Costs pp: Bus from Chuy 157p.
Caught the afternoon bus to Treinta y Tres a small town with a population of around 20,000. The scenery wasn't spectacular as Uruguay is just rolling green pasture so we slept a lot of the way. Luckily in TyT the tourist office was open and we got a map and directions to the home of our 'couch'. When we arrived they were out in their small back yard having a mate with their exchange student (Anna from Norway) and her friend. We got such a lovely welcome and for the next few days we became a part of Fabiana, Rodolpho and Juan Carlos (5?) family along with Anna of course.
While there we also got to meet and spend an afternoon with Fernando another 'couch' in the area. He lives right next to a lake and with all the rain they have had in the area the lake rose to within 6 feet of his home, so it hasn't been a very comfortable time for him. We have been watching on the news and the internet about the continuous storms and rain that has been happening in northern Uruguay and above it in Argentina. Salto and Paysundu are both flooded out and over the border in the matching Argentinian towns they must be having the same problems as a river runs along there. With Uruguay having suffered a drought in the preceeding 2 years the ground has become baked hard and now with the huge amounts of rain they are now getting the ground just cannot absorb it and any places near rivers have flooded. Fernando took us out in his little van to meet his family and see his home and also on a tour of the outside of the town where we could see the level of the water and the problems it has created. On bridge we were on the water was right up to the road level, this is now that it has abated about 3 or 4 meters!
Sunday was election day for Uruguay and we were lucky enough to be able to go up town in the evening and witness the celebrations of some of the locals. There was much noise and everyone who owned a car and supported the winning party was out driving in the main street and tooting their horn. It was a good happy feeling.
Kent has been having more problems with his teeth and luckily Rodolpho and Fabiana have a dentist friend so we went to her and she fixed him up and gave him some meds for his wisdom tooth which has become overly sensitive. So all good now...
Next stop unknown but we will take the bus to Melo and decide there where to go next.
