|  "here's my experience, for what it's worth"
A couple of Saturdays ago, two of my acquaintances and I decided to do a day trip to Punta del Este. The boyfriend of one of them agreed to rent a car and do the driving. He rented the car from ABC car rental and I believe he had to leave a large cash deposit: several hundreds of US dollars. Apparently, the car was delivered to their address in Pocitos (a respectable residential beach area of Montevideo) on the Friday evening and overnight, someone tried breaking into the car. In the morning, when the vandalism was discovered, the rental company was called and they sent an agent around who drove the car away - minus the front passanger's window - and within a few hours, brought the same car back with the window replaced. The rental company seemed nonplused about the event and the police were never called. It turned out to be a day of "if it could go wrong, it did go wrong". I am told that cars are reted with ¼ tank of gasoline and you are supposed to return it with as much. We got on the toll road, just beyond the airport, and soon found the car's "empty" light flashing. We had to leave the road, after just paying the toll (50 pesos or $2.50) and got the car filled. Instead of taking the highway, we took smaller coastal roads which in itself was an interesting way of seeing the coast and the resort towns along the way: Atlántida, Periópolis, Casa del Pueblo, to name a few. Then, on the way back, later that day, we took the toll road and we were stopped by a police check. During the day, you're supposed to drive with the headlights on, which we weren't doing - there were signs along the road saying as much but everyone but the driver could read Spanish and none of us thought to inform the man behind the wheel. So, yes, useful co-pilots would be a good thing to have along with you. In keeping, during the routine police check it was discovered that in the mayhem of the morning's missfortunes, the rental agreement had been left at home. So, you need to remember to bring that along too. The policeman was obliging and let us go on with not even so much as a scolding. The highway was beautiful and well maintained. I don't know about B.C. but the freeways in central Canada are usually jam-packed with half of the vehicles being 18 wheelers so this road looked virtually deserted in comparison ... except of course when you reach the toll booths. There are also occasional traffic lights on the toll road and a lot of collector road activity: motorcycles, bus stops, farm vehicles and people sitting alongside on the verge ... in lawn-chairs, if you will. When the traffic on the highway is the best show in town, that maybe doesn't say a lot for what's going on at home. I am informed that most of the "Rutas Nacionales" aren't quite so splendid as the one leading to Punta del Este which might as well have been the yellow brick road to OZ for the city itself, when you arrive, is just as over the top and, in this instance, instead of the Wizard being the main attraction, it was Shakira performing at the Conrad Hotel - "Punta" is also refered to as "the other Uruguay" and it's easy to see why. The drivers, apart from the motorcyclists, don't seem too crazy and there's a certain "flow" to the traffic that once you get accustomed to it, goes along at a respectable pace. Signage is so-so but then there aren't a lot of exits and communities to be brought to your attention and likley the locals know which intersection leads to "Grandma's House". What does take some getting used to, and this seems generalised, even in the city, is the widely varying states of road-worthiness of a lot of the vehicles. I haven't seen the likes since the 1950s in rural SW Ontario: mufflerless contraptions with the doors and fenders held on with duct tape and twine, the ricketiest pick-ups this side of the former Soviet Union and a penchant for hauling all manner of junk, strapped precariously to any intact expanse of the chasis. Do you remember the opening sequence to the "Beverly Hillbillies"? |
