After five weeks "on the job" at the hostel in Montevideo, I finally moved out with the intent to visit parts of this unknown, little explored country. What I learned is that there are reasons it is seldom visited and barely explored. There's not much to see or do. In fact, probably the only place more famous for being less famous is Paraguay... practically no one goes there. I discovered some small little towns that I suppose would be pleasant and peaeful to live in but otherwise prove to be boring.
My first stop was a little town called Mercedes that sits along side the Rio Negro... and you'll never guess what I saw!!! C'mon people think... it's everywhere.... if you guessed a statue with some dead guy on a horse you would be correct. They love their dead guy on a horse here and the little town of Mercedes did not dissapoint! My next stop was an even smaller town called Fray Bentos that was once famous for the world's largest meat packing factory; employing 4000 people and slaughtering 2000 head of cattle per day! Thus making plenty of steaks for all the good people around the world who choose not to harm innocent fruits and vegetables. I went to the meat factory museum and it was about as excitng as it sounds. Unfortunately, they weren't giving tours this day of the actual factory...or what remains of it anyway, so I was stuck looking at old factory photos, tin cans, and ancient refridgeration components in the museum.
My next destination was the city of Salto in the north. After a quick look around downtown, I found the statue of the dead guy on a horse in the main plaza, promptly took a photo, and decided I need to get the hell out of here. Tomorrow I would be on a bus to somewhere exciting ....