The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - La casa del Sol - Nueva Palmira

Ending this series, If you decide to come this way anytime and your looking for a place to stay in Nueva Palmira, May I suggest, "La casa del Sol" Hostel, located on 25 de Mayo facing the river (bring bug repellent). It has space for bikes and cars and the Lady that owns the place is most charming.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - Nueva Palmira

Nueva Palmira is a small city located NW of Carmelo, heading opposite to Colonia which is where everybody generally goes.

Its located facing the Parana River and its main activity is its port where they load mostly grains for export.

I said it was a city cuz you can find most of the amenities like restaurants and lodging of different price ranges.

This is a tranquil spot where you can spend one or two days in a very calm and relaxed ambiance, with friendly folks. We spend the night here and biked back to Carmelo to catch the evening boat.

The city can be accessed by road and there are regular bus services which take you to Carmelo and Colonia.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - The Road to Nueva Palmira

We biked from carmelo to Nueva palmira, which is the nearest city heading North-East on Road 21. The ride is quite nice with a one lane two way road, in decent condition.

There are some uphills that are a bit steep, but can be handled if you´re in good shape, there are several place of interest along the way like beaches and wineries to stop and relax.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - The Beaches

Well one of the ideas of going over to Uruguay from Buenos Aries is that you can access riverside beaches in one or two hours (depending on which route you take).

Most of the beaches from Carmelo to Colonia are nice and clean and not crowded most of the time.
Another plus is taking your bike along and being able to hit the road and stop at the different  beach resorts along the way.

In Passing snapshot - The Bike shop

Everyone loves vintage stuff, now in Uruguay all the retro and vintage stuff is original, no one renovated this bike shop, so as to look retro, all the furniture and even the goods are originally old, and are kept without any shame or pretencion.
Uruguay is packed with places like this bicycle shop in Carmelo, and make excellent pic material.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - Visiting Carmelo

Carmelo, which is part of the Colonia Department is quite a picturesque place, very calm and easy going as most Uruguayan cities.

It is actually the closest point across the Parana River to Argentina. It certainly is an excellent place to do a Day trip, many people used to come here when u couldn't buy dollars in Argentina, cuz here they even come out of the ATMs.

It has a handful of tourist attractions, but it also has some nice riverside beaches that are great an not that frequented, even in the summer.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - The crossing

You probably heard that it is very easy to hop over to Uruguay from Buenos Aires, and it really is, going from Puerto Madero to Colonia or Montevideo.

There is however another route that brings you to a smaller city in Uruguay that is Called Carmelo.
For that you have to go to the city of Tigre in the Buenos Aires province. You can make it there by car or train in around 45 Min's.

From Tigre you can take "La Cacciola" ferry, which I mentioned in another post, and do a two and a half hour boat trip on the Parana River Delta, which lands you in Carmelo, roughly 90 clicks from the more famous Colonia.

The boats are quite stable and comfy, and they will even take your bike at no extra cost.
You can buy the tickets in Tigre or on line, and they will set u back 75 U$ back and forth, depending on the time of the year.