Uruguay, first stops

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 at times, but at the very end we had to hand in a pink slip with a specific stamp to a control officer, meaning that if we had missed some step we would have been turned back.

The first stop was Mercedes, a nice town just south of the border crossing. It was very nice to walk around amongst the houses and the trees, seeing people outside enjoying the summer evening. However, there wasn't a single restaurant open and there was not to be until earliest 8pm, so we bought our food at the supermarket and ate in the hotel room.

The next place was Colonia del Sacramento, a UNESCO city a bit south along the river. This was a surprising place, and we only went there as the receptionist at the hotel in Mercedes told Harold that we really shouldn't miss it. So we stayed a night there and enjoyed walking around in the old part and appreciate the buildings and the fact that it was so well preserved. We even found an old car in the garage of the hotel, built in wood and heavy metal, and full of ornamental decorations.

The drive to Montevideo was without stress, the roads are good and the landscape just rolling fields with different crops and cattle. The population of Uruguay is some 3,5 million, so the roads are not overly busy and it is a motorway almost all the way from Colonia to Montevideo. The landscape gets a bit monotonous, but after driving in Argentina for a long time it was a nice change.