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Published: November 30th 2010
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Dayman Thermal Spa
the reason I came here, and I was well rewarded (except for my sunburn) Why visit a big city popular with foreign travelers when you can soak in thermal baths? I jumped off the gringo trail in Argentina and hopped across the border (after a 7-hour bus journey) to Salto in Uruguay's little-visited north. And as Robert Frost would agree, taking the road less traveled has made all the difference.
I'd decided to skip Rosario, Argentina's third largest city with well over a million people, in favor of visiting towns with thermal springs that run along both sides of the Uruguay River that marks the border between these two countries. From Mercedes, Argentina, I traveled 7 hours past open fields dotted with flowers and cows to Concordia, then another bus to the border with Uruguay. There, the two countries shared an office, making this the easiest border crossing so far.
Soon, I was in Salto, Uruguay's second largest city, with a bit over 100,000 people. The town is named Salto because in Spanish this means a big leap or often a waterfall. Here, the big leap had been harnessed into a massive hydroelectric dam that provides 65% of Uruguay's electricity. However, dam and lake visiting was not why I'd come.
I'd come
great flying woman with boob on the most common bill--$1
and puritanical Americans were in a frenzy after Janet Jackson's 15-second exposure!!! for the nearby Daymen Thermal Pools, billed in the Lonely Planet as the Disneyland of thermals--my kind of place. However, they turned out to be not tacky at all, but serene, expansive and beautifully landscaped. As an out-of-season traveler, I sometimes even had one of the many pools to myself and could swim laps--absolute heaven!
For a lovely day, I soaked in pools of various temperatures, sat under massaging water jets, wandered the beautifully landscaped grounds and tried to avoid getting sunburned. Unfortunately, I failed at the last and ended up burning and peeling and couldn't return to the springs during the week I was there. Oh well, I found other entertainment.
At the pools, I met a woman, Alicia, from Montevideo and joined her pilgrimage several kilometers out of town to a shrine to Padre Pio, a modern Italian saint big on love and compassion. Along the dirt road to the shrine, we found beautiful, small geodes with quartz crystals--a good sign. The shrine was constructed out of volcanic rock to which I added the geodes I'd collected.
The shrine was in a large, open field where UFOs had been spotted even by the gauchos
on the nearby
estancia (ranch) and was considered a vortex of earth energy. There were lots of votive offerings in the shrine, and it really felt sacred, especially since everyone maintained silence as the signs requested. Leaving, I felt so full of gratitude and peace. A perfect end to a perfect day. Plus, I now have a Uruguayan friend whom I'm sure to meet again.
Uruguay presented an attractive contrast to Argentina. Clearly, it was more prosperous, for the many 19c buildings in town had been well-preserved and cared for. Also, for a town of its size, it was surprisingly free of graffiti. People on the many motorcycles and scooters wore helmets--something I'd not seen in Argentina or Brazil. Prices were higher, but not exorbitant as in Brazil. Best of all, there was dark chocolate and real cheese! In Argentina, all the cheeses tend to have a similar, bland nonflavor. Salto's museums were free and attractive and the municipal theater was often open, so could watch rehearsals. I never made it to the multiplex in the shopping center, but I'll bet films were not dubbed as they were in Brazil. I quite liked the country!
The only drawback
had been arriving at the hostel to find it occupied by students and not open to travelers until summer--yikes. The manager sent me to the Hotel Tia, the cheapest in town, but at $17, still pretty pricey for me. However, there were unexpected benefits, so I stayed longer than planned. Lots of old-timers lived there who loved to chat, sharing stories of the prosperous good times and also of the frightening years under the military dictatorship. Moreover, my room had a TV with HBO, and I wallowed in delicious, uninterrupted American films with Spanish subtitles. In the past, I would have left town after a day if prices were too high, but with the pleasures of good conversation, films, a river walk, and a sweet town, I stayed. I'm getting soft in my old age.
Finally, after a week of ease, I took a ferry across the river and left sweet Salto. I was headed to another mineral springs town, Colon, in Argentina. Though there's no hostel there, I decided to spring for a hotel in this town that's billed as the prettiest of the border towns. After all, how much could a hotel cost?
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anonymous
non-member comment
sweet meeting of woman and goat
Lovely pictures, I am pleased that you went North to Salto, this is a great sculpture, I am not aware of the artist but your remark no graffiti makes me proud in a way as an Uruguayan living in the US, but also reminds me of my youth when all Uruguay was NO Graffiti in a broad sense. What has happened that has turned us into a disgusting reality of lots of Graffiti, lots of petty theft, lots of people not working and being paid by the social political infrastructure not to work.?