New Years & The Feministas
Buenos Aires is actually probably the worst place big city in the world to be for actual New Years because it a family thing here, nothing is open and no one is doing anything. Luckily enough though during old years day we were accosted by some crazy Brazilians who had decided in true Brazilian style if there isn't a party to attend then you make your own wherever it may be. They were just chatting and sipping beer on the side walk outside a convenience store taking advantage of a few spare tables and chairs provided along the main avenue running through Buenos Aires. As we walked by, the streets now deserted because it was siesta time, they called us to join them. In hindsight I think we can thank Steve for this because it quickly became clear who the one chica was interested in. They had already gathered a bit of a crowd by that stage so we were now accompanied by several Brazilians and a Frenchmen, stereotypically arrogant winking as he announced he was from Toulouse.
It was only midday and we had a long night ahead but it was time to get the beers flowing along with some banter . As always there was a bit of a language barrier but what was nice about this crowd is that they were all in the same boat as us and Spanish was too their 2nd or 3rd language making it much easier to be patient with each other. Steve having only been on the continent for 2 weeks obviously just had to do with English, most of the Brazilians knew some English but the the lady who's eye he had caught didn't know much at all, nonetheless she persistent in her attempts to reel him in. It was quite entertaining having the 2 of them sitting next to me because the chica was blatantly interested in Steve and well on her way down the road to passing out before midnight. She kept whispering things to Steve in Spanish which he had little understanding of so she had to repeat just about everything to us in order for us to translate them, most of which were getting quite bluntly flirtatious. Eventually she got desperate and asked him straight out if he wanted to go back to the hostel, to which he declined, and then finally as we were bidding farewell she managed to, in desperation, pull together some English words blurting out across the pavement 'I want you!'. Steve being Steve just laughed in her face and said thank you as he walked off, she had used a literal translation of Spanish to English which in Spanish actually just means I like you and can even be used to express fondness between friends and family members but nonetheless it provided us with endless laughter.
We had made plans to meet the Brazilians outside a club just before midnight just after dinner. Once back at the hostel we met some more Brazilians chicas Sarah, Patricia and Kauara preparing for the night out but they did not yet have concrete plans so we did as all sensible gentlemen would have done and invited them out to join us for a New Years eve dinner. As expected nothing really was open when we were looking for restaurants so after walking the streets near the club where we planned to meet we finally found a suitable dinner spot but only started eating just before midnight so were a bit bummed we'd be sitting at a table for New Years. These Brazilian chicas too were so interesting to talk to and turned out to be 'Feministas' who work in a feminist organisation in Brazil fighting for woman's rights. They were most interested in South Africa and how far woman's rights have come and were especially interested policies promoting equality in the work place and our parliament proudly boasting a 50% female membership which I was all too happy to go on about.
Steve was on top form and had spotted some more ladies to join us, this time a rarely spotted South African and a German lady. So, after so more banter and great food it wasn't long before we had all wolfed down our dinner, just in time for the New Years celebrations. As the clock struck 12 free bottles of champagne began to flow, people poured into the street in front of our dinner table conveniently placed on the pavement and the sky light up with fireworks, all a very unexpected exciting turn of events. We were all aware that the other Brazilians were expecting us as the night club so we soon headed on to the club but it was closed and the streets around it dead. We spotted a bar opening up nearby, bear in mid it was now 1am, and within 30min of ordering a drinks the area sprung to life!
The streets quickly grew busy with cars, the club opened and a huge queue formed outside it reaching around the block. Just as we were reluctantly muting the idea of joining the queue some crazy DJ with a generator and a mobile sound system came striding down the road with a huge crowd of dancing follows. Needless to say we never did get to the club but instead danced in the
street until the sun came up!
Later that New Years day we discovered that the Dakar 2010 - Argentina and Chile was being kicked off near the city centre where we were but after watching the first of hundreds of cars, trucks, motor bikes and quad bikes setting off for the challenge we grew tired and headed of for some much needed sleep.
