mad nomad: Since there were requests for Angeliki to write a little something about our adventures, she penned the following article. Enjoy!

The airplane from Greece took us to Buenos Aires, where we stayed for a week, in order to acclimatise and to get a first taste of Latin America! On Wednesday, the 27^th of September 2023, we crossed Río de la Plata by boat and thus we entered Uruguay. The river at this part of its estuary is so wide that even the fast catamaran we boarded took an hour to cross from one coast to the other. One cannot even see the opposite coast! The boat arrived at Colonia del Sacramento, which is the oldest city in the country, firstly colonised by the Portuguese. A luxurious double decker bus was waiting for us, in order to take us to Montevideo, the country’s capital. From there we would pick up our vehicles: Don Rufo the van and Cactakis the motorbike, in the following days.

Upon arrival to Montevideo we were greeted by the first full moon to be sighted in the American continent!

The reason we chose to commence our trip from Uruguay was the transportation of the vehicles. Following thorough research, which lasted a while, we opted for the best transportation offer by the company Wave Logistics. As you probably remember, in August we had delivered our vehicles in Marseille in France. The procedure was beyond simple, we handed in the keys at a warehouse and the collaborating companies took it from there. A month and a half later, as we were told, we were at the company’s offices in Montevideo. We signed two papers at the immigration office and two more at the customs and we received our vehicles, which were transported in a container and made it to their destination and to their owners in ship shape condition, with nothing missing.

We were absolutely thrilled when we found out that our vehicles had arrived in excellent condition with nothing missing!

In the week between our arrival in Montevideo and the delivery of our vehicles, we had time to get acquainted to the city and its culture. We were hosted by Sandra, a lovely lady, who we met on BeWelcome, a digital platform for hospitality exchange. Sandra speaks excellent English, which is unusual in Latin America. She works at the Presidency of Uruguay as a proof-reader. She is a thesaurus of information and thanks to her we learned a lot of things about the country, its history and its culture. When she was not at work, she would wander with us. Since she shares my love for food and wine, we enjoyed both of these wonders to the max! Sandra introduced me to chivitos, which come in various forms. The main ingredients of the chivitos al plato we tried are beef steak, mozzarella, bacon, ham, fried egg, chips and Russian salad!

Chivitos are one of the favorite dishes of Uruguayans and tourists alike.

Montevideo is a city with a population of about 1.5 million. It is spacious, with beautiful corners and architectural variations and many interesting details. A lot of buildings are adorned with beautiful murals and vivid colours, which I personally like very much and miss in Europe. Rodó Park is a huge space with lakes, birds, greenery and lots of recreation areas, is the city gem and attracts people of all ages. Since the city of built on the shores of Río de la Plata, there are beaches everywhere, as well as a long a wide sidewalk next to the coastal avenue (Rambla), on which one can walk from one end of Montevideo to the other. This sidewalk is used for a variety of activities by the inhabitants of the city.

The beautiful Rodó Park in Montevideo!

The inhabitants are largely descendants of the colonisers, as all of the indigenous were slaughtered a few centuries ago. I was impressed by how popular mate is over here. Mate is a bitter infusion which is made out of the dried leaves of the plant yerba mate. Statistically about one in three persons sighted on the street is holding the mate cup in one hand and under their arm a large flask with hot water to fill up the cup with. Personally I love mate and consume it at every opportunity I get. However, I thought it quite inconvenient to essentially incapacitate one of one’s hands in order to carry it about everywhere. I asked Sandra about it and she said that one gets used to this easily and it’s not a problem. Perhaps I should try it someday…

Despite being the country’s largest city, Montevideo is quite small and quaint, with endless beaches that people enjoy in their evenings.

As we found out, Uruguay is fairly expensive. The prices, as well as the salaries are similar to those in Greece. It is also called the “Switzerland of Latin America” and rightly so, judging by the cost of living (besides electricity and other fixed charges). Geographically however, it is not at all reminiscent of Switzerland, as the country is completely flat! Outside of the cities (which are not many), the country is made up mainly of vast farms with cows, sheep and horse. Because of its location, a large part of the country is bordering both Río de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean, so it has a long coastline and this is where most of its 3.5 million population lives. Since it’s only slightly larger than Greece in size, it is especially sparsely populated, which we liked a lot.

