The border crossing between Argentina and Uruguay was very straightforward. We drove to a booth at the border, handed in our passports and were stamped into Uruguay. We then went to a separate building which housed the Argentinean and Uruguayan aduanas .Here we handed in our temporary import permit for Ruby for Argentina and received a 12 months one from the Uruguayan aduana. Country number 8!

We drove to the small town of Fray Bentos . Those of you old enough to remember, Fray Bentos used to make tinned processed meat products- pies, corned beef and the oxo cube. In 1865, Liebig's Extract of Meat Company was founded in Britain by German chemist Justus von Liebig. The company established a factory in Uruguay to manufacture a beef extract product that would later be sold under the name Oxo. In 1873, the factory began manufacturing tinned corned beef, which was sold in Britain under the name Fray Bentos, where the factory was located.

Fray Bentos was trademarked by Liebig in 1881 for the purpose of marketing glue and "extract of meat", although, in practice, it was used principally for marketing corned beef. In fact, Fray Bentos became synonymous with corned beef.
Fray Bentos corned beef was targeted at a working-class market. The tins were also ideally suited as army rations as they weighed just one pound and were easily transportable. With the outbreak of the Boer War, the company's profits were significantly boosted from supplying corned beef to the British Army in South Africa. Fray Bentos corned beef was also supplied to the troops in World War I. Its popularity was such that the term "Fray Bentos" was used as slang by soldiers to mean "good". One of the early British tanks that fought at the Battle of Passchendaele was given the nickname "Fray Bentos", because the men inside felt like tinned meat!

In 1924, Liebig Extract of Meat Company, together with the Fray Bentos brand, was acquired by the Vestey Group who renamed the Uruguayan operation the "Anglo Meatpacking Company". Fray Bentos's heyday was in World War II. As a supplier of meat to the allies, Fray Bentos shipped more than 16 million cans of corned beef to Europe in 1943 alone. The Anglo factory in Fray Bentos, at its height, employed over 5,000 workers from more than 50 countries to process 400 cows an hour. As a result of the demand for Fray Bentos products at this time the Uraguayan currency became more valuable than the US dollar.
In the immediate post-war years, the Fray Bentos products were a staple food in Britain. The product range was expanded to include canned meat pies such as steak and kidney and minced beef and onion. In 1958, Vestey began manufacturing Fray Bentos pies in England, and production was moved to a plant in the London borough of Hackney.

In 1964, the use of the brand for corned beef was significantly damaged when an outbreak of typhoid in Aberdeen ,in which three people died, was traced to a tin of Fray Bentos corned beef imported from South America. The corned beef had been contaminated as a result of the cooling process during manufacture. The untreated water used in the process had come, according to the BBC, "from a river into which an estimated 66 tonnes of human excrement and 250,000 gallons of urine entered every day". At the end of the 1960s, Vestey disposed of the Anglo factory to the Uruguayan government who eventually closed the factory in 1979.

The site is now a museum dedicated to its former production of meat products. It was a huge and impressive place, situated on the river Uruguay. We wild camped in its grounds for 2 nights and went on a tour of the factory. The tour took us through the main parts of the old factory-it was in great condition and contained a lot of the old machinery. We saw all of the rooms where the different stages of the process took place, including the canning, the labelling, the slaughterhouse and the marketing. There was a lot of British machinery in the factory-including 2 cranes from Leeds, our home City and other machinery made in Wakefield and Bradford.

Whilst camping here we met Ping and Noel, from Dorset-our first British overlanders! They were travelling with Sandra and Timo from Germany-all of them had only recently shipped their vehicles  to Montevideo. We spent a lovely evening chatting to them over a BBQ and were impressed that Ping and Noel were on their third overland trip-the first being in the 70s through Asia. They were a lively and inspiring couple and we also really like the title of their blog " One more adventure before dementia"!

We left Fray Bentos and headed towards the capital-Montevideo. First, we stopped in the quaint town of Colonia Del Sacramento, a UNESCO world heritage site and renowned for its historic quarter. Montevideo is a port City and reminded me a little of Liverpool with its impressive waterside buildings. Uruguay is only a small country with a population of 3 million, half of whom live in Montevideo. We spent a long weekend here, learning about the City and the culture of the country on a City walking tour.

