After more than twelve months since Plod’s last adventures around South America, we are once again on the road. This time we will begin by exploring Scandinavia, starting off in Denmark, heading further north to explore Norway then into Sweden before we make our way south (at this time we are not sure which route we will be taking) but within four weeks we will be ending up in Tuscany, Italy for a couple of fun weeks, in a villa with most and if we’re lucky all the family, before heading home.
After our three nights on the farm we made the final journey of our adventure in Plod back to Montevideo.
We arrived back in the city in time to visit the Sunday market where they sell anything from chickens, to rabbits, to antiques, fresh fruit and veg, bread, clothes just about anything you could wish for. But it appeared most of the market traders arrive in these beaten up old vehicles, quite frankly it was amazing they made it there, and hard to believe they’d make it home.
Next stop was three nights on an Estancia. Initially we were a little disappointed as we’d something a little more ‘rugged’ in mind!! However as we settled into our stay, we actually enjoyed the experience.
The stay included three meals a day, a horse ride everyday with the Gaucho, and a lovely open fire, for which we were very welcome especially on our first day, as even though the sun was shining brightly, the wind was incredibly chilly.
Our evenings were spent chatting to a lovely family from Rio in Brazil, who spoke excellent english. The wife had grown up in France, gone to University, in Manchester, in the Uk- and met and married a Brazilian guy. They’d lived for a while in Bolivia, and were eager to tell us all about their experiences and life in South America which was interesting.
As we followed the River Uruguay, which had at some point became the Rio De La Plata, we came across and stayed for the night in the city of Colonia Del Sacramento, which is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and capital of the Colonia Department.
We’d decided that our nights in Plod had come to an end, as the evenings had now become really quite chilly so we booked into a small hotel in the historical section of Colonia, which has some cobblestone streets built by the Portuguese in the 17th century.
AS we explored the streets which were steeped in history, we discovered that it was the only Portuguese settlement along the Rio De La Plata and the houses and cobblestoned streets that remain today are built in Portuguese style , with the historic portion of Colonia being reminiscent of old Lisbon. Winding streets and colorful houses are laid out in a pattern different from Spanish colonial cities, and and while the town is obviously on the tourists trail we found it a delight to explore.
Having left Fray Bentos our journey continued along the River Uruguay.
We stopped to enjoy the frequent, fabulous, sandy beaches which lie on the banks of the river. We assumed, that because it was the winter, only ourselves and a few horses seemed to think it was warm enough to enjoy the views and sunshine!?
Our next stop was at the town of Fray Bentos on the banks of the Rio Uruguay.
After a brief look around the town,our next stop had to be the Fray Bentos meat factory. Of course I´m sure most people of our generation will have tried a Fray Bentos meat pie or two, so we were interested to have the chance to look around the factory where they originally came from.
We were given a tour around what remains of the factory, most of the buildings having been left to become derilict. We heard how it was originally a german company, The Liebeg´s Extract of Meat Company Ltd.
Justua Liebeg, set up the company and discovered a way of canning meat, as well as using the extract so giving us Oxo and Bovril. However, as a result of the first World War, Uruguay decided to expel all German immigrants and this included Mr Liebig, resulting in the company being taken over by Anglo del Uruguay, a British owned company (if you look carefully at the photo showing the end of the building the name is still evident). The owners of this company were the Vestey family, the current Lord Vestey living at Stowell Park back in Gloucestershire. Other evidence of British involvement y includes the two cranes that worked the docks, having been built in Leeds.
It seems amazing to think that at its height in the 1950´s and 1960´s they were slaughtering 15,000 cattle a week with 5000 workers coimg from 60 different countries. The factory´s other claims to fame a well as it´s well known products was that it had electricity three years before anyone else in South America and they built the first large scale deep freeze in the world, capable of keeping frozen 50,000 carcases!!
Nigel really fancied a Steak and Kidney pie for dinner that night, but unfortunatly the only one that was available looked as if it was well past its, ´best before date!´
Sine we first arrived in South America, the seasons have changed and we now find ourselves in the winter! However not winter as we know it, the days are on the whole warm, they remind us of warm September days when we might say we were having an Indian Summer. However, as soon as the sun goes down, the evenings become really quite chilly! So to keep warm Nigel lit a fire using the wood which is freely available and we watched the sun go down, before cooking dinner on it.
On this occasion, however, we´d no meat ( a relief as far as I was concerned!) mainly because since the fridge has broken, we have had to buy fresh foods daily, so we had a vegetarian BBQ, it was fabulous, potatoes baked in the ashes, and barbequed onions, peppers, courgettes and tomatoes accompanied by a mug of mate, yes I´m still drinking it. Even Nigel had to admit, for a change it was nice to have a rest from large portions of meat!!!
On the 1st June we crossed the border from Argentina, back into Uruguay, where our adventures had started.
Last time we´d made our way up the west side of the country, so we decided this time to explore the East of the country, following the Rio Urugauy and Rio De Plata south. On the way we stayed at Termas de Guaviyu and Termas de Almiron on camp sites with hot springs.
Ummmmm ….. no comment!!!
plodblogsa 