A Year in Uruguay

Most of the countryside that I'd seen in Uruguay was cattle land, except for some vegetable farms and vineyards close to Montevideo, so I was somewhat surprised to see orange groves near Salto. Apparently the area is known for growing citrus, particularly oranges. The trees were full of healthy-looking fruit.

Labels: food and drink, interior, Salto, Uruguay

The Represa Salto Grande is a dam on the Rio Uruguay just north of Salto. Construction of the dam, a joint Argentine-Uruguayan project, started in 1974 and was completed in 1979.

We didn't have time to take the guided tour to see the hydroelectric generators inside the dam, but we drove across it into Argentina. (Both Uruguay's and Argentina's Customs facilities are on the Argentine side of the river now, so it's possible to cross the bridge without going through Immigration.) Argentinian protesters, who have closed the southernmost bridge between the countries for nearly two years, only occasionally block the bridge at Salto.

The huge reservoir behind the dam in known as Lago Salto Grande.

Labels: Argentina, government, interior, Salto, Uruguay, waterfront

Salto is a pleasant city of 100,000 inhabitants on the bank of the Rio Uruguay, about 500 kilometers from Montevideo. It's the capital of the departamento of Salto. A bridge built on top of a dam connects Salto to Concordia, Argentina.

We didn't spend much time there but we enjoyed a short walk in a park along the river. Recent flooding left part of their riverside drive underwater. Salto has several nice parks and plazas, including Plaza Artigas (where this photo was taken.)

Some Salto links [all in Spanish]:
City of Salto website
Universidad de la Repúblic, Regional Norte
El Pueblo de Salto newspaper

Labels: interior, Salto

The Posada del Siglo XIX is a resort near the city of Salto (in the departmento of Salto) about 5 hours from Montevideo. We enjoyed our weekend there but it seemed very pricey. To be fair, a spa in the US would have been much more expensive. (And our friends told us their weeknight rates were substantially cheaper.)

Siglo XIX is one of several hotels in the termas de Daymán featuring geothermal hot pools. Some termas also sell daypasses. The water is naturally hot and the pools are manmade. One guidebook said the water source was found accidentally while drilling for oil. At Siglo XIX, there are several outdoor pools and a large covered pool and various hot tubs and spas plus a kids area with water slides. In the morning it was cold enough to form frost on the grass and the steam rising from the pools was very atmospheric. The pools themselves were very relaxing.

See a short video:

Labels: interior, Salto, Uruguay, video