U-don't know what Ura-missing (not damn much)

So there's been a notable decline in the quantity of posts lately, and there are two reasons for that. The first, is that Internets in Uruguay are spotty at best. The second reason, is that honestly, I don't have all that much to report.

After leaving the springs, we went back to the second largest city in Uruguay, Salto and struggled to entertain ourselves for a single afternoon/evening. We strafed the city, street by street, for every possible entertainment, finding little of interest other than a river front and a few haphazard plazas with requisite dude-on-horse statue. We visited the one art museum ( but couldn't take pictures of the best feature- and amazing old-timey shower cage that had a special hose for the nether regions...ewww, yet, practical!). We were happy to get on the 5 a.m. bus the next morning to head to Mercedes. Promising name right?!!


Mercedes makes no claims to being a tourist town (Salto doesn't really either), but man oh man. There was nothing open, nothing to do, not even on a Saturday afternoon. We later discovered that all the locals were engaged in one of two activites- horsey business, or more likely DIRT BIKING! Yeah, dirt bikes and little motos were HUGE in Mercedes. Saturday night for the kids seems to mean buzzing down to the waterfront, or back up and down the barren pedestrian street in an endless loop. For us, it meant wine out of a box (only the finest for team curious) and television.

(Below: We find entertainment at the grocery store)

I don't mean to be so critical of Ugy. It's a nice place and the people are sweet, but they really are totally lacking in what I guess I would call an entrepreneurial verve. Say that every store in the town is closed, and your store, which, say, you live above, is also closed while you sit upstairs watching futbol. What might happen if you were to open, even for a few hours, at a time when everyone else is closed, and watch your t.v. there, occasionally participating in commerce? Might it not make your life better with minimum effort? I don't know. It's so mysterious.

Anyhoo. We're in a much more cosmopolitan town today (you can see the towers of BA like tiny little boxes across the water). There's stuff to do here and things are open, so I am happy. Also, we've got several promising leads to fill the gaping whole in our crew, so that is rather excellent as well. Fingers crossed that we will find our perfect match.