We had breakfast on the roof top terrace and the cathedral and plaza looked even more impressive in daylight. We went to the front desk to confirm that we could have a late checkout at noon but it was a different person at the desk and he said we had to be out by 11:00am – so we had 45 minutes to quickly dash across the road and go inside the cathedral which had been locked in the evening the day before to take some pictures as we had noted at breakfast that the gates were open. When we entered the church, Sunday mass was in progress and we stayed until after communion before returning to the hotel – we could not get any pictures during mass from the inside of the church except of one of the glass stained windows on our way out. We hurried back to the hotel and checked out and loaded our bikes and headed to the beach at Punta Lara.

We rode to the end of the road and decided to stop at one of the picnic areas on the waterfront to fix my left indicator at the back which had stopped working and have some lunch before heading to Buenos Aires where we could only check in after 3:00pm. We pulled into a shady spot and I got all our spare parts out (luckily without having to completely take everything off) and Andrew got a Philips head screwdriver out of the original tool kit and I even managed to get to the screws without having to take my panniers off 😉👍 I was kneeling in the grass when I realised that the mosquitoes had found me and I had been bitten several times – these mosquitoes not only leave very itchy welts but when they sting it is as painful as a horse fly bite 😳 – after covering myself in repellent, I continued to get the bulb out and when inspecting what bulbs we had with us as spares, the ones that were the same size bulb were for the break light but smaller ones we had fitted- we put a new one in and tested it and it worked fine 👍🙂- when I inspected the old bulb, the element looked not broken so we tried the old bulb and it worked too- must have just rattled loose in the fitting – while we were working on the bike a guy with his son came over to say hello and ask where we were from. We had a chat and he wanted to know all about the bikes including what the “roo whistle” was for😂. We gave his son some stickers of Australian animals which he really liked – as it was Sunday lunch time, the place was bustling with locals grilling meat and fishing in the very brown water of the La Plata delta. After we put everything back together and packed up, we had our last bread, avocado and tuna sandwich. We had just finished eating when a couple came over with a wooden bread board with bread and grilled sausages and lemon and a dip they wanted us to have. They took photos of us (we seem to be a bit of a novelty with the locals at some of the places off the beaten path and they must not often get to see tourist travellers😉) and we really enjoyed the nice flavour of the grilled meat. Such nice people everywhere 🤗

We left at 2:30pm and took the toll road motorway number 1 into Buenos Aires. It was quick and safe (we had been warned not to enter on the backroads from the South) but we did see some very poor neighbourhoods with just shacks near the freeway. We arrived from the water front and rode past some beautiful buildings and through narrow roads to where Google maps said to park and walk to the hotel as it was in a pedestrian zone. Luckily we arrived on a Sunday as the streets were very quiet compared to the busy weekdays. Andrew stayed with the bikes and I walked to the hotel – they told us to ride through the pedestrian zone and into the parking garage. We parked right next to the elevator and then checked in – we got a room on the 7th floor and unloaded the bikes and then booked a guided 4 hour city tour for the next day at reception. We also got a 10% discount voucher for dinner at a restaurant down the street. We walked to the waterfront and to the buquebus terminal where a ferry had just arrived and was being loaded – we asked a few people to work out where we would have to go on Tuesday when we are booked in on the ferry to Montevideo. After we had a better idea of the layout and procedure of check in and customs clearance, we returned to the hotel and ate at the recommended restaurant which had German dishes and several code of arms of German districts on the wall. Andrew ate Schnitzel and Apple strudel for desert 🙂

The next morning we had fabulous breakfast at the hotel and then we walked 2.4km through town and many nice parks to El Ateneo Grand Splendid which is an old theatre converted to a bookstore – it is magnificent inside and the stage is a coffee shop where we had very nice coffee and hot chocolate and lemon merengue cake. We bought some maps of South America and of Montevideo.

We walked back to the hotel taking more pictures of the beautiful pink flowers and large green fruit of the Silk Floss Tree – locally known as Palo Borracho (Ceiba speciosa). We just had enough time to charge the cameras and phones a bit more before we went downstairs to wait to be picked up for our tour. Gisela was our tour guide and we travelled in a small commuter bus and there were only 5 including us, a couple from Peru and a younger guy from Brazil. The tour was very informative and Gisela was very passionate and fluently switched between Spanish and English to explain all the sites and history. We stopped 6 times including at a large sculpture of a flower (Florales Genérica) made of 18 tons of steel which used to open and close but the mechanism is broken and can’t be fixed – so the flower is stuck half open. We stopped at the famous La Recoleta cementary and at the Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar. The next stop was at the plaza de Mayo with the cathedral and the pink Parliament House. We had time to walk around and go inside the cathedral where the mausoleum of the Argentinian father of the Nation, General José de San Martin, is guarded by two National guard grenadiers. Then we visited the La Boca part of town which is known for the colourful painted houses made of whatever material was available from the ship yard. The next stop was at a wine tasting place, followed by a stop in La Boca where all houses are colourful and put together from whatever was available from the nearby shipyards. It is also a place of street art, colourful murals honouring firefighters and lots of football paraphernalia and statues of Diego Maradona, Eva Perón, a famous tango dancer, Carlos Gardel, and the Argentinien pope Francis – an interesting combination 😂😉

Our last stop was at the famous football stadium, which is referred to by locals as the box of chocolates. At the end of the tour the weather had turned and rain started to fall. We were dropped off at our hotel and Gisela gave us a recommendation for a good parilla place near our hotel where we walked to for a fabulous asada grilled dinner.

When we returned to the hotel we asked at reception to have our motorcycle insurance papers printed out as we were told by Gerry (whom we had met in Malargüe that it was required to enter Uruguay as he had been denied entry a few days ago without the insurance papers). They kindly printed everything for free 🙂👍

We then struggled with the slow wifi for several hours trying to get the blogs done before giving up and getting a few hours of sleep.