Popping in for a chat with Ambassador Tony Leon
We have been trying to visit all the South African embassies as cycle between countries, one because it is so interesting chatting to and hearing the experiences of the staff at the embassy but too to get a resupply of World Cup 2010 and South African promotional goods. Everyone we meet wants to see pictures of South Africa and where it is on a map so thanks to the very generous embassies we have plenty to share with them. When visiting the Lima embassy Ambassador Manley mentioned that Tony Leon soon would be taking office as the Ambassador in Argentina and if we were lucky we would get to meet with him when we finally made it to Buenos Aires. A few days before coming into Buenos Aires we decided to try our luck because our promotional goods were running out and it would be very interesting getting to chat to Tony Leon. However, we did not have much faith because it was the festive season and we figured it would be unlikely that anyone would be about receive our email let alone meet with us. We were in luck though and as we have experienced at most of the embassies we've contact we had a very positive and timely response, if only Home Affairs could be as efficient as Foreign Affairs!
The earliest we could meet with Ambassador Leon was the 4th of Jan the day after Steve left so unfortunately for him he'd miss the visit. As with all our visits we were quite nervous to meet the staff and the Ambassador, what were they going to think of these unshaven boys with crazy beards, moustaches and mowhawks?! We headed over to the offices in good time to make sure we weren't late but there was now way to spruce ourselves up as our wardrobes are very limited and to boot Nick had handed in all his clothes for a wash so now had to attend the meeting in board shorts and flip flops! I'm not sure how but we passed through security with ease and before we knew it we were sitting at a table with Mr Langa, First Secretary and head of World Cup 2010 promotions in the region and Ambassador Tony Leon. It was quite surreal having such a famous well respected South African figure sitting before us but it is was easy to see why he had been chosen by the DA to be the longest standing leader of the official opposition party for over 15 years because within moments we felt quite comfortable and conversation was flowing fast.
It can always be a little awkward at first meeting with the staff at the embassies because I'm sure for them its kind of like why on earth are we meeting with these hobos especially if they haven't been briefed about our cycle trip. Often the staff at the embassies are so busy that they don't get a chance to experience the countries that they are now South African representatives to so we get to offer a perspective on the country and people that they would otherwise often find difficult get so by the end of the meeting I'm sure they are quite grateful that we've shared our experiences with them. In addition, as Mr Langa and the Ambassador expressed that they are paid to promote the country so us offering to lend a hand while cycling around the continent is much appreciate.
The Ambassador was then only in his 2nd month at the head of the South African Embassy to Argentina but had plenty of interesting insight to offer about politics on the continent. He in jest suggested that perhaps he should have done a little more cycling instead of spending his youth studying and doing his lawyers articles but I think we can be grateful he didn't because I'm sure the knowledge he gain during this time enabled him to keep the ANC on their toes for all the years he was at the helm of the official opposition party, the DA. It can't be easy moving from the head of the opposition into an ambassadorial role serving under the very same party you spent many years 'opposing' but I feel this shows how South African's democracy is maturing and as the ambassador stated himself 'I'm living proof we celebrate diversity'. Around the same time as we had met with the ambassador he had been interviewed with the Mail & Guardian and its looks like they chatted about almost exactly the same stuff so I won't go into any more detail, the article can be read here.
After an enjoyable and insightful chat the Ambassador and Mr Langa presented us with some more promotional goods to take with us including being kitted out with World cup 2010 caps and t-shirts . In addition, we got presented with a box of beautiful South African calendars, the only catch was how would we carry them all. In the end we were so overwhelmed with the whole event that we forgot to get a picture at the embassy with the Ambassador and Mr Langa to remember it all by! But, as the Ambassador stated in the meeting, if you don't write it down it never happened, so here's to hoping this serves those purposes.
