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We left Lago Rincón del Bonete to go north-west to a border to return to Argentina. It was a reasonably long drive, and the landscape was pretty much the same monotonous as in the inland parts we had seen previously. However, once we arrived to the area around Salto, it was more varied and interesting, reminding us of the "usual" countryside views of trees, bushes, paddocks, cultivated fields, a few houses here and there and farm animals now and again. Salto itself is not p

Most of Uruguay is of course away from the beaches. The whole country, except the areas on the river and the coast, is flat with the highest point around 500m above sea level. Driving there is certainly different from the coast. There are very few towns, not many people, and seemingly not a lot of action. Neither are all the roads good, but most are passable without too much effort. Distances are short, and to see some of the inland you have to make up your mind to wantin

We set out to visit the beach at famous Punta del Este. This is not far from Montevideo, and the drive was not meant to be long or difficult. We usually leave at about 9.30am, and this was no different. Another thing that we do is look in advance for a couple of suitable hotels, in both Booking and Google. This is not to book anything, but just to have a goal for the drive and if the hotel is nice we'll stay there. This time there were so many different areas and hotels t

We were surprised by this city, on many occasions. It started already as we entered, on the street to the city center, where we were caught up in an incredibly long queue of trucks with containers. Turned out we were driving next to them on the way to the container terminal, where they were going to drop their load. Once we left them to it, we found the hotel (we have been staying in Holiday Inns where they are available) and on route we saw Nissan service too, so all very

We crossed into Uruguay using the Puente Internacional General San Martin which goes over the Uruguay River. This was a very different border crossing, with the two countries sharing one border station. We left Argentina and entered Uruguay by one single border official, and the car was dealt with separately in the background, so everything was more or less done at once. Of course, as usual, there was no way to know the exact steps to take and the process was a bit obscure