Montevideo, Uruguay... or is it?

We decided to take a trip over to Uruguay for a few days to see some agriculture -it's close to Buenos Aires -just a ferry ride away and the roads are good so hiring a car and having a drive round seemed a good idea. Task 1, check out of hotel without them finding out Luke washed his feet in the sink, the whole thing fell off the wall and water had been flooding throught the room since last night -accomplished -I did sugest to the Hotelier in my pigeon spanish that 'the sink is leaking' which may have been a slight underestimation! Task 2- find ferry port -accomplished, un-eventful. Task 3 -get ferry tickets, get on ferry, arrive in Montevideo - accomplised. Task 4- hire car... all seemed to be going well, we had the keys in our hands and then on parting we said so we're returning it to Colonia? 10 minutes more dodgy and confused Spanglish later and we discovered we were in Colonia already, not Montevideo where we thought we were! (?) -and we thought the language barrier had not been too bad -how wrong we were!

No harm done, they're not too far apart so we set off on the left, no the right, no left, no definitly right side of the road. We have driven about 200kms to Trinidad, passing 'Fray Bentos' and 'Mercedes' on the way (I wonder if they dreamed these place names up whilst watching only fools and horses?). We've had a few good stops on the way, one with a 'second'? hand machinery dealer who is kean for us to help him export old tractors from the UK and the second with a farmer who had just started cutting his wheat at 'tooth breaking %'.

There's been lots of dairy farming, various herd sizes from 2-200, a lot of wheat and oats grown, some barley and plenty of forage. Soyabeans just going in to the wheat stubbles and we've just started to come through beef cattle country. We hope to head up to obne of the worlds largest hydrodam's tomorrow.

I've saved the best for last -we've seen real life Gaucho's along the road, complete with thick sheep skin rugs on their saddles and some really beautiful horses! -very exciting.

Bag? - check!, Luke?..erm... Luke?

When I was packing I was careful to follow Aussie Nuffields advice and mix the bags up a bit so if one got lost on route Luke and I would still have some clothes etc each. What I didn’t bank on was my bag coming through to Buenos Aires… but not my husband! –I had to book him a last minute flight after my original travel partner dropped out at last minute –so Luke was flying via Frankfurt to Buenos Aires, however a delayed flight at Heathrow set it all into a spin.

So my main reason for wanting to arrive in South America with someone went down the pan and I found myself at Buenos Aires airport with no money, hotel, transport etc after all. However my concerns were unjustified – if you’ve landed in Johannesburg, Buenos Aires looks like toy town – no hawkers, no whistling, no staring, just an empty cash machine and some very helpful, welcoming people.

So I found a hotel the ‘Grand Hotel Espana’ and headed off on the random bus system (maybe makes more sense if you speak Spanish?) into town and then sat about at the bus station waiting for the ‘conductor of operations’ to forward me on to my chosen hotel. So two and a half hours after arriving I check into my hotel which reminds me of the hotel we stayed in on our school trip to the Isle of Wight in 1991, but it’s clean and quite spacious.

After freshening up (16hours on a plane) I ventured into town, very cautiously –following all the travel guide, friends and families advice –no flashy jewellery, no phone or camera (that’s in Lukes bag) on show, virtually no money on me and my cash card (still in need or Argentinian bargaining currency) wedged in my pocket, firmly under my hand –I decided the long list of rules about carrying bags meant it was simplest not to bother.

Trip 1-Ok on the whole, checking into the secure bank area to use the cash machine was daunting, had a lovely meal where the waiters were very friendly –eating out on your own seems perfectly normal here, even on a Saturday - the only phasing bit was the group of youths sitting drinking in a pile of cardboard boxes –I crossed the street – probably just being a wimp but I did have £80 -400 pesos wedged down my bra by this point! –Surely when you get mugged that’s a safe place? Anyway didn’t stay out late as I was already brimming with that self pride you get when you’ve negotiated basic everyday tasks in a language you don’t speak and the travelling had left me very sleepy.

354 days of sweating

Just got back at the weekend from the Nuffield 2010 conference in Edinburgh to check out the 2009 scholars making their presentations of their papers and wow the standard was high - spent the whole two days panicking about the dogs dinner I'm going to make of mine next year -but I'll be Ok I've been promised by my BOGS sponsors -they'll be there with 'we're sponsoring Jo' T-shirts and score cards so nothing to worry about there then!

A mostly varied conference -bar the first day which was 'dairy day' - I stopped being able to find useful, transferable messages after about the third milkman to address us - with the best will in the world death by dairy is nothing but slow and boring. -Sorry dairy boys you're going to have to work harder than that to keep the audience awake. The variety included a paper on the effect of cropping on the moon - not the first time I have come across this phenomenon, however a lack of real farm data let this scholar down. The winner of bestest presentation went to a thoroughly deserved wind turbine enthusiast -if he can convince a whole community to get on board with a turbine then a room full of scholars must have been a walk in the park!

So back home to the wild winds and rain -not a very inspiring week, however plenty to do as a pick up was stolen two nights ago, we have a new employee start today, grain flying out the door, dad on holiday for two weeks, a whole company to change trading title, flights to book, injections to get to mention a few -all so I can depart in three weeks - really only three weeks S**t better get going!