We woke up at the gas station and quickly packed up and left by 7:30am. The night before we noticed one our brake lights were out so we drove around asking about places we can get it fixed. It took about an hour to find out that our car only uses one brake light and nothing was wrong with it.
We then headed towards Artigas, Uruguay across the border. The crossing was very relaxed. We actually had to ask for our papers to be checked and stamped. Since this was a small city, the crossing office was only open from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM, so if you need papers checked we suggest going very early. It’s always important to get your papers checked just in case you get stopped by a cop because of your license plate, you want to show that you are legally in the country. Also, for Americans you don’t need a visa to enter Uruguay.
After crossing to Uruguay, we drove through the small city of Artigas and then a bit more than 200km to Salto, Uruguay. On the way, we encountered no gas stations or rest stops but we did see some incredible views of the farmlands of Uruguay. It was truly a nice sight.
By 11:30AM we were at our destination, Termas de Daymán (31°27’23.9”S 57°54’26.6”W). We chose this area because we read about the thermal baths and that it was a cute little town. We also heard about a water park with “gargantuan” water slides which we thought would be fun to relax in.
Well we arrived to our camping site, La Posta del Dayman, which also has a hotel and hostel. The campsites weren’t very nice, but not so bad, and were close to the road. The biggest complaint we had were the bathrooms which were terrible. We were excited because they used thermal waters but the facilities were just awful, they didn’t even have lids on the toilet seats. For UR$300 we expected cleaner bathrooms and at least toilets with seats. You could not sit on the toilet without falling in. The showers, while hot, were also not so nice and never turned off.
We decided to go to Acuamania to relax and we were pretty disappointed. The water park was greatly exaggerated on the website. The facility was ok but definitely not worth UR$220. The pools were very warm because it was a really hot day and the “Rio Lento” (Lazy River) didn’t even move which made it a very long, narrow shallow pool. But as there was nothing else to do in the area (Salto is more of a city that you pass through to go to Argentina) and it was too hot to go to the thermal baths, we just bought tickets and relaxed there for a few hours.
Afterwards, we decided to head into the city to look for a supermarket to buy a few things. On the outskirts of Salto we found the Salto Shopping and decided to check it out. It was very small, with just a few stores, but it had a supermarket. What we noticed was that while clothes were relatively cheap (especially compared to Brazil), food and basics at the market were the same price, or even more, as the U.S, but we needed water after how ridiculously hot the day was so we bought a few things and headed back to camp.
Once we got there we were met by some stray dogs that seemed to take a liking to use (as they did at the gas station where we camped the night before). Overall we had a good experience in Uruguay, people were nice and the country was very relaxed, but it is a very expensive place.
###Map:
###Numbers:
- Left Quaraí @ 8:30AM
- Arrived @ 11:30AM in Salto, Uruguay
- UR$300 = Campsite [La Posta del Daymán]
- UR$440 ($220/person) = Acuamania
- UR$50 = locker
- UR$589 = Dress
- UR$279 = Food
- Total UR$1658