Km300 to Km210: Plans are made to be broken
We had now bode farewell to Steve who was going to be missed but had to headed back to South Africa to continue his day job and although we had such a greet experience in Buenos Aires as with all cities we've been to we were always just too excited to get out of the city after a while. Being on the bike feels like routine now and having our own tents every night has come to feel like home and our own little bit of space. At first the thought of unpacking and packing up a tent is quite arduous but I actually I still get as excited as I was the first time every time I set him up. Having the bikes in the city is a pain because you always have to find place for them then drag them up and down stairs piece by piece with numerous bike bags in tow. With the tent you can just strip everything off the bike, set up the tent, chuck everything in, lock the bike to a tree then jump into the tent and organise everything into its little routine corner and there you have a little home with everything exactly where you can find it. Then, when you leave you can very quickly see if you've left anything behind.
Sorrel had had a bit of admin with her house mate who had returned from his holiday to find 3 bicycles on their roof terrace, which I may add is huge like 4m by 8m, and decided he did not want them up there which is fair enough. As a result Sorrel kindly organised with Vero and James, 2 of her friends we met at her place on the first night to kindly take us in so when we returned for having spent New Years in the hostel we collected our incredibly space consuming bicycles and headed over to Vero's. Their place is huge and they had a few spare rooms so we were very well accommodated and as is always the case in Buenos Aires we almost immediately headed out for another asado (braai). It's been great staying and hanging out with all these guys because we've come to meet so many local and international people living in Buenos Aires which is just the way I like to see a city!
We had always planned to catch a ferry to Uruguay but as usual we left buying tickets for the last minute so when we got there not only were the queues huge but the tickets had doubled in price. So, while standing in a boring long queue when we could be doing something else more fun we had a little vote amongst ourselves and unanimously voted to skip the boat and cycle up the river to the first available bridge and back down to Montevideo. This route would add on an extra 600km to the trip to Montevideo but we figured since we had the time why not. We would now be cycling out of the city from Vero's place which is near the centre and thus needed to head off early to avoid traffic so off we went to do our routine departing shop.
None of us had slept well since arriving in Buenos Aires due to the heat, humidity and mosquitoes so we were all a little blurry eyed coming out of the city. It was hard work because as we discovered the city sprawls north with big highways and heavy traffic. Only after about 4hrs of cycling did the roads quieten down and we could find a road side restaurant to eat lunch and have a nap under the trees. It was piping hot and humidity high thus mosquito heaven so I literally had to sleep with mosquito spray in my hand lazily spraying it around every time I herd something buzzing near by, I think this is when Nick started questioning whether or not he was going to enjoy cycling in these conditions all the way to Iguazu Falls still over 2000km away.
That night as we came across a toll gate storm clouds began to roll in so after getting permission from the local police we setup camp along side the highway. After setting up the tent the clouds an sky lit up with lightning and soon the rain followed, for the first time in a while I was only too happy to have a cold shower even if it was just an act of nature.
Km210 to Km95: Mosquito infested deltas and memorable swims
We would now spend the whole day crossing a large delta with the Rio Paraná running through the middle of it. This river has its source all the way up in the Amazon forest running past the Pantanal (a region of the Amazon Forest most densely populated by animals), running through Paraguay (where is called the Rio Paraguay), finally passing into Argentina below Asunción (the capital of Paraguay) and down through the delta joining up with Rio Plata as it flows into the Atlantic Ocean past Buenos Aires on one side and Montevideo on the other . I didn't realise this at the time of crossing Rio Paraná but Andrew and I may just be catching a boat up this very river in 2 months time to the Pantanal starting in Asunción where it is likely our bike trip will end and a boat journey will begin passing along the border between Brazil and Bolivia
We crossed 2 large bridges that day to get across the delta, a very unexpected addition to our journey around the continent as we had always planed to catch the ferry across between Buenos Aires and Montevideo if we got that far completing the whole journey in under 3hrs now extended to over 6 days. The rivers were huge and as I passed over the one bridge with a sign denoting that I was passing over the Rio Paraná a huge oil tanker passed under me, I think I now really understand what my geography teacher meant when he said South African rivers are not navigable, especially if this is what he was comparing them to.
