Yesterday, the intrepid crew of the newly arrived land yacht, the Blue Bullet, set off on a shakedown cruise into undiscovered country. Borko was at the helm, I was navigating, and Harry was our security officer (when he wasn’t barking at the livestock, he was testing which of the three seats in the back was most comfortable for sleep).
We left the house about 2 p.m., topped off the tank with Esso premium, and headed north. Our trip took us through parts of the city we had never seen before north and west of Parque Prado–I suspect we were the only gringos around: I am sure we were the only gringos driving around in a Ford minivan with Florida (the state of, not the Departamento of) license plates.
We actually went on streets and roads north through the city, into the nonurban area of the Departamento of Montevideo, and then across the border into Canelones; through its campo and into its city. The Departamento of Montevideo and of Canelones have the biggest speed bumps I have ever seen! In the West Indies, they called them sleeping policeman. If these were policemen, they’re fatter than me. We finally connected with the main highway, Ruta 5, which was four-laned in a vast improvement over the side roads.
The highway north was very similar to the road to Salto, about which I wrote last September. The entire affect was to reinforce the fact that Uruguay is indeed an agricultural powerhouse.
Borko when I had an argument about whether or not the countryside was boringly the same in every kilometer. He was wrong. It was not the same. Sometimes the trees from the left, sometimes the trees were on the right, sometimes they were in the back, sometimes they were alongside. On some farms there were brown and white cattle, but others there were black and white cattle. Some had sheep, others had horses. Sometimes the ponds were square, sometimes they were round.
Maybe Borko was right…
We continued north through Florida, and Durazno, and even cross the border into Tacuarembó at Paso de Toros. We didn’t spend much time there, and we turned around and came back, making sure this time to take the Ruta all the way into Montevideo, bypassing the back roads and side streets.
I am not going to give you any more details now, because on the next trip I will take you my laptop, camera, and digital cell phone modem (assuming Antel gets them in as promised) and Outlook in my blog in real time as I travel. So stay tuned, for the next adventure of the Blue Bullet and her crew.