Our friend Stefanos, from Thessaloniki, Greece, took us out to experience the nightlife of the capital!

Besides Montevideo, we visited Colonia del Sacrament, which both of us like the most. The town was built by the Portuguese, who have left their mark, so architecturally it’s quite different to the rest of Uruguay. It is also built on the coast of Río de la Plata, with gorgeous nature, harbours and grassy areas, where people sunbathe. On the day we visited, there happened to be a dance meeting, with people from every part of Uruguay, who were wearing traditional outfits and were dancing traditional dances. I had a dim hope of finding Portuguese sweets, but to no avail. I’ll have to wait until we make it to Brazil. I did however buy merino sheep yarn and crocheted a very warm infinity scarf, which came to much more use than I initially imagined.

In Colonia del Sacramento we came across a traditional dance festival!

On Thursday the 5^th of October 2023 we said goodbye to Sandra and Montevideo and headed east with Don Rufo and Cactakis in order to explore the rest of the country. We were driving by the coast, made it nearly to the Brazilian border and then headed towards the interior of the country. We stopped at several spots, camped next to many lakes and fought a lot of cold and wind. We passed through Punta del Este, the most cosmopolitan spot of Uruguay, which we didn’t think much of however. Huge flat block with holiday flats are being built everywhere and I couldn’t help but wonder who would buy them. The beaches were pretty enough, but the waters are no match for the waters of the Mediterranean.

The highlight for Elias was the route from La Sirena Beach until Punta del Diablo: 30 km of beach and sand dunes!

One of the highlights for me was our visit to Cabo Polonio. A seaside hippiesque community is set up there, in a protected park, where one is forbidden to go by car. Transport to and from the community is done by specially modified 4×4 trucks and the route through the sand is quite fun! Up until recently there was no electricity in the community, the houses are DIY, built with a variety of materials and very colourful, while on the rocks by the coast the second largest sea lion community of Uruguay can be seen! At first we were unable to locate them, but we did stumble across a couple of dead ones. Finally we discovered the living ones as well and Elias spent quite some time taking their photographs with the excellent equipment sponsored by Photoagora! It was a beautiful afternoon in a very special place. Some other time I will spend longer there.

In Cabo Polonio we came across the second largest colony of sea lions in Uruguay!

Our next stop that stood out was the Santa Teresa National Park. I was in a frenzy, because I saw again my beloved capybaras, as well as the first llamas of our trip! I spent quite some time with them and in the evening we camped inside the park. On the following day we visited a fort, which is built inside the park, we visited the capybaras again and we set off for our journey in the inland. Right in the middle of Uruguay , next to the artificial lake Lago de Rincon del Bonete, which fuels with water the whole of Uruguay, lies the small town of San Gregorio de Polanco. This town is famous for its artwork along the beach, but more so for its murals on numerous buildings and houses, which are indeed beautiful. It was Saturday, and in the evening the small – but dead otherwise – town came to life with live music in the restaurant where we had dinner and a wild disco party at a bakery (where we didn’t go).

We camped on this peninsula which staying in San Gregorio de Polanco.

Moving on, we headed north towards Tacuarembó town, which is considered the capital of the guachos, the cowboys of Latin America. We visited four different museums and camped (again) next to a lake, a few kilometres outside of the town. It was time for the last leg of our trip in Uruguay, to the border with Argentina, since this was the next country we were bound to visit. The natural border between the two countries is the Uruguay River, on which a massive hydroelectric factory with 14 turbines is built! This factory is shared between the two countries and provides for over 50% of Uruguay’s needs in electricity! An equal amount of electricity goes to Argentina. After visiting the hydroelectric factory, we crossed the border to Argentina. The process lasted a good few hours, because the queue was enormous and also because there was an I.T. problem. We made it though and without having to speak a word of English! Just before leaving Uruguay behind, we spotted the farewell capybara.

This is the documentary about our adventures in Uruguay (with English subtitles):