There had been a lot of rain in the delta of late so as we cycled through we were greeted with entertaining images of cows standing in fields literally tummy deep but they didn't seem to be too bothered. Again it was hot, humid and the mosquitoes were going mad and all we wanted to do was take a swim in one of the many pools of water that we passed. Jokingly I noted how good would it be if we could find a restaurant with a wooden deck that we could prepare our lunch on and a pier so we could have nice refreshing swim without haying to traipse through a swamp, and true as bob as the clock struck lunch time that's exactly what we found. We spent a good lot of time at that restaurant swimming and chatting to the owners younger son who at one stage dropped his poor little bird into the water who's wings had been clipped so we figured it didn't have a chance of survival but then 15min later it popped out on the bank alive!
As we progressed down the highway we became ever nervous about whether or not we would be allowed to cross Rio La Plata at the first bridge into Uruguay. We had heard conflicting stories about whether the first bridge crossing into the town of Fray Bentos was open. Due to a pulp factory that had been built in Uruguay on the Rio La Plata in the town of the Fray Bentos the people of Argentina, and more specifically the people of the town opposite the factory, Gualeguaychú were now preventing anyone from reaching the bridge and ultimately Fray Bentos directly. It's a long complicated story but I think it just comes down to politics and the Argentines feel that Uruguay didn't get their permission to build such a huge factory on a shared river. On the other hand the factory was one of the biggest foreign investments Uruguay had ever seen so they weren't about to stop it from happening and now that it was built bash it down because Argentina felt they need to get their permission. Everyone we asked had conflicting stories, some said absolutely no one could cross at that bridge but the border was still open which didn't seem to add up considering it had now been blocked by protesters for over 2 years, while others said we should be able to cross the bridge in Fray Bentos by bike, either way it was worth attempting to cross if the actual border was still open which it sounded like it was. The big catch though was that if we were not able to cross into Fray Bentos we would have to head 30km back to the highway and up to the next bridge adding about 300km to our journey!
If the name Fray Bentos sounds familiar that is because it probably is. There used to be a huge meat processing plant in Fray Bentos under the brand of Fray Bentos so at some stay in your life you probably ate or at least heard of one of their products but the factory and the products have long since ceased to exist.
Km95 to 0Km: Protesters, Vespas and Hello Uruguay
The next day we cycled into the town of Gualeguaychú now making a beeline for the border and were almost immediately approached by a radio station reporter, then before we knew it we were being interviewed in Spanish by the local radio station, yikes! The interviewer was obviously in the know about the local politics so after the interview they assured us that if we spoke to the protesters nicely they would allow us to cross.
As we cycled out the other side of the town towards the bridge and the border we started noticing that the road signs to Uruguay had been painted over by protesters saying that the road was closed, which only made us increasingly nervous. We had been told that the protesters were somewhere along the road so every time we saw something in the distance we started to wonder if it could be them until eventually we saw what must definitely be them characterised by cars, caravans and a boom blocking the road with plenty of posters around explaining their cause. The company that had started the pulp factory is Finish so many of the posters were aimed at them including 'The Finish are terrorists!' which we found quite in entertaining as Nick's ex-girlfriend is Finish.
As we arrived at the boom blocking the road an older couple came out to chat to us and they very quickly agreed that we could go through but they didn't think that the police would allow us to cross the bridge on bicycles. We took their pamphlets explaining their cause and explained that we were from South Africa and felt the same way about nature resulting in Nick getting lucky for the first time in Argentina receiving a parting smooch from the protesting lady. Not far down the road on the way to the bridge still nervous we may not be able to cross now not because of the protesters but because of the bridge laws we spotted a calf that had literally just been born. We stood their for a while admiring the miracle of life and enjoyed watching the little calf take his first steps then full of joy off we cycled for the border.
