Reunited with Pedro in Montevideo
8 Nov - 18 Nov 2022
Reunited with Pedro
After 46 days at sea, and 3 days at customs, we were finally reunited with Pedro at the port of Montevideo! It felt like an age since we saw him off at Tilbury docks in the UK, and with our obsessive tracking of the Grande Nigeria ship on 'Marine Radar', the watched pot never boils proverb became a very real thing for us. The ship ended up only being 5 days late into Montevideo which we discovered was quite lucky, as some other overlanders we met had been waiting 4 weeks for theirs!
We booked Pedro's journey with the shipping company, IVSS, and opted for a handler (Eduardo) in Montevideo to help us with all the paperwork - a God send as it would have been impossible with our limited Spanish. We visited Eduardo at his office the day the ship docked in Montevideo, spent a few hours sat on the floor of the Migration office to get an arrival certificate, then went to the KMA headquarters to pay our customs and port fees. Then we just had to sit tight, keep adding nights onto our hostel stay and wait for Eduardo's Whatsapp message to say we could go and collect Pedro from the docks.
That day came 2 days later and we arrived at his office with 5 other expectant groups of travellers - 2 from Germany, 2 from Poland and 1 from Belgium. We all set off in single file walking to the port like some kind of weird international school trip and after some more bureaucracy - that Eduardo dealt with - we were all reunited with our vehicles!
Then began the nerve-wracking checks to see what if anything had been stolen from the inside along the way. Most of us had found that some things had been taken - our list was about 20 things (and keeps growing as we couldn't remember exactly what we had packed)! Most of it is replaceable but it's just annoying for us to have been so prepared before coming to be put back several steps. But...he wasn't damaged and started fine so after 5 hours in over 30 degree heat on the tarmac we were still overjoyed to drive him out of the port!
We've both been dying to have our own space and freedom. We know there will be a constant search for resources when we're living in Pedro but for the past month and a half we've been in hostels in someone else's space and tiptoeing round someone sleeping in our dorm in the middle of the day. There's always some obnoxious bloke that doesn't shut up, or someone banging on the communal toilet door while you're trying to have a s***, or someone snoring so loud your bunk bed vibrates, or some old lady talking at you 2 inches away from your face, or your shoes getting eaten by rats (all speaking from experience). So we could not wait to be in our own tiny home, completely mobile, and not have to deal with anyone else. With all that said, we have met some incredible people in the last few weeks all on their own adventures and we will be keeping in touch!
Our first night in Pedro was spent in Punta Carretas - the beach front in Montevideo. We had walked down here the day before and met a lovely Brazilian couple who are travelling in their Defender around the world for the next 4 years! The spot was also vetted on the app iOverlander so we felt quite at ease. After a wild goose chase around the city trying (and failing) to find gas for our stove and shower, we eventually found small Campingaz canisters for our portable stove, which will do for now. We made it to our camping spot for sunset and cooked our first meal of the roadtrip. Turns out the serene sunset spot was a popular dogging place so shortly after said meal, we drove further round the peninsula for a more private night's sleep!
We now have a list of things to replace and sort out but the most pressing was to get locks fitted to our doors which we didn't have the chance to do before we left. Luckily, a friend of a friend ('s Dad) was able to help us out the next day! Sergio didn't speak a word of English but his daughter helped to translate and he very helpfully fitted our locks and with that, we were off on our merry way towards the Argentinian border, finally leaving Montevideo a week later than we'd hoped.