5/4/2011 - Chuy, Uruguay: On The Road Again

Well, the adventure is definitely back on. After an incredible weekend spent with friends in Buenos Aires. I said my goodbyes and hit the road. My Danish friend Teresa has flown the atlantic so that we could tackle Brazil and Uruguay by motorcycle. We spent a week as tourists in Buenos, but on a cold rainy Sunday I knew it was time to finally leave the big city and head into the country. We ate my favorite pizza at Kentucky's then packed up La Chupacabra with Teresa's giant backpack and took off. We didn't even make it a block before it fell off, but on take two, with a lot more bungees we made it work. 

It wasn't long back on the road until I was getting hassled by the cops. Not even a hundred miles in, I'm flagged down and asked to see all my papers. Oops. My B. I forgot to forge a new date on my expired insurance. This is going to be a while. The cop (of course) was a total douche and never had his story straight about the fine / bribe or other consequences. His first asking price was $550! American! Fuck that. I'll be dead before I pay that absurd amount of money for not having insurance. We go back and forth for an hour or two, and he backs down the $320. I mean if I'm going to have to pay a crazy amount of money, I'm at least going to make the cops life miserable for the next few hours. Anyhow, since he wouldn't take the $100 cash bribe, I'm stuck with what appears to be a legit ticket. It's got all my real information and I even have to pay at a real bank. I finally get all my documents back and leave. Now I'm in a real pickle. Pay the absurd amount of money or risk it, and hope all their computer systems aren't connected and I'll be able to exit and enter back into Argentina. After some helpful tips from my favorite information source (dudes who pump my gas), I'm stamped out of Argentina and stuck at the border in Uruguay. 

Notoriously corrupt cops. I wish I would have read the warnings on the internet before hand. Oh well.

Turns out not having insurance is a big deal in Uruguay too. I was able to smile and sweet talk the lady into letting me leave Argentina, but the old guy in Uruguay. Not so much. How I've made if this far, I'll never fucking know. Anyhow, he sees right through my half assed, newly forged insurance document, and won't let me in without coverage. He's genuinely concerned and offers up some solutions, but there's one big problem: no company in bordering Argentina or Uruguay will sell a foreigner insurance. I still give it a try, so I hitchhike back into Argentina and for three hours I go on a wild goose chase for the elusive MercoSur insurance. It's eight at night and all the companies are about to close, so I've got one last shot at insurance company number six. If this doesn't work I'm going back to the border to beg the old man. Luckily, it's a nice guy at home and he understands my situation. He starts bitching about the policy in Uruguay, and about how him and his family had all kinds of problems last summer. Now I'm thinking "all right this guy is getting fired up. He might actually help me." Which he eventually does by giving me a really good forged document. Of course he couldn't just sell me insurance because that would be downright logical. I swear sometimes things are just so fucked up down here you'd swear the whole country is just plain retarded. 

Afterwards I grab a cab back to the border. I put on my best Oscar performance and act super excited and confident that I was actually able to purchase insurance. And after a quick scan and some handwritten documents I have access to Uruguay. Score! Yet again, I'm forced to break the golden rule and drive at night in search of money, food, and lodging. We had failed to eat the entire day, so at nine at night we finally sat down for some savior empenadas, coke, and beer. After dinner we were off to find a place to stay in the little Uruguayan border town. We eventually come upon a cheap looking motel. Little did we know, but we were in for a treat because we stopped at a famous Telo.

Camping in Uruguay.

Telos are massively popular here, and since it's low season and hostels are closed, it's the cheapest option for a bed to sleep in. For the nightly price of twenty bucks total we got a sterile clean room, plastic wrapped everything, including sheets and towels, as well as classy 70's porn on the tv, and mirrors everywhere. I'm just glad I wasn't sad and alone, because having a friend there was like being a kid in a candy store. After a fun night I was awaken early the next morning because of the annoying wake up calls and threats of having to pay for additional hours of usage. Oh well, onward an forward to the famous Uruguayan beaches. 

Giant hand in Punta Del Este, Uruguay.

Getting back on the bike after two months off took some getting used too. Only a couple hundred miles into a days ride I'm already pretty sore and ready to get off the bike. So I take it pretty slow, and proceed to take plenty of roadside naps in the sun. Always eventually getting back to riding to wherever it was I was going. Uruguay was pretty relaxed. It had great sandwiches, and like most places had some really nice and charming people. But since the beaches were frigid cold we moved on to the last country I plan to visit here in South America: Brazil.