We had been told that the border post for both countries was on the other side of the bridge so we quickly snuck past the police station where the police had long stopped looking out for anyone and quickly approached the bridge hoping that the police station was not where we actually should have got our exit stamp. The bridge was huge and looked to rise almost vertically in front of us as if a roller coaster. We grew a little concerned that we were going to cycle our way across this huge bridge only to be sent back and to get our exit stamps but we thought that we would rather have that than alert the polices attention. Once across the huge bridge we rolled down into what was now Uruguay still nervous about whether or not we had made actually made it to the final hurdle, passport control. The border office were now run down and dilapidated due to years of neglect as hardly anyone use it but we were in luck and there still seemed be few offices open, one for Argentinian exit stamps and the other for Uruguayan entry stamps, phew we had made it!!!!
We were now in Uruguay and with far less hassle than expected even the search guy who I would have thought would have been excited to finally have something to do just asked us what was in our bags and waved us on. Fray Bentos dare I say too loudly because someone in Argentina may hear is actually a very nice friendly and clean little town clearly benefiting from the wealth brought in by the pulp factory. Uruguay and especially Fray Bentos seems to be Vespa country with everyone from school kids to grannies shooting around town on them.
My back axle had given in again so now with plenty of time to spare I went off to find a local bicycle shop. After being sent from shop to shop I eventually found a service place which was a workshop open to the pavement with everyone inside covered in bicycle oil and grease, I now knew I definitely was at the right place. There was an old man sitting outside sitting in deck chair watching life go by and he quickly brought the fact that I was waiting to the owners attention. I explained what was wrong with my bike and before I knew it I had a team of people seeing to my axle but this is no conventional bike shop, here they either salvage a part from an old bike or you're sent to run off and get the spare yourself. The salvaged axle part he had to hand didn't quite fit so off I was sent on a spare bike to hunt down my new axle. I found the part in no time so once I had returned with my find the bike was back in top order but it wasn't going to last long as the chamber on the back hub was now quite worn and the problem would only happen again in the next few hundred kilometres, yet at least it would get me to Montevideo.
Km340 to Km297: Down by the river
Montevideo was now 340km down the river and little did we know we would get to cycle through some very cool little towns with river side white sandy beaches along the way that are just like seaside beaches except sans the waves. The first one we came to was Meredes and again here everyone was whizzing around on a Vespa but they had something extra with them, a deck chair slung over their shoulder as it was Friday lunch and everyone was off to the beach! Later that evening we arrived at Dolores the next little beach town and they even had a free camp site down by the river so after being spotted and interviewed by the local rag we enjoyed a pleasant evening down by the river.
Km297 to Km197: Free laptops and Internet
We spent most of the next day in the next beach town along the road called Carmelo where they had a great big sandy beach. The road coming into Carmelo was one of the most beautiful I've seen, it was lined with huge old trees on either side for over 10km providing much needed shelter from the blistering heat and on the other side of the trees on one side a beautiful golf course could be seen and on the other some kind of well kept horse training track all beautiful and green. Once we had spent some time floating in the river I headed off to find some wifi. What is very unique about Uruguay is that it is the first country in the world to provide every school child with a laptop. All these laptops have wifi which can be used to access the free internet at the central plaza or at their local school any time of the day. Wherever you find a central plaza you will find someone sitting on one of these little laptops surfing the web, quite oddly though its often dad using the laptop not the kid!
That evening we camped on the side of the road and because the heat we decided ot to cook and rather just make a salad. We were trying to make as much ground as possible so we only stopped whn it was almost already dark so s we sat on the steep side bank of the road we made our salad while enjoying display of lightning crawling across the sky in the distance and a very unique display of dancing fire-flies just the other side of the road, who would have thought that camping on the side of the road could provide such great entertainment.
Km197 to Km186: Colonia
By midday we had arrived in one of Uruguay's most popular tourist destination, Colonia. Most of the boats coming from Buenos Aires dock here and then you can catch a bus to Montevideo from there. Colonia is beautiful ancient old city with a historic area boasting cobblestone roads and old buildings including an old light house. Unfortunately the bumping cobblestone roads proved too much for my bike and later I discovered that the bolt on my back rack carrying all the weight had snapped off. I didn't let that ruin my time in Colonia though as there is nothing that a cable tie can't solve, well at least for a while. I spent the rest of the day watching people go by while enjoying a beer in the sun.
