13th Day - Family Reunion

10 Feb 15

3,380 - 3,700 km

Colonia del Sacramento 

You are already aware that the big capital cities make me a little uneasy, and although Montevideo is fairly small and I am quite familiar with it, I was still a bit nervous. 

The road out of Colonia was in fairly good condition, but later the road ran up and down all through the hilly countryside. On the relatively small bike (for two), it became a constant change from acceleration to gearing down to make the following peak. But we kept the spirit up!

We entered Montevideo from the west, parts I was not familiar with, but as soon as we got into the harbour, I was able to navigate by memory. And it is a good feeling that you know what and where you are going, especially with lots of  traffic! We drove through the main square La Plaza de Indepedencia, and out along the river where you find a beautiful view of the river, the city, and its beaches. - It is a very special city, especially to me as Uruguay was the first country I came to, and I spent almost a year here!! 

We drove through the neighbourhood where I used to live, which brought back tons of memories! We didn´t give it much time, because I wanted to come back with my parents. We continued along the riverside and by memory we navigated out to the highway heading out east (the signs are mostly no where to be found or are always with a different name than it "should" have). Now we were only some 200 km away. 

  

I remember the first time I laid eyes on Punta del Este, the so called "Miami of South America". A long beautiful beach, boarded with high residential buildings all the way to the end of the bay, and with huge cruisers at anchor. We drove down town and made the loop to see the tiny city before finding the exit to where my family friends live. 

I remembered our exit being 22, but I was obviously mistaken because the exit seemed nothing like to what I remembered, and when we arrived at 30 and the end of Punta it was a fact. We drove back and "unofficially" got lost in the neighbourhood where all the streets look alike. "Officially" we were getting to know the area. 

Finally, after asking some gentlemen at a golf course that we ran into, we were put in the right direction. As we stopped at an intersection, i suddenly recognized the road and knew I had to turn left. At this instance, one of the gentlemen pulled up in this car beside me and asked me to follow him, ...

But we drove left instead of straight, and continued the last few blocks to the house of my family friends. We still wondered what the gentleman must have thought! ... :S

But it doesn´t matter, we were finally at the doorstep, and the end of this first epic part of our trip. My dad first noticed us out of his window, and then everyone came down to greet us! It was special to see them again, especially their faces when they actually saw the bike with their own eyes! In my family, Im the black sheep, ..no one drives motorbikes! Much less across a foreign continent!

It was not always easy. We leaned so many things on the way, about ourselves and each other. We overcame obstacles, and most importantly; We made it!!

(Now for a treat with the parents!)