Buenos Aires to Montevideo...

Leaving BA marked the start of Livi´s time on the back of Dave´s bike which was fantastic. We were all super stoked to have her join us for this leg of the trip, especially Dave. It was so good that Liv could be apart of the Los Colective team for awhile!

In many ways Uruguay is not unlike Australia, with the big blue open skies and undulating farm land. We crossed into Urugauy from Argentina at a town called Paysandu. In the day past we had tried to cross futher south at Fray Bentos, but where turned around due to a long running dispute between the towns on either side of the border. This didn´t bother us too much as we found a great little campsite on a river bank just out side of the Argentine town Gualeguaychu. A riverside beach offered some relief from the 39 degree day.

Leaving Paysandu we took off south down Ruta 3 bound for the Atlantic coast. A night spent camping along Rio Negro broke the trip up and after pushing through 400km the next day we reached Punta del Este. Punta del Este is known to many as being the ´Monaco´of South America, and our thoughts didn´t disagree. The eastern edge of the beach was riddled with luxury yatch´s and lush apartments. Everything was a little out of our budget, but we were keen to a day off riding and to relax at the beach. The day spent at the beach was fantastic, and offer a chance to catch some colour before hitting up the brazilian coast.

Punta del Este although great, was a bit over run for our liking, so we took off east to Punta del Diablo for a taste of the ´unspoiled´Uruguaian coast. We weren´t disapointed. Punta del Diablo is a small fishing town with a hippy feel and a timeless charm. Here we took shelter in one of the many beach houses that are avalible for rent. We all agreed that is has a feel similar to Rotto, back home, with the sandy roads and ramshackled accommodation. Truely a great place to spend a few days before heading back to Montevideo to see Liv off at the airport.

B.A. final days...

An eventful few days... visit to colourful La Boca and the antique/bohemian markets of San Telmo where we enjoyed some tango in the streets and a good cheap Italian food.

We also managed to see all of the trucks, cars, and bikes of the Dakar Rally which kicked off from BA on the 3rd of Jan. The exhibition put on in town during the days leading up to the race gave us a great opptortunity to get up close to the crazyness that comes with such a race. Some day....maybe we´ll be lining our bikes up! ha....

Delays with the Brazilian visas meant that we had to stay an extra day, as well as this Matteo managed to get his camera stolen at gunpoint in Palermo...he was taking some nightshots of buildings at about 1am on his own so not so surprising. The budding young ganster grabbed the tripod with camera attached with one hand while pointing the gun at his head with the other. Matteo then chased him briefly until the fella turned and shouted something in spanish...most probably along the lines of "What the hell are you doing gringo...i have a F**king gun!" so Matteo stopped and went home feeling a tad stupid and and sad after loosing some good shots.

The last night was back at Tango Backpackers in good company and eating lots of Choripan (chorizo sausage in a bun with lots of joy salsas), some last minute shopping on El Salvador for the girls and filing police reports.

All in all BA was tuns of fun and i think all of us will be going back one day...next stop Uruguay and hopefully some beautiful beaches.