The land of Corned Beef

After a pleasant few days in Carlos Paz I headed East back towards the border with Uruguay.It was a long ride along highways across a plane of farmland and then across a marshland for about 30 miles. This is down stream from Iguacu. It is funny to think that this water was pouring over the falls a while ago.

It was impossible to take a good picture as it is all so flat.

The weather started to close in and the rain started whilst I still had two hours to go. I decided to stop in a small but nice farming town called Gualeguay. The town was deserted but I found an hotel. Once I got changed I went to find a drink and some food. I then found out why no one was on the streets......it was the Super Classico football match  River Plate v Boca. the whole of Argentina comes to a halt when that is on and the bars were packed with all faces glued to the TV.

It ended 2 all. After the game everyone spilled on to the streets in either red & white or blue & gold shirts. Cars & bikes were roaring around with horns blaring (not sure why as no one won).

Then the rain really started and did not stop. Rained all night and was still raining in the morning. I took an executive decision to stay put. Just as well as the news was carrying pictures of major flooding in nearby Buenos Aires. Obviously New York was getting its share of water too.

 

It was a dull town so luckily it was dry today. I whizzed over to the border, across a new bridge and another enormous river - Rio Uruguay, and tried to exit Argentina.

I now know why it was so quick to get in at the Brazilian border.......the Prat did not enter the bike details on to the system! I had 6 Customs officers scratching their heads at what to. Eventually after explaining my life story 10 times they shrugged their shoulders and waved me away. The Uruguayan part went smoothly.

The name of the local town is Fray Bentos. I didn't realise all those tins of Corned Beef actually had a home



The scenery doesn't change much, still large, flat farms with lots of cows but the there is a sense of quiet satisfaction here. The houses are universally well looked after and all have nice gardens, this is about as close to England as you can get in South America. The people speak very clear Spanish and are very polite. It has a nice feel to it.