Uruguay

Day 560,
59 997 km since the beginning of the journey,
Uruguay

Thursday morning began with the absence of the internet connection again. That meant that the connection lasted so long that the message displayed in Spanish reported about the lack of credit. It was a bit of a surprise because I had paid 100 pesos and then used 19 pesos only twice. (for which you get two days or 48 hours), then elementary mathematics shows that there should be still 62 pesos. Should. But still no connection at all.

Since I had planned to drive to Uruguay in the morning the decision was to sort the matter out later. There are about 75 thousand inhabitants in Qualeguaychu. The name of the city comes from the Guarani sentence "The River of Large Jaguar". In January and February a big carnival takes place here.


Juicy mandarins are everywhere on sale.

Pre-Delta NP

Day 558,
59921 km since the beginning of the journey,
Gualeguaychú.

About the weather again. The last days have been drier. I was beginning to think for a moment that what was the point of constantly writing about the endless rain but reaching here, by the river of Gualeguaychú , it turned out that all the rainfalls of the past weeks had caused here a real flooding. At first could not realize the previous situation as the river was flowing nicely and neatly between the banks. Only the shores were somehow too dirty and muddy. And then I was shown the line of the water level on the wall of the house and that was sufficiently high. Almost 3 meters.


The red line in the picture shows the level of the water during the flood.

Rosario

Day 554,
59 163 km since the beginning of the journey
Argentina, Rosario.

The Memorial of the National Flag of Argentina is situated in Rosario, by the Parana River, as just here, on February 27, 1812 the flag was hoisted for the first time.

Zoo Lujan

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Day 549
58 798 km since the beginning of the journey.

Lujan is a small town, 60 km from Buenos Aires. There is a very peculiar zoo near the town – most peculiar, because visitors can go inside the cage of the lion and the tiger as well.

 
Together with the King of Animals.

Buenos Aires, some more pictures

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Day 549
Buenos Aires, a waterfront parking lot
58 714 km since the beginning of the journey.

I`ve changed my overnight place. The Tigre Camping Place was quite a nice place, but still 30 km away from the town, it takes more than an hour to reach the town. And not only for the time spent on driving , but simply because it is time to move on. And as the rainy weather does not show any signs of coming to an end somehow, it will be necessary to find a drier area. I met some Germans, who had been travelling in South America for 8 months and they only had had two days of rain. Made me speechless.


Another kind of Buenos Aires. Viewed from motorway which leads to the centre of town.

Buenos Aires, Recoleta

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Day 544
58 503 km since the beginning of the journey,
Buenos Aires,

The size of Buenos Aires is impressive, according to Wikipedia the area is 203 km2 and the number of inhabitants together with the suburban parts of the city is almost 13 million. And the list of the main attractions in the city corresponds to the size as well and “Recoleta” is always on the list.

The place is surrounded by sales counters, everything - which could be of any interest to tourists - is available. Souvenirs, balloons and pies, as usual, belong to one of the city`s most significant sight. Walking in between the stalls I feel that there is something different here and after some time I realize the difference – there is no super-aggressive sale here. But maybe I do not see myself so much like a tourist, because tourists can be usually recognized having a tourist map in the hand and wearing small backpack with a water bottle pocket. And the camera betrays as well. My rucksack and tourist card are left in the car, the car is be left in a guarded parking lot, and the place itself is not far away. A walk a couple of miles is quite useful. And the small Sony camera fits into the pocket freely.



The church - Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Pilar (ie the Virgin of Pilar) - built in 1732 is seen from the distance.

Buenos Aires, Tigre

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Day 541,
58,426 kilometres since the beginning of the journey,
Buenos Aires, Tigre



It is raining. For some time - just rain and then again real downpour. And everything around is gray. Meanwhile even some mosquitoes are flying around, but they don`t matter as here, in Buenos Aires, there is no malaria and no necessity to take Malarone for prophylaxis. They say that Malarone has no side effects, and when you start to take them you do not feel anything, but once you quit taking them – you really feel yourself much better. Still chemistry.

Season 2 - South America

Argentina,
Buenos Aires, Tigre
58,360 km since the beginning of the journey

I'm not going to make a long introduction here - as there was no progress in writing in the meantime, nothing to do. Not because of anything has not happened, but rather on the contrary, all sorts of things are happening and too many changes too often. And in case there are too many activities in progress, then, at first you try to accomplish the necessities at first again and get the situation under control.

So I will continue to reflect the current situation, as by now I have reached the next continent, namely - South America, Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentine.