Carmelo
We stayed in " Colonia " to visit the rest of the museums.
The tourist office had told us that they would open at 10 a.m. Knowing that, we organize our day starting with the tour of the museums ... Once again, the tourist office does not know the opening hours of its main attractions in the municipality ... It becomes painful.... Here the museums open at 11:30
In the meantime we walk around the old town to see that some of the museums are being repaired or closed! The few sites open are of little interest.
We are back on the road towards the border with a stop to admire the bullring.
Our bivouac tonight is beautiful and we can witness a wonderful sunset.
Tomorrow we cross the border.
La Colonia Del Sacramento
As usual we leave quite late.
To reach our next stop, we pass through a green cultural landscape.
The weather is a little overcast and we drive on a not very busy highway.
We settle in the city on the edge of the "Rio de la Plata" where we can glimpse the contours of the city of "Buenos-Aires".
After lunch, we set off to the assault of this city listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the quality of its architecture mixing Spanish and Portuguese styles.
At first sight we dont understand why ... The city seems sad and unattractive.
Founded in 1680 by the Portuguese Manuel de Lobo as "Nova Colônia do Santíssimo Sacramento", it is the oldest city built by Europeans in Uruguay.
Located in front of Buenos Aires, the city was fortified and a port was built to facilitate trade between Rio de Janeiro and the capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
For several years, Colonia was the scene of confrontations between Portuguese and Spanish until the Treaty of Madrid in 1750.
We take a pass to visit the monuments and museums of the city.
* The Barrio historico: The historic district of Colonia is entirely paved and concentrated around the Plaza de Amas. A very shady square lined with colonial houses of tiles and stucco.
We only visit two museums: L'espacio Portugues and el espacio Rubuffo.
After a quick tour of the city we return to the camper.
Montevideo
When we wake up, no bad surprises with gas ... all gas appliances behave normally ... That’s good news. The day is dedicated to visiting the capital of Uruguay.
Montevideo was founded in 1723 to dislodge the Portuguese who were a threat to Buenos Aires after they had established several garrisons on the shores of the Río de la Plata.
Soon, the port of Montevideo was the most important in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
In 1807, Montevideo was occupied by the British troops but was liberated 6 months later by the Argentinean and Uruguayan militias.
However, Montevideo remained loyal to the Spanish Crown during the May Revolution of 1810 and was occupied by the independentists. Annexed by Brazil, it was not until 1828 that Uruguay gained its independence and Montevideo became its capital.
Unfortunately there is not much to visit and we are very disappointed.
We return to the camper van to spend the afternoon working on the site.
Montevideo
After a very short night due to the jetlag we leave for the storage where our faithful companions await us.
Before, we do some shopping because we plan to stay in the storage that is located in the middle of nowhere in the countryside
.
On arrival, we find our motorhome that Felix had taken out of the garage.
Cleaning the gas system was done and painting the hood.
We test the gas installation several times while we quietly install.
Without the gas repair, we would not have been able to leave .... The gas is essential for us ... For the kitchen, refrigerator, hot water and heating.
It’s nice but cold .... In the early morning the temperature dropped to 1° and in our house 10°... This makes a change from the last months in France.
Before leaving, we install the mosquito nets and shutters, then we go to Montevidéo.
Stop at the supermarket and rest on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
Little fright in the late afternoon, the fridge no longer works ... Impossible to start it with gas!!! ... The piezo is out of service.
We contact the storage to explain our situation. We decide to wait until the next day to return to the site.
Christophe, knowing the ignition system by heart, disassembles the burner and other parts to clean them ... Result the fridge is working.
Montevideo
Finally our world tour continues.
We stayed in France for 5 months to avoid coming back too early in the winter season.
We spent the winter of 2023 in Bolivia and it left us a very cold memory!
So we changed our return date originally scheduled for July 3 to September 13.
These few months spent in France allowed us to see our families, our friends and maintain our home and even travel
We enjoyed all these moments of happiness ... but the call of travel is stronger.
As always, we take off from Barcelona and leave our house the day before , taking the train from Montpellier .... Thanks to Pascale for her taxi service to the station ...
We are well loaded: two suitcases, a backpack for cameras, a backpack for guides and papers, a suitcase cabin for computers and ... a ski bag!
No, we do not go skiing, this cover allows us to carry two sets of mosquito nets and shutters for our windows in the motorhome with a height of 1.50 m (to be changed after 20 years).
Our train arrives on time in Montpellier but leaves with a 4 hours delay ... A suicide on the rails between Sète and Narbonne. Fortunately we were on board well seated during this wait!
We arrive at our hotel at half past midnight ...
The next day we reach the airport for a long 16 hours journey with a stopover in Sao Paulo.
ROAD BOOK 181
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