Km186 to Km45: White Chocolate
We spent most of the day just trying to make ground so that we could get into Montevideo early the next morning. I was very much craving something sweet by the time we were coming to the end the day so when we popped into the shop to buy our dinner and they had white chocolate bars going for $0.5 for 2 I didn't stand a chance and bought 6! Of course now having 6 slabs of white chocolate melting in my bag when I was absolutely starving was not a good thing and by the time we reached the soccer field where we camped that night I had already polished off 5!
Km45 to Km0: Montevideo, a South African Embassy and a fantastic family
We had been looking forward to staying with a couchsurfing family who Jim and Denys, a couple we met way back in Montañita, suggested we stayed with if we could as they ha really enjoyed spending time there a few months prior. The family lived 30km on the other side of Montevideo in small suburb practically on the beach called El Pinar. We hadn't planned to spend much time in Montevideo itself as we figured it would be just another city set by a body of water. As we cycled into Montevideo it was overcast so we just went into the centre had a look around, had a bite to eat and then moved swiftly on along the coast towards El Pinar. Montevideo had a nice historic feel a bit like Buenos Aires just a little smaller and has a nice beaches running along the river front. The river here is so wide that it actually looks like an ocean and although there are a fell swells there aren't any waves to speak of. The most impressive thing I noticed coming into the city is the old railways station but unfortunately it no longer functions as a station and I believe the train network is in a pretty much similar situation. Train travel seems like such a pleasant and great way to see the country side but the reality is that railway networks are expensive to maintain where as road and bus networks are far cheaper and flexible to maintain which results in most developing nations opting for the latter leaving the old rail networks to decay.
The South African Embassy in Argentina had put us in contact with the Uruguayan mission who Ambassador Leon is also presiding over so we went in search of the South African Embassy to Uruguay. We eventually found the mission 15km out of the city in a wealth area, on the way to El Pinar, where all the foreign embassies seem to be located. Kaya Mbusi, the Charge D’Affaires, is currently at the helm of the embassy in Uruguay and had said she was ready to receive us any time that day. When we arrived at the embassy we were quickly welcomed in passing by another life size teddy bare version of Zakumi the World Cup 2010 mascot meaning ZA (South Africa's official 'code') and Kumi, the number 10 in many African languages. By this stage of the day we were very grateful for the air-conditioned boardroom we had been shown to while we waited for Kaya. We had a great time chatting to Kaya and the rest of her all female team sharing our experiences and equally just being in the company of other South Africans. Kaya's first language is Xhosa so we even asked her to give an example of a few Xhosa clicks for Nick, clicks which are quite often asked after by other tourists when they find out we are South African only to have to ashamedly admit we don't yet know how to speak Xhosa. After some tea and delicious cake it was time to make our way to our host family we had so been looking forward to meeting.
After getting a little bit lost following the admittedly pretty straight forward directions we had been given we finally met Rosanna and the family. The house was packed full with family and couchsurfers so we were incredibly grateful they still took us in. While we were there Rosanna, Nacho her husband, Santiago (Santi), Lara (just turning 3), granny, 2 Belgium couchsurfers and 2 Colombian couchsurfers! With us they now had 12 people dotted all over the house, absolute chaos in anybodies mind but all just seemed to work so well. Rosanna and the family are all just so easy to get along with and we were all never short of conversation. Rosanna is lawyer so the level of conversation was far above what we would normally chat to people about so it was definitely a strain on my level of Spanish but I absolutely loved it. The children were also just too cute and every evening Mom would take them down to the beach for a swim and a play in the sand and of course now we got to joined them. It was also great having the other couchsurfers around, every evening we took turns to cook dinner for everyone but I think the Belgians pulled the short straw when they landed up cooking spaghetti bolognese for 11 people plus an extra side dish for the veggie amongst us.
