Two Capital Cities. One Day.

Part two of this journey is drawing to a close. El Burro is in hibernation in Montevideo for the next 3½ months, a guest of Willi's Moto's, the go to place for South American adventure riders. Across the River Plate (Rio de Plata) lies the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina where this post is being typed. Ferries connect the two cities, a high speed (and expensive) catamaran connects the cities directly in 2½ hours. A more economical option is to catch the ferry from Colonia, a narrower water crossing  that entails a 2½ coach ride from Montevideo for a 4 hour journey in all. I had time to spare so took the more frugal option on the pocket.

I visited Colonia de Sacramento earlier in the week. Another UNESCO location, nominated for the well preserved Portuguese area down by the port. My ride to Colonia was the last time I saw the sun, which I suppose was fortunate, but it leaves the pictures of Colonia, Montevideo and BA rather lack luster. 

The gloomy weather in Colonia didn't bother this guy at all, he rather deftly jumped up onto the window ledge as I approached.

Old Town Colonia is a magnet for tourists in the summer and is well stocked with good looking restaurants, as is the newer section of town. 

I had the best artery clogging parilla so far, a chunk of beef rib, pork loin, blood sausage, chorizo, liver and grilled chitlins. The latter were sampled but mostly hidden under the rib bone and beef trimmings at the end of the meal; I didn't want to appear a wuss!

Storms rolled through Montevideo the night I arrived but I was able to get the bike and luggage to Willi's during a break in the rain. Putting wet gear into store and mildew would have been the gift on my return, so I got lucky. I had a tour of the shop courtesy of Kevin, Willi's son. Willi restores old bikes and his store is full of them.

Kevin invited me to join him, his mother and a couple of buddies at the historical Teatro Solis for a Tangazo concert (music inspired by Tango, no dancing though), it was a great way to end the cultural side of this leg.

The Lock Fountain in Montevideo, which it is said will ensure life long love to those whose names are inscribed on a lock attached to the fountain. 

The bronze chap is Carlos Gardel, the most famous Uruguayan songwriter, some of his songs were played at the Solis the night before. Some vistas in Montevideo could give the impression of being in Paris, something that is also often said of BA.

The Uruguayan flag is pretty cool in my opinion.

So onto BA. A quick walk around on my arrival and a couple of pictures to finish with.

The Congress building, illuminated. It has scaffolding around it, nicely hidden in a night shot.

More touring tomorrow, but I will bring this final post of the second leg to a close with a couple of statistics. 

This leg covered exactly 6,000 miles in a curious twist of fate. El Burro needed 88 gallons (US little ones, not the Imperial kind) of fuel delivering about 68 mpg, not too shabby. The most expensive was in Uruguay at nearly $6. 

The two legs combined have put about 10,500 miles on the odometer. 

I will be back home in Richmond on Monday morning, after an overnight flight from BA. 

The journey resumes in late September, I hope you will ride along with me to the end of the world.

Cheers. T2