Hot springs do exist in Uruguay as well

Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is located in about 200km east of Buenos Aires across Plata River. If you keep digging through the center of the earth from Akashi of Japan that has the Japanese standard time, you hit the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000km east of Montevideo. As ferries sail from Buenos Aires to Colonia on the opposite side of the river and to Montevideo, I had the idea of taking the ferry to Colonia and then riding to Montevideo. However, I heard that the public security is not tight in Montevideo either, and that some Japanese tourists fell victim to robbers with a pistol. I didn't suffer more damage than being punched in Buenos Aires, but using a gun would be serious. A wise man refrains from visiting dangerous places. I gave up visiting Montevideo and decided to enter Uruguay by land from the north.

There are three bridges linking Argentina and Uruguay over Uruguay River, the tributary of Plata River, flowing from north to south. The nearest bridge from Buenos Aires is around 200km north. I had a belief that the Argentine border office is in Argentine territory on the west side of the bridge. However, there was no building but the gate. A truck driver told me it would be near the international bridge. I advanced my bike for a while and saw a huge bridge in the distance. But I didn't see any building. I was sure I wouldn't be able to leave Argentina without finishing the paperwork, because I would have to return to Argentina in order to go to Paraguay from Uruguay. I made a U-turn and went back to the gate to make it certain. The officer also told me it would be near the bridge. My motorcycle crossed the huge bridge over Uruguay River and already entered the territory of Uruguay. The Argentine office was in the same room of the same building of Uruguayan. There were no wickets and desks were laid on the same floor. I didn't know which is the Argentine side. It might seem to be very convenient, but it was confusing instead. It was the international border that showed close relations between the two countries.

The first hot spring resort is in Guaviyu. There is an entrance by the side of the road. I have never visited the hop spring of such easy access like this before. Entering the gate, you will see a series of large detached motels in the vast site. Each motel is large enough to give accommodation for 10 to 20 guests. The hot spring resorts in the mountain have limited space, however, in the plain of Uruguay there is plenty of land. This makes it possible for them to have this kind of resort. I saw the sign that said the charge is US$25 a night. The thermal pools were near the gate. All of them were outdoor pools. There were four pools large enough for swimming and five smaller ones. However, there were always only 15 bathers. In the hot springs in Japan with crowded bathers, you cannot fully relax yourself, but sometimes get tired instead. But in this resort, you can enjoy bathing in a relaxed mood. In addition, you can bathe for free from early morning to twelve in the night. Nevertheless, there are drawbacks that the temperature of the spring water is low and that the concrete pools gives impression of a lack of natural beauty. I was told by the office at the entrance that there were no rooms available because of the coming congress by university students. The site of the resort is covered with the lawn margined with trees. It also has a campground. It is a huge campground that I have never seen in Japan, however, the number of pitched tents are less than ten. I really wanted to stay in this resort. I regretted for the first time that I had left my tent in Bogota. But fortunately, I found a vacant room about 1km away from the gate. The charge for one of the rooms of a motel was $16.5 a night, however, there was a cheaper room with a shared bathroom for $32 for four nights in a building like a budget hotel. Eight dollars a day means only an admission fee for a hot spring in Japan.

There are some souvenir shops, convenience stores and five restaurants in this hot spring resort. Although I was worried about meals before visiting here, there is no problem. Besides, even liquor and cigarettes are sold. Unlike cities, in addition, this place is safe. As it is not a town, it is dark at night. Because of the darkness, the sky is brighter. I walked to a restaurant near the gate. I left the room with a flashlight, but I didn't use it because there were some lights on the way and the sky was bright. A bright crescent moon is in the sky, however, the stars illuminate the sky more. The weather is good today, and so I can see the Milky Way clearly. A myriad of bright stars are twinkling over the Milky Way. The Southern Cross can be seen among them. It was seen in the zenith in the south of Patagonia, however, here it has lowered its position a little. I have stayed in the hotels of cities or towns all the way in the south from Mexico. I feel like camping after I did in the Rocky Mountains.