El Pinar itself is such a great place to be too. No one is allowed to build their house on the beach so once on the soft sandy beaches no houses can be seen. Just a quick walk back over the dunes and through the pine forests and you're back in the leafy spacious suburb only about a block or 2 wide running all along the beach. We loved being there so much that when my bike that had been sent in for service was delayed by a day and Rosanna had said we could stay longer we were only too happy to spend another day in such a great place with such a great people.
Km1818 to Km1778: Awesome service and tears of a 3 year old
Today was full of emotions one I got to get my bicycle back from its service all nicely spruced up but two this meant we would now have to bid farewell to the great family we'd been staying with. Under the cargo load of of calendars, booklets, pamphlets, t-shirts, caps and an assortment of stationery given to us by the South African embassy my back rack had finally gave in. The bolt holding my back rack up had actually snapped off leaving half the bolt now stuck in the hole so this was not something I was going to be able to fix myself. In addition, my back axle had given in too many times and was now beginning to wobble excessively causing the chain to keep jumping off whenever I pushed down hard on the peddle not only wasting my energy but it had also caused me to smack my knee on the handlebar one too many times. I had looked for a local guy to do the job but he just sent me to the big guys closer to Montevideo, the Trek bicycle shop in Canelones.
The Pablo and the rest of the guys at Trek had been super interested in our trip when I came to drop off the bike and they really did take a genuine interest in getting my bike back to me in top order. This had been a stark contrast to just about every big bike shop I had been to in the past, with the exception of Linden Cycles in Johannesburg, finding that they always very cold and disinterest in what we are doing. I don't know if its a super friendly Uruguayan thing but these guys were just so friendly and took their time to understand what I wanted done. So, it was now the day my bike was due to be ready and earlier that morning the guys at the shop had let me know the bike would be ready at 1pm just before they closed for siesta time. I should have been more careful and allowed time for delays but of course I left collecting the bike to the last minute so when the bus finally arrived I realised I was going to be at least 15min late and the shop would be closed. In true Murphy's Law style just as I had the bright idea that I should phone them I received a text saying please recharge your account as you are low on credit, damn he got me again!
Luckily I had enough credit to quickly ramble off in Spanish that I was on my way so they were waiting for me when I arrived. They had taken so much care of my bike and even got my rusty old bell ringing again but more importantly all the ailing parts had been replaced and the back rack repaired so he now looked and felt like new again! After talking them through the blog Pablo spotted my makeshift water bottle which was just an old buddy bottle with an old drinking lid screwed onto it which I had never bothered to replacing with a proper water bottle because I figured I would rather have had it come with some kind of juice in it if I was going to pay for a bottle, but now it had caught Pablo's eye so as a parting gift he gave me a spanking new Gary Fisher water bottle and even rushed off to fill it with some water for my cycle home. I think I have discovered the best and friendliest bicycle shop in the world!
It was another scorcher of a day so by the time I had cycled over 12km to get back to the house I was very grateful for my new water bottle! It was Lara's 3rd Birthday that day too so we had got her a little gift and couple of sweets for her to enjoy, I think she might just be the cutest little kid in the world! The gas was finished so lunch would only be ready later on once the gas bottle had been replaced so we took this opportunity to have one last stroll along the beautiful beach lined by pine trees and take a swim before returning for lunch. After lunch it was time to bid a sad farewell, it had been so great staying with and getting to know this wonderful family. One of the true gems on this trip has been getting to meet so many great people. We gathered all our stuff up which we had now managed to distribute all over the house and garden and gathered together for a photo. As we said good-bye to everyone a little tear rolled down Lara's cheek, this is the hard thing about couch surfing because you live in someone's home and inevitably you have to leave knowing full well you may never see them again. Fortunately though we come from such a great country and even this big family has promised to come visit, so hopefully one day we'll get to host them and witness them see their first wild African animal!
We are now 70km out of Montevideo sleeping in a forest hoping to tomorrow reach Punta del Este for lunch but we'll just have to see how it all pans out.
For those who don't know our story has made it into into the Buenos Aires Herald newspaper and the article can be read here.
You can see all the Argentina pics here and the Uruguay pics here.
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