water! Until next time, Brazil!

Make sure you didn’t skip past my photo of the glowing sea at night in Punta Rubia! Hopefully, I will get better at those long exposure night shots. It was neat to see the sky filled with easily visible stars, too!