October 24th 2024 – Montevideo, Uruguay

Before leaving Foz do Iguaçu I managed to complete my first Brazilian Workout with my pubic hair intact.
With that notch on my belt it was time to hit the road and have a closer look at Brazil.

Brazil is a huge country. It is bigger than the contiguous US. The heat and humidity makes the northern part of the country less than ideal for motorcycle riding. At least for a cold blooded viking like me. The southern part on the other hand offers a more moderate climate – especially now in the spring.

I don’t know exactly what I had expected Brazil to be like, but I was in for a surprise.
Everything seemed well organized and modern as we made our way, on good roads, through rolling hills covered by pastures, fields and forest. It was very picturesque and had an almost Northern European feel to it.
It was a tad warm when we arrived in São Miguel do Oeste mid afternoon. Perfect conditions for a dip in the pool just outside our room.

We woke in the morning to the sound of thunder. Rain was running down the windows while we enjoyed one of the most impressive breakfast buffets on the journey so far.

The rain had stopped when we waddled to the bikes. The temperatures were pleasant and it stayed mostly dry all day.
It was a lovely day’s ride. We encountered a lot of wildlife along the roads: Deer, coyotes, amarillos, possums, turtles, snakes and a multitude of feathered creatures. Some were even alive.

With the sun low in the sky we arrived in the small town of Itaara where we had booked a cabin for 2 nights. Just down the road we found a place called Parador 158. It’s a restaurant and a popular venue for motorcyclists. They were busy setting up for an event while we had dinner. It was a cool place.

During the night a French guy had occupied the cabin next to ours. He was a couple of months into a solo ride around South America on a GS. He seemed to be in a hurry – having arrived late evening and taking off right after breakfast.
Katrine and I moved at a slower pace. First on a run through the countryside followed by a dip in the pool. Later we went for a walk around town that eventually took us back to Parador 158.

The event they had prepared for the previous day was now up to speed with stalls, live music and drunk bikers. There was a good atmosphere. We had dinner before returning to our cabin.

4 hours in gorgeous weather on nice roads brought us to the Uruguayan border. We had a nice lunch en route in an attempt to spend our remaining Brazilian cash before leaving the country.

The border crossing at Aceguá was very relaxed. Getting out of Brazil took 10 minutes. Then a short ride to Uruguay immigration and another 10 minutes to get a 3 month visa. From there we had to ride 11 km to reach customs. It was located in a rural setting and manned by 2 amiable ladies. It took little over an hour to do the TIP, mainly because of an ancient scanner that worked at a snail’s pace. Katrine hung out in the office chatting with the ladies while I chilled in the shade admiring life stock. No one else was processed at the border while we were there.

From the border we had less than an hour’s ride to Melo where we had booked a townhouse for the night.

The difference from Southern Brazil was immediately noticeable. Everything looked more dilapidated. It was not what I had expected considering that Uruguay is the richest country in South America by GDP per capita.
We also noticed a scary jump in prices. Everything was suddenly very expensive.

Uruguay is a complex country that stands out in many ways.
There are no indigenous people in the country. They got wiped out. The genocide of the Charrúa culminated on April 11, 1831 with the Massacre of Salsipuedes, where most of the Charrúa men were killed by the Uruguayan army and the remaining 300 Charrua women and children were divided as household slaves and servants among Europeans.
The country ranks first in the world on a per capita basis for its contributions to the United Nations peacekeeping forces.
It was the first country in the world to fully legalized cannabis as well as same-sex marriage and abortion.

The (expensive) place we had rented in Melo turned out to be a charming dump in a dodgy neighborhood, but it had secure parking so all was good.
As soon as we turned off the bikes in front of the house we were confronted with maybe the biggest peculiarity in Uruguay – the population. They are the most accommodating and talkative people I’ve ever encountered.
A guy on a scooter who had followed us for several blocks just wanted to welcome us to the town and find out where we were from. The woman next door came over to keep us company while we waited for our host to arrive. A couple of other people passing by on the street stopped to say hello.
It has been the same everywhere we go in the country. The funniest example is when we buy groceries. It takes forever to leave the shop as the cashier typically scans 1 item then talks for a minute before scanning the next and so on. The genuine interest is heartwarming.
We went for an evening walk in Melo. The place looked a bit rough but the atmosphere was pleasant.

In the morning an old lady from across the street wouldn’t let us leave before she had taken a picture of us and we had shared links to our travel stories.