We also went to two excellent museums-one called the Museo Andes 1972. It is a museum on the story of the 1972 Andes flight disaster, which related to a plane accident that took place in the Andes in 1972 involving a group of Uruguayan high school rugby players, their friends and relatives that were traveling to Chile, when the airplane crashed. Some of them belonged to the Old Christians rugby club. Their story on how they survived the tragedy was transmitted worldwide by means of books, documentaries, pictures and conferences and it has been an inspiration to the film Alive and many books. The museum pays homage to the memory of the 29 people who died due to the plane accident in the Andes and to those who risked their lives to save the rest. It is a reminder of those 16 Uruguayans who came back to life after the 72 days in the Andes freezing weather conditions with no food and proper clothing. It was a interesting and inspirational museum-portraying the huge strength of the human spirit. The other museum was one dedicated to the Carnival in Uruguay and contained lots of intricate costumes.

We left Montevideo to head towards the Atlantic coast for a couple of weeks. We drove along the coastal road to a number of seaside towns. In Pireapolis, we wild camped next to the Atlantic ocean for 4 nights in total and spent the time relaxing, fishing and BBQ ing! We then headed through Puente Easte, where the rich and the famous holiday, continuing to the small town of Paloma, where again we wild camped next to the sea.

On one of our wild camps-we camped in a small car park outside the tourist office in a very small place called Valizas. It was in the middle of a small community and all of the local people who walked, cycled, rode past would smile and wave at us. As the evening progressed-their friendliness levels increased-with one lady coming out of her house, flinging her arms around me, hugging me, kissing me on both cheeks (she only had 2 teeth!) and telling us that if we needed to shower or if we needed anything we could go to her house. I hugged and kissed her back and thanked her profusely-whilst explaining we had everything we needed. Then another man approached  Gav offering us a bag of food! Imagine what would happen in the UK if 2 strangers decided to camp near someone's houses-certainly not the warm hearted welcome that we got.

We had a day trip to the hamlet of Cabo Palonia. This is a protected area-and it is only possible to access on foot  or by a huge off road truck-which drives you there through the sand dunes. We opted for the truck and had a great half hour journey there and back-bouncing through the dunes. The area is famous for its wildlife, having one of the largest sea lion colonies in south America, and we spent a hour or so sitting next to the rocks on the coast watching the antics of the lion seals. We also climbed the huge lighthouse and had great views of the coastline and village.

We are now heading back along the coast to catch the car ferry from Uruguay to Buenos Aires. It's been a short but very sweet visit to Uruguay!

We only spent a week in Chile before heading across the border into Argentina. In Chile we stayed a couple of days in San Pedro De Atacama where we had a farewell meal with all our lovely friends with  whom we drove the Salar and Lagunas route. Our priority in Chile was to get Ruby`s suspension fixed, although this was a challenge in San Pedro. We ended up with a bush mechanics fix until we can get it seen to properly. Ruby had also developed a "wheel judder" when driving at speeds of 40km/hr so we drove (slowly!) to the nearby City of Calama where there were more mechanics and better facilities. After having the wheels realigned, swapped around and  a new steering dampener fitted-we still had our judder! Eventually the mechanic spotted worn panhard rod bushes, although he did not have the right parts to swap them, so again did another bush mechanics fix!

We crossed the border into Argentina at Paso De Jama, a mountain pass between the 2 countries at 4,200 metres. This was our easiest border crossing yet-with all the relevant officials from Chile and Argentina co-located in one  building, literally in booths next door to each other. We started with Chilean immigration who stamped us out of the country; then Chilean customs who stamped Ruby out; next was Argentinean immigration who gave us 90 days entry and finally Argentinean customs who gave Ruby 240 days entry! All completed in about 20 minutes!

We spent the first night in Argentina camping outside a small hotel/restaurant in Susques. The following day we set off for Salta. We had heard that the Argentinians were fond of BBQs, however nothing prepared us for the sight and smells of hundreds of BBQs  that lined our route! It really is a national sport! There are hundreds of public BBQ grills in parks etc which are surrounded by families. We camped in the municipal campground in Salta and met up again with our lovely friends Roger and Gudrun. We also met Roger and Anita again, who we had last seen in Colombia, from Switzerland and driving a Swiss army truck! This is their third such trip-the first two they did in landys so they have a real soft spot for Ruby. We camped next door to them and had such a good time getting to know them better and finding out they have a love for karaoke!

