Day 152, Dec 1, 2013, 573km
Today I should have stayed in bed, but I wanted to get to Salto, Uruguay, so I got up early and away in the hot and humid weather, that later on gave way to torrential rain.
With all this humidity my left lung was hurting more and more and I was having trouble breathing. I was thinking this is just great, I really don’t need this right now.
Did it come from all the humidity, or that fowl smelling air conditioner at the Hostel or from that lady that was sitting a table across from me the other day coughing up a storm the whole time while I was eating. These things kind of go through your mind.
While riding out of town the pain was getting worse and worse just to get some air. And then it got so bad that I pulled over and off the highway into the grass, mainly because my vision was getting blurred and I knew that's not good. All I remember was me thinking to put my kickstand down and then I woke up laying flat on the grass with my bike down on me and lots of people around asking if I had crashed. Luckily someone spoke English and someone was saying that a ambulance was on it’s way and I should not move and not to worry about the bike because the house by the road was the military commandants house and they would push my bike to it.
With that info giving me some peace of mind I let the ambulance guys take me to the Hospital and have it checked out, better safe than sorry. Within two hours they had given me a chest x ray and checked me out, plus a prescription for the what he said was some swelling. Still not sure what it's from but the pills worked really good. I also realized later that I have been living for the last month at over the 10,000 ft and here its just 400 ft. Anyway lets hope that what ever it was stays away.
Later that day I made it to Posadas in the poring rain just to find a group of protesters had set the Hwy on fire with tires all across the road, so I decided to head out on some cross country mud road to bypass this and then back to the Hwy further up. but only to find out that on the other side of town was the same thing again, so again cross country mud road and this time of course I lose it and fall. Just for your info all the mud over here is red and when you drop a bike and roll around in this mud you don't look very good. Luckily some young guys helped me pick the bike back up and I was back on my way and did ride another 200 km's in the rain totally soaked beyond soaked. The rain was washing most of the mud off luckily, but can you say are we having fun yet, at this point NO. It was getting very late when I found a town that had a sign that said; Hotel this way, and that was good enough for me, good night.
Day 153, Dec 2, 2013, 352km
This morning I was able to wash some more of the crappie mud off the bike and my rain gear still has some red spots here and there, plus my boots well lets not even go there, I don't know if I should just throw them away or not.
Had a super easy border crossing into Uruguay though. It did take 20min; stamp, stamp go. It’s all at the same place. Currently in Salto at the Gran Hotel Concordia for $21.
Will stay a few days here for some RR and see some of the sites, plus get some dollars.
Had a nice relaxing day in Salto and really enjoy this old grand Hotel Concordia with tons of charm and a great atmosphere. This is where people hang around in the courtyard or lounge for casual conversations while drinking a cup of coffee that is being served by waiters dressed as if they came out of some old novel. This gives for a real old world feeling where time has stood still, and time is unimportant.
Uruguay is a lot like Argentina but more laid back, calmer in a way and the prices of goods are much more in tone with the rest of the world whereas Argentina's prices can be the same and mostly better if you were to use the blue exchange but definitely not if you use the bank rate.
