A
sleepless night and a day spent in a huge
estancia's fields. As you wanted, we're
inland, in the north of Uruguay.
Yesterday
night, we were in a trendy restaurant of
Montevideo. The young people here have a very European
look, the fashion's the same here. As for us,
we still wear the same clothes, Playlife's...
did you notice ? We eat a lot before waiting
the bus that will take us to the country's
center, at 00.30 am.
To
avoid her the tiredness of the next two days,
we prefer that Nicole stays at home in her
bed. We leave her in the sweet hands of Magda
and her mother. On the menu, soups and small
macaronis, we're quite sure she'll be ok when
we come back.
In
the Tres Cruces bus terminal, we meet many
travelers with big suitcases, followed by
their families. We leave our luggage in
Montevideo, taking with us only the
instruments to stay in touch with you, Virtual
! Once in the bus, stuck between two chairs,
we look for an (uncomfortable) position to
sleep. Aleko reads 'Le Monde', dated from two
days ago. It's 3 am. The Car@van travels under
an Uruguayan starry night.
At
4.35 am, we finally arrive in the small
village of Young. It's very dark with some
fog, we're like somnambulists. Waiting for
meeting Raffael, we collapse on the small
benches of the travel company.
Here
comes Malena's brother, with a beard and big
blue eyes. It seems like we had known him for
a long time: after a big hug and a few jokes,
he tells us about today's program. But,
between Spanish and sleep, we agree without
understanding half of what he says.
Raffael
leaves for Montevideo. He lets us his car, a
small rusty pick-up, telling that someone is
waiting for us in the nearest Shell gas
station. But here, there is nobody and we
sleep where we can: in the car, on a table, on
the ground. The sun raises with a small
headache. At 7.00 am, a white truck skids in
front of us; it's our contact: "Hi, I'm
Jaime, the vet !"
We
follow the strong and nice man to his office.
He tells us about the situation: "Malena
told me about your project, I'll take you to
visit her family's estancia and the cattle I'm
taking care of."
Theo
and Marco go with Jaime, as Vale and Aleko try
to follow them with the old red pick-up. We
finish by lose each other at a crossroads in
the fog. Aleko drives 40 kilometers too far
and comes back: the car finally meet on the
top of a hill.
The
sky is now blu and the day will be great !
Continue
to read and click on the picture...
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