This is El Bolson, tucked in between two towering snow draped mountain ranges close enough to touch. It's been raining all day off an on--mostly on, but now and then the clouds will thin and you can see gargantuan mountain peaks. But let me tell you first about getting here.We get to a bus terminal and it's a matter of who guesses best. How do you find the right bus?In Bariloche there's only about 5 carriers--that cuts it down from the 50 or so in Co...

After a miserable night in the oven called Buenos Aires, we caught a flight to Bariloche, where we hoped to be able to cool off a bit.Overdone.We're freezing out whatsus off. The wind's blowing like an angry Nor'easter and our luggage is lost, so we're in tee shirts and shorts jumping up and down and slapping our arms trying to keep from freezing to the pavement.Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but really, it's cold after a month of ...

   Everyone said we'd love Colonia. Everyone. Our slow, meandering bus ride from Frey Bentos took FOREVER, but we finally arrived and walked, dragging suitcases up beautiful bumpy broken tree lined streets, to our hotel.   We loved the city immediately. But of course, everywhere we've been we've thought--how clean! how quiet! how lovely! Sounds like we didn't like Montevideo much, doesn't it?    We were hot and sweaty by the time ...

I'd read about the bridge before we left home--an International Bridge over the Rio Uruguay between two friendly countries, Argentina and Uruguay. And I was happy to learn that it was at Frey Bentos, where we were going to be staying. Fantastic! We'll have a chance to go over to Argentina and try it out. Maybe we can just join a tour...fun!So I'm visiting with a Uruguayan at the hotel pool about it and he says, well if you want to see it, I'm goin...

Remember all the cows of the gaucho years? Well, they're still a bunch of them around. Their history is integral to the history of the country and nowhere is that more apparent than in Fray Bentos.In 1863 a German engineer developed a system to process beef and, funny thing--discovered Uruguay at the same time. Beef--Uruguay, it works. Situated on the Uruguay River and thus with easy access to the outside, this sleepy port city became a giant producer of beef...