The hotel was booked up from Friday because of the student meeting and I had to leave there. On Thursday, it was raining all day long. I was worried about the weather, but the sky was perfectly clear when I woke up on Friday. The second hot spring resort is only 40km north. I arrived there in 30 minutes. This resort called Dayman was also located beside the road. However, all the hotels were on the outside of the hot spring site, unlike the Guaviyu Hot Spring. Accordingly, you have to pay for the hot springs. The admission fee is, nevertheless, only $1.4. Adjacent to the hot spring site, a series of hotels stand and a small town is formed. Among the hotels, some have their own thermal pools. The visitors are walking on the street in a bathrobe, whereas they wear a summer "kimono" in Japan. There are souvenir shops as well. Although the buildings look different from those in Japan, this is like a Japanese hot spring resort. There is even a cybercafe.

The weather was good. I soon went to the hot springs. This site of the hot springs was also covered with the lawn and had eight large thermal pools. There were lots of bathers. It was natural that the hotels were full. I was looking forward to visiting here, because I heard the temperature of the springwater of this place is higher than that of Guaviyu. Close to the gate there was a pool where children are paddling. I put my fingers into the water. The temperature was low. I went to the next pools with a roof. The signboard said that the temperature was 39 degrees Celsius. I thought it was not so bad. There were other four large open-air baths farther from the gate. As someone told me that the temperature of those pools should be higher, I went there. But the temperature was lower. They were as lukewarm as a thermal swimming pool. I was disappointed. I went back to the pools of 39 degrees and stayed there till dusk. As the temperature of the air dropped, steam began to rise from the thermal pools. I saw steam also rising from a pool in the middle of the pools where the children were bathing. I noticed there was another pool that was surrounded by those shallow pools. The temperature was 42 degrees. Great! It is nearly the same temperature as a Japanese bath. This temperature keeps you warm even if you step out of the bath. The moon began to shine in the sky. It had already grown into a half-moon. The sky soon got darker and the stars started to shine. I saw the star-studded sky from a hot spring. I had never done so during this journey.

I went to the cybercafe. The owner let me connect my computer easily. Two of the e-mails I received were from the journalist who had an interview with me in Buenos Aires. In the e-mails he asked me to send him some other photographs taken by someone because the photographs of me on the BMW that I had sent before were not clear due to the low density of pixels. As my camera is a video camera, the picture is never clear when enlarged. He might show a large picture of me, although I don't know it will be in a newspaper, a magazine or a book. I told about it to Mario, the owner of the cybercafe, and he told me he would take the pictures of me by his good digital camera at any time. On the following day I rode to the cafe on the BMW. After taking the photographs, Mario sent some of them by e-mail from one of the PC's to me who was sitting in front of him. Those photos were indeed clear. Mario didn't ask me any money for it. There are also lots of kind people in Uruguay. The hot springs in Uruguay were much better than I had expected. Particularly the hot springs at Dayman were great. I bathed in the two hot spring resorts for hours almost every day. Whenever I bathed in a hot spring before, I had a bad stomach. But, I didn't throw up this time. The previous hot springs were all at high altitudes. The reason why I didn't have any problem in Uruguay may be that those hot springs were located in lowland. The purpose of visiting Uruguay was to bathe in the hot springs. Now I don't have any other thing to do. There is the third bridge, about 10 km north of this hot spring resort. There is no other bridge to link with Argentina. To see Iguazu Falls, I could keep riding on the east side of Uruguay River and then enter Brazil. I this case I would enter Paraguay from Brazil, but somehow Brazil is the only country in North and South America that requires a visa for the Japanese, although the country has lots of Japanese immigrants and has a heavy relationship with Japan. For this reason I will go back to Argentina to visit Paraguay first and then head for Iguazu Falls.