Border crossing today. We drove into Fray Bentos and spent
our last Uruguayan cash on wine and meat. A little thought went
through my mind about keeping some money for road tolls but dismissed
it. A mistake….. Yes a road toll just
before border. Yes we could pay with US$ so backed out of the pay
booth, found some US$ then an English speaking worker came over to us
and explained how many US$ or Argentinians we’d need. The
Argentinean money was in my hand……. Oh well paid the A$4 got the
change in Argentinian money then headed to customs.
A different system here. We parked the car and entered the office to be told immigration is done in the drive through booth. Good, so we got that all done well we got stamped into Argentina with a 90 day visa, but not out of Uruguay. At the next booth we needed to exit car and go inside to do Aduana for EC. Handed over the Uruguayan paperwork then waited at the counter for the Argentinean counterpart. He came in from outside and was the guy that directed us inside. All good he had some English. EC was no problem got a 90 day Aduana and the info that we needed to leave the country to renew the visa. In some of the other countries we could just apply. Also it is OK to exit the country leaving EC here provided she is still within her 90 day visa.
Across the mighty Rio Uraguay and back into Argentina.The border here is in the middle of the river.
Drove to
Gualeguaychu and camped in the parque municipal. A lovely place well
attended. Camped on the grass in the sun just near Rio Gualeguaychu.
It was very hot but we sat in the shade of the vehicle until the
awning came into play. We did not swim as we could see lots of wire
at the waters edge. Seemed to be more vehicles driving around during
the night… 116km’s