Empty roads through a rural setting took us south through the country. It gave me time to consider our decision to leave The Andes and travel east across the continent.
I was getting a bit bored in the mountains. It might sound spoiled considering the beautiful scenery, the amazing riding and the wonderful people, but after 5 months of more or less the same, things started to blur together and lose their magic. The change of direction and scenery have reinvigorated the journey for both Katrine and me. We made the right decision.

Traffic intensified as we got closer to Montevideo.
More than half of Uruguay’s population of 3.5 million people live in the capital. A very wet weather forecast had made us decide to stay put for a few days.

We rented a small apartment through Airbnb. It was cheaper and looked much nicer than anything we could find on Booking. Having an apartment with a fully equipped kitchen would also allow us to save some money by cooking our own food. To give you an indication of the price level when eating out – just a Big Mac costs US$11.

With the bikes tucked away in a locked yard a couple of blocks from the apartment, we went shopping to fill up the fridge. Most things were about double the price compared to even Denmark which is considered one of the most expensive countries in the world. It made us skip some of the delicacies we usually like to treat ourselves with and make do with essential food stuff.

We decided not to buy any SIM cards for Uruguay. The decision had nothing to do with money though.
For a long time we always bought SIM cards for both our phones as one of the first things when we arrived in a new country. SIM cards and data are generally pretty cheap in Latin America.
Since leaving Bolivia we have made do with a single SIM card for Katrine’s phone. If I needed to get online with my phone while we were on the move, I just used her phone as a hotspot. It worked fine.

Most of the time I was just off line. That worked surprisingly fine as well. I was reminded how it was to travel pre smartphones. I suddenly remember how liberating it is to be truly out of reach once in a while.
There is wifi in many locations nowadays and I learned that I rarely (if ever) really needed to be online in between those places. Not being online all the time required me to plan a bit more ahead and forced me to postpone checking up on things until later. It made me more present in the moment.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my smartphone. It is an amazing tool that makes life easier in many ways. We just have to remember that the easier isn’t always better – and more importantly that every time we look at the phone it consumes 2 valuable and limited resources: Our time and attention.

With that in mind and plans to only be in the country for a week we decided to skip SIM cards at least until we reach Argentina.

Now that we are on the subject of being online, I want to share something else I have been thinking about.
I have always enjoyed reading about other people’s journeys and adventures. At first it was in books or magazine articles. Later the internet took over with advrider as the main contenter. I have often used the stories as inspiration and sources of information for my own travels.
Social media has taken this sharing of experiences to a whole new level. People share as they go (like me) and are often in close and constant contact with other like minded travelers. There are specific groups for every flavor of travel.
I only became aware how intense it is, when I recently got invited to join a Whatsapp group for motorcycle travelers in South America. The group only has a few hundred members, many of which are currently on the road in South America. I can see many benefits of being part of a group like that. What surprised me was the amount of traffic in the group and many of the subjects discussed. Hundreds of new messages are posted every week (I turned off notifications after a few hours). Most of the content is just chit chat but there are also many posts about where to go and what to do. After a couple of days I stopped following the content.

The negative effect of sharing with and listening too much to other travelers is that everyone ends up going to the same places and doing the same things – exactly like what happened for backpackers when Lonely Planet became popular in the 90s. Suddenly everyone followed the same routes, stayed at the same hostels, ate at the same restaurants and visited the same sights. I believe it was driven by a combination of insecurity, FOMO and a lack of imagination. It turned what could have been an adventure into a predictable vacation.
It seems to me that overland motorcycle travel (like almost any kind of travel) is moving in the same direction. There are still plenty of adventures to be had. Just because more people do big trips, doesn’t take anything away from the individual journey but we have to be more conscious than ever if we want to avoid just following in other people’s footsteps.

Let us leave my head for now and return to Montevideo.

The weather was still great during our second day in town. We used the opportunity to have a look around.
First stop was the Port Market – famous for being the best place in the country to eat meat. It was still early in the day they had only just begun to prepare the menu for the day. It was just as well, since we couldn’t afford to eat there anyway.
The Old Town was charming and offered us the first view of The Atlantic Ocean since we arrived in South America.
The general elections to find Uruguay’s next president will take place on Saturday – 2 days from now. Election campaigns were putting in a final effort all over town. It created a festive atmosphere.

We returned to our apartment with tired legs after a long day in the city, ready to ride out the coming days bad weather from the cozy confines of the apartment.