Surprisingly, this backache problem was immediately solved by buying a travelling belt once arrived in Chuy ! The various medicines tried those last days didn't manage more than lowering the pain, but after having covered comfortably the 200kms remaining until Rio Grande, I could finally enjoy a night without any pain. A good thing reached. :)
This border city where I stopped for a lunch break and some purchases, just at the limit between Uruguay and Brazil (a big avenue splits the city in two, quite fun), doesn’t seem to deserve an extended stay… Kind of a giant gas station with heavily buy&sell mood, but at least the products quality and prices are back to reasonable ranges. A pleasant thing after 4 years in Argentina and 1 week in Uruguay…
The road entering Brazil through Chuy is clearly first a boring straight-forward stretch of nearly 300kms since Punta del Diablo, but also offers a progressive vegetation transformation and a stretch passing through the ecological reserve « do Taim », to be crossed carefully to help preserve the abundant local faun. I guess also that avoiding to crash in a « tapivara », kind of rat the size of a big dog, helps you preserving yourself, especially if riding a motorbike !
Arrived few time after sunset in Rio Grande’s downtown, I rediscovered the fun of navigating by sight for not having uploaded a map of Brazil to my GPS, and settled in an hostel found the day before on internet, welcomed by the local’s warnings about my moto’s chances to survive a night in the street : policemen being on strike since 2 months, business had fairly restarted in the zone… Luckily, Alice that I had met in Uruguay was living a few blocks far , and she provided me with some tequilas as a welcome « na Brazil » ! :)
I have to say I love how sounds this language, and that I was really glad to brush for a few days this such attractive country. The next day’s heavy rain first, but actually mainly the desire to have a break and take advantage of these contacts to better understand the zone made me change my plans : instead of heading forward obsessively under the rain until Porto Alegre, I eventually did a 3-4 days break in Rio Grande where lives Alice and in Pelotas where are Camila & Karina, those two cities being separated by a tiny 60kms trip - that would nevertheless end up epic.
The adverse weather and the low season offered me a quite slept version of this fairly nice city, but the challenge of language in general and of buying and using a local SIM chip were sufficient to enjoy my day, that I ended by visiting the Museu Oceanográfico (pronounce the lasting « o » like « ou » :P), fairly interesting despite being a bit small. I loved the Bad Boy style fish head ! :D
Next day’s route should have been easy job with its modest 60kms, particularly as I was planning to test a new luggage repartition : install a computer case like bag bought in Chuy on the front end of the bike, above the light, and fill it with as much weight as possible to get better global balance (thermos+flask+maté/café). A disaster revealed in the very few meters in terms of maneuverability, that even managed to get worst once cruising around 70-80km/h due to aerodynamic loss, the imperfectly sticked bag trapping the air and thus under-weighting the front end instead of over-weighting it… And to achieve the scenery, this trip was spiced by a fairly strong (and frozen) south-east wind making nearly impossible to maintain safely more than 50-60km/h on a highway, regularly passed by trucks and even once trying to hide in its side by riding the emergency way at its pace...
Arrived exhausted but happy to have managed not to fall (several times I though I wouldn’t be able to), I drop my stuffs in the good hostel « Posada do estudante » and went to meet my two guides : Camila & Karina. The city of Pelotas seemed really nice globally, and the few days spent here and in Rio Grande to discover the area with these hospital locals undeniably left me thinking of coming back as soon as possible to explore this country. This extreme south piece of this enormous territory already provides pleasant surroundings of beaches and lagunes, cities articulating themselves around fluvial transport in an original style mixing refreshed colonial, colorful popular, and a bit of modern despite the activity slowing down in the region.
No way to keep hanging around here, but neither to leave without at least quickly seeing Praia do Cassino which Alice had been advising me, and I thus met her there on my way back from Pelotas to Punta del Diablo. Indeed it’s a superb and giant beach with beautiful dunes, counting with kind of a wave-breaker sea-walk stretch of 6kms long (Molhes da barra do Rio Grande) that can be visited either walking or riding a wind-car on rails !
Knowing unfortunately the important trip time for these 300kms, I didn’t allow myself this one hour excursion and headed instead around 16h toward Uruguay, happy at least of being back to the configuration without the bag in front end…
Error guessed and confirmed : Riding by night is not recommended ! I managed getting out of Taim reserve before last daylights disappeared, but the two last hours of the ride were in pitch black, with an entertainment bonus of burning the crossing light… No need to tell how many light-calls I received for being riding in high beams without any other option ! And to achieve the picture, my velocity & distance counter stopped working in Chuy. About velocity I can manage to guess it with the experience of how it feels, but distance since the last gas station is another deal… Hopefully stations are quite close one to another and I went on filling before getting close to reserve.
Arrived around 22h at the hostel de la Viuda that I liked, I sticked again at the mirador on the milky way after some delicious "sorrentinos al queso de cabra" in the El Tano’s restaurant.
After having changed the crossing light and checked some possible failures for my counter (just the cable and its two extremities connexions) without finding any visible issue, I took a break on the beach to have a quick breakfast (late sleeping price in hostels) and actually especially to try and see whales which presence had been detected here about 1h ago. Didn’t see one in the half-hour I spent observing from my dune’s top, but the breakfast sat in the sand was worth by itself !
The road until Atlántida (just before Montevideo) this day and to Gualeguaychú - Argentina the day after took me back quickly a few kms far from those nice beaches I’ll be remembering as the main picture of Uruguay, as far as I’ve seen it. But temperature rising slowly to get out of winter finally let me switch from the big warm gloves to the summer ones much more comfortable, an enjoyable symbol of on-coming weather softening. And I eventually could taste this famous surubí in Gualeguaychú, that effectively deserves its good reputation. Delicious with just a bit of lemon !
The ride from Gualeguaychú to Córdoba was particularly boring, a never-ending straight-forward stretch cutting in a tree-less countryside studded of some cows and horses… After a first night in Santa Fe and a second in Miramar - on the banks of the « Mar Chiquito » - where I saw still working fine an antic freezer from the 40ies, I eventually arrived in Córdoba for a last night before meeting with the porteño’s group and starting in the surroundings a one week loop in Joe Bar Team’s mode… :)
And Córdoba is a town that knows how to receive you, I have to say. « Second Argentinian’s capital » as we often hear, this city of now nearly 2 millions people presents an interesting architectural heritage and cathedrals at each corner, a cultural and nocturne activity quite impressive for the year’s period, and some good culinary surprises like this « cabrito al horno » (baked young goat) enjoyed in a downtown’s restaurant - pure feast !
Next day I was going to meet with the porteños in Tanti, small town located west from Villa Carlos Paz - itself about 50kms west from Córdoba - where Toto’s family provided us a holidays house (thanks to them !) to drop our stuffs and go riding light in the surroundings. I recommend for this stretch the road 73 said « camino de las 100 curvas », a pleasant curves series along a forest’s water stream… So enjoyable after the boring 1.150kms straight from Montevideo to Córdoba ! It gets out of the forest near the San Roque’s dam at the origin of this artificial lake, of which south’s bank hosts the town of Villa Carlos Paz. I did there a late lunch break before to go on toward Tanti and meet the « cabritos » - group’s nickname for the occasion in reference to the mountain tracks foreseen in the coming week, arrived on their side in the early morning after having driven all night long from BsAs and yet riding around in the afternoon…
On the right side’s picture where we’re taking an aperitif (yes I know, the iphone shows its limits in night photography), I introduce you from left to right the cabritos porteños : Carlos, Toto, Chincho, and Dany !
