ODO: 342,506
This campground is so nice and quiet that we continue enjoying our rest. But actively resting, we take a casual stroll around town, which takes us about fifteen minutes. There are three hot (warm) pools, one indoor, one outdoor, and one half and half. There is also a small block of stores, and a small block of restaurants. KoKo also explores the path to the old train bridge. There are a crew of vultures hanging out on the air currents around the bridge. During dinner, we hear some weird noises. Horses have wandered into our area of the campground, and are scratching on the power box across the lane from us. It’s quite the ruckus, and apparently bothers the other horses because one comes over to chase the first horse away.
Another beautiful morning! So far Uruguay is great. First order of business, soak in the hot pools. With the air temperature, the water is a perfectly lovely 30C. Now that we know there are stores, we do a small resupply to make it through the night. We explore the hidden path through the bushes for our evening walk. There are fewer vultures at the bridge tonight.
Time to leave. This part of Uruguay is all farm and cattle land, but we do see some Rhea’s which is always exciting. There is what looks like a sizeable town near the border, Salto, so we need to have a look. We’re curious if groceries are different. Spoiler, they’re not. After the most chill border crossing ever, we’re back on our go go go, towards Iguazu Falls. A couple of hours down the road, we arrive at a campground outside of a small town. There is a very excited dog, geese that scream every so often, and the same humming sound EV cars make. Except there are no EV’s…
A chorus of dogs and thunder welcome us to a new day. And it looks like rain, so we need to move. We dont out run it. The rain catches us once we hit the big Argentinian ruts. The water makes driving scary in front wheel drive. We drive in terror for about an hour before the rain ends. Then its farmland on top of farmland. It’s starting to generally warm up outside, our current latitude is on par with northern Florida. Also the humidity is increasing with the heat. We find a Mission with a very friendly caretaker who lets us set up in the parking lot for the night.
Serious thunder and lightning start up in the middle of the night and the sky unleashes on us. At least it’s coming straight down so it’s not raining in the windows. It keeps up through the morning. We’re three hours away from the waterfall, and this is not ideal weather. Berne wrestles the truck down the road as it bucks and thrashes it’s way thru the water filled ruts. For a second day in a row. But we finally manage to get somewhere early! Because of the rain, we opt for a hotel near Iguazu falls to wait out the weather. And then we end the day with some room service.
Monday equals big work day, so we hotel it a second night. Mid day, we take a break to explore the neighborhood. We find lots of friendly cats, some shops, and some good looking restaurants. A few more hours of work get us to dinner time, and another walk into town. There is a brewery, so we stop in for some drinks and some interesting pizza. It’s a very thin but crunchy crust, and they add random whole olives to our peperoni and pineapple pizza.
We start the day with a big walk, all 10,000 steps and then some. We walk to and then along the river, ending at a park with fountains and a gentleman playing the harp. This river is the border between Argentina and Brazil. And just off to the west, where the river bends, is Paraguay. We have great views of the Brazil/Paraguay border bridge, a Ferris wheel and an old rusty boat. On our way back to the hotel, we stop for By The Kilo Buffet for lunch. And now we enjoy a well earned siesta! We love us some fancy Argentinian Steakhouse, so that’s our dinner plan. Unfortunately, the one we find is solidly mediocre. Which makes sense, the “good steak” is only $25. The mushroom risotto is fantastic. We did enough walking today, so walking back after dinner does not fill us with joy, but it’s too close to Uber without feeling much shame. Very exhausted, we fall into bed, and sleep a hard, deep sleep.
