La Paloma

Having got all our needed stuff sorted and done it was time to relax a little.

Heading for the coast we made our way back down to La Paloma where we had been offered a beach house to stay, by way of timing we decided to stop for 3 nights, the owner doing some maintenance work we offered to help given his generosity of helping us.

There was two outside walls needing water blasting and painting, both of which he had. We set up the water blaster and set too blowing the old paint away and ripping all the loose stuff off ready for painting, given it was mid 30’s it dried real quick allowing us to colour it in and make it look nice again, stoked to be able to help him as he had a lot to do in a shortish time frame and I am pretty sure he appreciated an extra couple of hands to bring it up smart.

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We took a tour along the beach road north and took in some sights, there are huge sand dunes which is a tourist attraction, the beach was covered in these small balloon like things

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A nice casual walk around the town at night led to a lighthouse at the point.

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In the town center there is a whale skeleton which is pretty cool, when you get to stand beside it you get to feel the size of these things

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Camping At Brisas Del Plata

Setting up camp we made a small fire to cook our sausages, we had only just finished tea and was photographing the storm over on the Argentinian side when the camp owner came over and said pack everything up and bring it under cover as it was about to get nasty.

Camp was at the top of the bank, this is the Rio de la Plata ( Plata river, the mouth is 220km wide)

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I had removed my case and had it in pieces spread all over our picnic table and chair … I mean work bench , I had almost executed the necessary repairs so it was a hell quick put back together and clean up which I did.

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This is what was treating us across the other side ..until it came to our side

Ouwh it is beautiful

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Ouwh it is getting closer

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Ouwh it is looking a bit black

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Enter camp owner now

We heeded the camp owners good advice and with no time to spare took our gear, Maya the tent with everything in it in under cover in the main covered area, just as we bought the tent in down it came (thought we left Brasil).

Big winds, lightening, thunder, heavy rain, branches flying and all sorts, we were very appreciative of our good host letting us know and letting us come under cover, then we had to resort everything out as we bought it in in handfuls of unorganized bunches…. a small price to pay to have everything dry and clean.

A peaceful night was had once the weather blew through leaving everything outside flowing and wet with the added bonus for us the temperature had dropped the good part of 10 - 15 degrees making it nice and cool to sleep.

The morning after

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The following day was a clean and clear ride back down the coast having got everything we needed to make the best of the damage repairs, our intention to take in a bit more of Uruguay before departing south.

Colonia

Uruguay seemed to be a fixit stop, for us but thankfully this was the last of it.

The next step was to pick up our Jesse Luggage mounting that Norbert and Greti http://gretiswalk.blogspot.ca/ had bought down from the States for us, these were in Colonia so we hightailed it up, Colonia is a beautiful town but extremely spendie (toursity).

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These old dolls now sitting in the street as potplant holders, the car in front a dining area for the restaurant

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The famous cafe shot

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After our site seeing of Colonia we picked up our parts we made our way to a camp ground only a few km out of town by Rio de la Plata ...not a wee creek either I will add.

The weather was still and calm so we headed for the river, the water was soothingly warm and nice to swim in, no pics this time as I had no togs and you fellas don't wonna picture of my white fluffy cleavage or Andiconda

Montevideo

Our GPS was the next mission, it had stopped working in the center of the screen, Garmin sent us a refurbed unit down to Uruguay, the unit being $167 USD, someone in Garmin very uncleverly wrote an invoice for $486 USD so customs raped us for $220 USD, I was very pissed, the guy at customs was a total wanker and seriously unhelpful so no matter how nice we were to him and much evidence we gave him to show the cost he would not even help so he just saw a loop hole and took it, Uruguayan customs rate right up there with Bolivianos in my book.

We had to shovel out all the money we had just drawn out of the bank, they do not accept USD (like the rest of the country), credit card (like the rest of the country), debit card (like the rest of the country) or anything just Uruguayan Pesos, they have no wifi so we could do things easily and no access to phones or anything, talk about bloody helpful!!!

Being up in Montevideo we were lucky enough to have met Miguel from ADV rider and his wife Silvia and their three children, very very nice people and he rides Jawas, totally cool machinery.

Miguel and Siliva

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Miguel and I having to ride 3 km away to find wifi so we could show customs our bank statement etc, twice this happened.

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Miguel did his best to help us too and was astounded at the lack of help from customs and their attitude so we were not the only ones.

We did a moto tour with Miguel around the city which was cool and we spent some time chatting about life and things, very nice indeed.

The famous MONTEVIDEO sign

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Miguels Jawa

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At one of the local churches, this one was a monster and sat on the skyline and visible from Miguels

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Miguel also organised an asado with some local moto friends, nice food again

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Their pet hamster it played hide and seek with the kittens, was cool to watch them play...in Peru they would have it for lunch tho

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Beautiful private courtyard ....nice place to sit, relax and enjoy mate

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Big thanks to Miguel, Silvia family and friends for making us welcome, even more so in a BIG city this is golden

Uruguay - Chui To La Paloma

Exiting out of Brasil was hard but we hit the Uruguay border and got on with it, some places you hold well in your heart, Brasil is definitely one, all was easy enough and no problem although one of the Uruguayan border staff guys was very arrogant and could not be bothered with us so we were super friendly back making him feel awkward.

Getting our TVIP and stamp in we headed south in and out of different beaches and bays, although the weather was fine it was windy and cold so not many beach goers.

Playa del Moza, beautiful place

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Fortaleza de Santa Teresa was one of our stops, very nice place indeed

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This guy was quiet but welcoming all the same, I think he knows the dude from Foz Do Iguassa

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The old canons lined up

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Arriving at our destination was easy with a simple road trip on tar and some short sections of gravel and what turned out to be very Uruguayan and flat.

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A humped back bridge

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Our shock had been giving us grief and had spat itself only 3 months after having a rebuild which was disappointing, also to add to the pain there was actually only a little over 1 months actual riding time, we took it to a suspension shop who took it part in front of us, very little gas and very little oil that was extremely black too.

The suspension shop said I looked extremely unlikely that the shock had never been apart let alone serviced etc, the main seal looking as old as the hills.

I was gutted at this point given it was supposed to have been done however our new mission was to make it as right as we could so it received new seals, orings oil and nitro this time in front of our eyes, the suspension shop also saying the shock was not that greater condition. ....I could see this too.

I was feeling pretty shafted given it was literally only one months riding time and we had been fed a bunch of bullshit after we queried it over email.

The shop who "rebuilt" it for us then said it was overloaded but also having put it through all the wrong conditions, wet, heat etc (which the shop new about and supposedly rebuilt to suit us!!!), (actually we were in a dry desert at 3000 meters which was cold and dry) at this point I will add the shock we took out prior was knocking only not leaking or anything else but we had to get on with it to get it sorted...frustration plus.

Maya was almost due another valve check so we did it as we had access to a workshop where I could do the work so I was very happy about that, we did change some shims opting for larger clearances than spec, a little more clicky but better in my books, we also changed the factory 42 for 45 pilot as she was running slightly lean and a notable change in temperature was had.

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Some usual maintenance, carb balancing, adjustments, cleaning etc and we were all good.

I had my final bottle of Guarana too with my rum, not sure how I am going to get on now without Guarana

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Living here was psychogoat ... he was a bit different eh

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We had our first Uruguayan Asado which was very nice indeed

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The kittens even got to have some of trimmings...dedicated look on his face

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