Arriving in Uruguay

 Uruguay is “across the ditch” or the puddle as they say in Spanish, from Argentina. Buenos Aires and Montevideo are separated by the muddy River Plate.  The River Plate is a short, very wide river which is actually the confluence of two major rivers. So on the map it looks like the sea, and standing on land and sailing across it, it looks like the sea, but in fact is fresh water.  It’s brown because the two big rivers that form it bring a whole lot of sediment down from Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia.  Even at the Montevideo level, the water is mostly fresh, with a bit of salt mixed in.

So…there is a fast, jet-powered ferry that gets you from Buenos Aires to Montevideo in two hours, and costs twice as much as the slower ferry that takes you to the closest land point, from where you get a 3-hr bus ride into Montevideo.  I went on the fast one, called Fransisco after the illustrious Argentine pope 🤨.  It was built in Tasmania, and reaches 100kmph on the water! Really impressive to see the massive jets churning the water out the back.

For those whose geography is somewhat lacking 😊

Florencia kindly got up at 4am to take me to the downtown ferry terminal, so I could do all the customs procedures before boarding. Not bad grins for 6am!

Adios Buenos Aires! Sorry the photos are so unclear but the windows are covered in salt.  But you can see the jets (kind of)

Looks like you’re out at sea, but it’s all river!

Pulling in to Montevideo port

Offloading cars from the ferry

That’s the Pope’s namesake!

Don and Kathie Huster kindly came to pick me up.  Driving to their apartment downtown Montevideo.  They are from USA and came to live permanently here about 18 months ago.  We really appreciate their open home as there are very few friends in Montevideo, and none who can have us for any length of time.

Their apartment building, they live on the 7th floor

Coke floats after the Wednesday afternoon Bible study, with the two friends that were able to come.

Out and about around the area Don and Kathie live.  A few blocks away is the “Rambla”, a walkway around the waterfront where everyone congregates on a hot evening.

The icecreams are just as good as Argentina! These are all different icecream flavours under those lids 😃

Looking out from th balcony at Don and Kathie’s

Streets around the area…it’s strange for me.  I feel as though I were still in Argentina in many ways, yet keep having to remember it’s a different country.  If you want to get an Uruguayan’s ire up, you call their country “the rebellious province”…meaning of Argentina! 😁 Argentina and Uruguay have a relationship similar to Australia/NZ

Lunch all together after fellowship meeting in this home.

Followed by 1:30 gospel meeting…in about 35°C! This is about our sum total of friends in Montevideo.