Carmelo, Uruguay

Went to Carmelo, Uruguay for the whole day on Sunday. I have to leave the country every few months, because I'm not a legal resident of Argentina. I just have to cross the border and then come back again. I usually just go across the river to Uruguay for a day. This time I went alone, and it was my first time visiting Carmelo. I like traveling by myself every now and then. I just walked around all day and sat around under trees, reading and drawing pictures.

Carmelo is a quiet, small-time tourist town on the wide brown Río de la Plata. It has a sandy river beach and a few hotels. I imagine it gets a little busy with Argentine and Uruguayan tourists in the hottest months of the summer, but it's early spring now, everything was pretty empty. One one side is the town, lots of cobblestone streets and typical one-story houses, lots of great art deco architectural details and great old signage. There are a handful of old hotels and nice old theatre buildings.

There's a central plaza with a church and a few businesses, two restaurants and the deserted Club Uruguay. Across the bridge, there's more grass and trees, horses and goats grazing in peoples' yards, a few boat clubs and if you walk about 20 minutes you get to the beach, it's in a big park with campsites and a few desolate-looking beachside restaurant type places. Everyone here seems to be riding a little motor scooter, I think if I came back again I would totally look into renting a scooter too.

I left home before dawn to catch a train out to Tigre, and then in Tigre I caught a ferry, it's a three-hour ride out through the delta and across the river to Carmelo. Stayed there all day and then caught the 8:00 ferry home, got into Tigre around 10:45 and then finally got home around midnight. Long day. But a nice one.