The bureaucracy in Montevideo, taxis and motorbike

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  Montevideo, Uruguay
Thursday, January 7, 2010

So, the whole truth about our bikes and the customs procedures in Montevideo have been revealed today. The BMWs, Africa and the Zebra are all safe and sound in one of the warehouses in the harbour. We had a chance to go there and take a look and even touch our properties. But for now this is all we can do, i´m afraid. We were told it takes up to 7 working days to get through all the border procedures so we have to devise some cunning plan to pass this time in the most pleasureable manner. If all goes well we may be able to drive off on Wednesday but nobody knows for sure. So the idea now is to rent a van and go on the south-east coast of Uruguay. I already made some arrangements with some Uruguayans at the hostel where I stayed last night and if we go to Punta del Diablo, we will be able to party with them in the night. That place is a tourist destination, but only for Uruguayans, unlike other places which are full of Argentinians and people of other nationalities. I´ve met some guys on the street today while walking back from Pocitos to our new hostel as I had to bring some of my personal things over. The rest is staying in Pocitos tonight. They told me that the population of Uruguay increases by 60% during the first two weeks of January. Apparantly it´s the highest period of the high season. This night we will be staying at the Red Hostel in the centre of Montevideo. It´s much bigger than the Pocitos hostel where I stayed last night, but also less home-like.

Today we spent the day walking from one place to another filling forms, driving in taxis. We also had a chance to eat in a low-end cheap bar for locals and drink in an even more low-end drink bar. Both should get a 5* rating for the look & feel. After seeing the bikes we went to pick up the first half of the lost luggage. The rest should have come today 1 hour ago but I don´t know what the situation is at the moment. Then we checked in the hostel and I had to go back to Pocitos to pick my stuff. On the way back I managed to get lost by taking the wrong bus and to lose my ticket before the ticket warden asked for it. I arrived quite a bit late and the guys have left by then so I have to look for them now. The phones don´t work here and the texts arrive days later so I guess I might need to find some companionship for tonight on my own.

In terms of Montevideo, apparently people here are addicted to two things: Yerba Mate and removing baffles from their mufflers. I had a taste of Yerba today from a guy at the hostel and it was really good. It tasted like a bitter strong green tea and gave me a sensation like after one beer and a soft joint. I´ll be buying the Mate (cup) and the straw tomorow. It´s a perfect ocasion. The argentinian ones are smaller and not worth purchasing. The empty, loud exhausts here are crazy. It´s like if Marek Amrozy had his exhaust tuning company here. All small 100cc scooters sound like Harleys but weirdly, the Harleys are silent as a Melex.

I took some photos of the city today and I´m gonna upload them tonight or early morning tomorrow.

PS. My only shirt with a collar started to develop a weird smell and my toe-nail which I hurt while climbing over a week ago is now getting yellow. It looks like I´m going to say ´good bye´ to it in a while. Tomorrow it´s gonna be another day in the city and hopefully we´ll hit the road with our newly rented van in the afternoon.

Hasta luego,

TJ

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

In the city centre	An example of post-collonial architecture	A street	A park
Plazza de Independencia	Las palmas	A fasade of an old building in the old town	Park 2
Local taxi	An old building 'Praga style'	Pretor figuring out how the lift works	My new girlfriend   Comments!
In front of an immigration office	a Ghanaian trotro in Montevideo	We may be riding this	a 5* diner
They also have 'schabowe' in Uruguay	Barro de alcoholicos	'patrz pan - kuń'	Inside an old building
Fiat 500	post mortem	An orange truck	Pretor and his bike
All of them arrived safely   Comments!	The petrol-heads at 3am

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