We spent a couple of days in Salta, wandering around the pretty colonial town and also visiting the museum of high altitude archaeology, which was created after the discovery, in 1999,of 3 mummies of children  from the Inca civilisation on the Llullaillaco, the 3rd highest volcano in the world. The mummies are in an exceptional state, preserved by the cold without having undergone the mummification process. According to archaeologists, the children had been buried alive, according to sacrificial ritual. Only one child is exhibited at a time and it is an eerie and interesting sight to see-being so well preserved with their skin, hair, teeth and nails intact.

After Salta, we drove the small town of Cafayate, set amidst many vineyards. We only spent one night here, before the long drive towards Cordoba. We stayed in the area for a few days, visiting the small town of Carlos Paz and staying on a campsite where we had access to our own BBQ grill! Each day we visited the butchers for lovely cuts of steak and the most juicy sausages and burgers, and at night we joined in the national pastime of BBQing them! We wild camped at a fantastic spot in the National Park Quebrada del Condorito, an important place for Andean condors-and we saw a number of these magnificent, huge birds flying, swooping and resting. We arrived here on a Sunday and it is clearly a popular place for local people to visit. The Argentinean people are so friendly and we have had so many welcomes from them. On this occasion, about a dozen approached us whilst we were setting up camp, to introduce themselves and find out where we were from and what we were doing. When they found out that we were from England, they were very excited and one of the men yelled out " hand of God!" (referring to Maradonna`s 1986 goal!) whilst laughing manically!

After the night in the national park we spent 2 nights in Cordoba, Argentina`s second most populous City. Cordoba has many beautiful colonial buildings which we walked around on a free walking tour. We also visited the fascinating and moving memorial museum. This museum is dedicated to the memories of the hundreds of people that disappeared between the late 1970s and early 1980s, during Argentina`s Dirty War. As a group, they are known as the ‘Desaparecidos’ or ‘the disappeared’. These people were considered to be rebels, and were therefore taken to the police station where they were apprehended, tortured and killed. The museum is housed in that very police station, allowing visitors to move through the haunting walls where these people lost their lives. Some rooms are more open, where interrogations took place. Others are tiny cells, where people resided for months on end in total darkness. The families and friends of these never knew what happened to their loved ones until they found their bodies, which some of them never did.

From Cordoba we headed to Rosario, the third most populous city in the country, on the western shore  of the Parana river. It boasts being the birth place of some very famous people, such as Che Guevara and Lionel Messi! We only spent a day here, visiting the burial place and monument for Manuel Belgrano,who designed the Argentinean flag, saw Che Guevara`s birthplace and statue and walked along the river. We also visited the monument for those Argentinean people who died during the Falkland`s war.

Following Roasario, we went to San Antonio de Areco, which is famous for its annual gaucho festival -Dia de la Tradicion-which we wanted to see. Gauchos are the cowboys of south America, and work on the many ranches in Argentina. We camped at a lovely campsite just outside of town, and met some lovely Argentineans who invited us to their BBQ the following day. As you can imagine, the chance to go to a proper Argentinean BBQ was very appealing, particularly to Gav who loves  meat! The family were great-they owned a ranch near Cordoba and Dad was a real character, walking around in his gaucho hat and in complete control of the BBQ! There was also mum, one of their sons (who spoke great English) and their 2 teenage granddaughters. Dad kept feeding us meat-every time we finished one chunk of meat-he would take the remnants form our plates and replenish it with another chunk. It was absolutely delicious and we must have eaten half a cow between us, which had come from their ranch! We had a brilliant afternoon with them, they were so hospitable and showed us what a real BBQ is like!

That evening-we went to the pena as part of the festival. There we a number of live bands playing folk music and lots of traditional folk dancing which was incredible to watch-they were so graceful. The downside was you couldn`t join in unless you knew what you were doing, there was no way an Englishwoman flailing around would have gone down well, so I had to resist my natural urge to get up and dance and sit and watch! There were many gauchos there in their traditional outfits of tapered trousers, ponchos, berets and canvas shoes.

The following day was the day of the parade around town and the afternoon event of the gauchos showing off their horse riding skills. We woke up that morning to the loudest thunderstorm we had ever heard and torrential rain. It lasted most of the day, which sadly meant that the events were cancelled! We sat undercover on the campsite and played games!
So we are now heading to Uruguay for a couple of weeks before heading back to Argentina and Buenos Aires. First stop in Uruguay-Fray Bentos! Now who has eaten all the pies??!