Lyd and Dwayne enjoying the gypsy life: Seems we are left with no choice but to return to Canada

Well like a lot of other people we've had to run back to Canada because the government told us we have to otherwise we could be locked out until Sept?!?! Hey I like travelling in Vanna but that would be stretching it!!

Ok can't find any masks here to wear on the plane, so I can make 2 masks out of 1 bra - what do you think?? LOL!!!!

Driving north of BA we come across a couple of very high bridges to allow container ships to pass along on the river

River quite high with the rain of only last night and today

Next bridge also has the train track going up and over. Quite a climb for a train

And the track continues in another direction

Before we heard that from out kids we were quite prepared to just stay in Argentina out in the country away from groups of germ infested people! LOL!!! On Saturday we parked near a gas station with showers and washers (no dryers). So decided to do a few loads of laundry, by then it had stopped raining so was able to put a line up outside between the fencing and Vanna. But didn't take long before it started to rain again, so moved as much as we could inside the van and hung it up. I know CRAZY!! We did it once while we were on our European trip, so nothing new LOL!! Anyways, Sunday still cloudy and threatening rain, but have time to put the clothes outside for awhile. By the afternoon most of the clothes were dry, only 2 towels were still damp so hung them up again in Vanna. After that we decided to get out for awhile drive to the next town about 45km away and get some food to stock up.

As you can see it's pretty windy so helped dry the clothes quickly

But then the rain started and some weren't dry yet :(

First time we've spent $175 on groceries!! We did notice that the shelves were getting a little bare and this is a big store and the lineup for the checkouts went all the way across the front of the store and then down an aisle to the back of the store- similar to Costco lineups but double!! This was a first! Plus couldn't find any hand sanitizer- all sold out. Luckily we do have 3 small containers in the van. Also noticed that they had a sign up at the till stating people over 65 could come in to shop between 7-8am every morning, no others allowed. Guess we could have come in tomorrow, but who knows what would have been left.

We then head back to our spot relax and watch a movie when our kids start texting us telling us the borders were going to be closed for months!! Well oh course I'm ticked because how can the govt decide to shut down borders to Canadians until Sept!! I feel more safe staying here then having to get onto a plane and definitely catch the virus! No problem staying here until the end of May when I figured things would be back to normal. Also since the gov't has given notice for all Canadians to return, our travel insurance would be useless if needed for anything to do with the virus and not sure about other coverage.

So now we have to find a place to park Vanna because there is no way to get it shipped out before all the airports here are also closed and we still wouldn't get out. So we have to try to get across the border to Uruguay where they allow a foreign car to be parked for a maximum of one year. Gives us lots of time to get back and continue our travels. But not sure the border won't be closed by tomorrow (Monday) since we've heard talk they could close tonight at midnight. I find us a place that we can leave Vanna for the next year if need be - its 440Kms away - a full day driving. I then check into flights and the fastest way back to Canada is to fly into Vancouver. Which is good because we can stay with our daughter in Abbotsford for self quarantine. But I don't want to book it since we don't know if we can cross the border. It's now midnight so we call it a day and will drive to the border in the morning.

Monday morning, first nice sunny day since Friday. Since I know I won't have any internet once we cross the border I don't want to wait until we get to a public wifi place to try and book our flight using my credit card. So I find a flight that leaves on Wed from Montevideo at 1:15AM and gets in Vancouver 8:30PM Wed with stops in Panama and LA, so I book it. I've read the fine print and it says I may be able to get full refund if booking cancelled before 10:30PM tonight (doesn't tell me what time zone though!!) but I decide to spend another $105C for cancellation insurance since the flight comes to just over $1800 oneway for both of us. Once that is booked -which took 2 tries because all of a sudden my credit card is declined! So I have to go thru the process again with another credit card! You know how I am right now if you really know me LOL!!! Finally, got it booked, then when I get the confirmation emailed I see my middle name is not on the ticket! So I try to phone, run out of minutes on my phone, try chat online - I'm #99 in the queue - probably higher but counter doesn't go over 99 LOL!! So then send a email of our confirmation to my daughter and ask if she can contact Cheapoair and add my middle name. Not sure how that got missed since I signed into my account and it was showing at one time. Once that is done I get dressed, get the van ready to move and we head to the border - it's now 9:30

We heard that we will loose probably most of the food we bought yesterday when going thru customs. But nothing else we can do. We get to the border and it's really screwed up, construction, detour. We drive up to the first booth window, thinking this would be where we get stamped out of Argentina, but no it's where we get stamped IN to Uruguay! Next stop we thought was where we turn in our temp import permit for Vanna, no the old broad and I mean old slow broad (75 at least) is picking away at the keyboard with 2 fingers completing a temp import permit for Uruguay!! Now I start walking around with our TIP from Argentina asking where to have this cancelled. One of the Uruguay custom guys shows me where to go - I go there and another guy takes it. Doesn't seem to stamp it or file it. Hope it gets cancelled otherwise we won't be getting back into Argentina next time, since it will show our van is still in Argentina!! Geez this is driving me crazy! Then I ask where we get our passports stamped out of Argentina, oh we don't need to do that, just need stamp to get into Uruguay. Ok, that's happened before going into Chile. By the time I've done my running around Dwayne is still waiting for the new TIP - now she's having problems printing off the permit, but shortly after I get there the printer works with the help of a couple of girls that showed up. Next stop is customs, but they just stamp our little checkoff paper and tell us to go. Didn't even LOOK into the van! So no food lost, at least I can give it away when we park the van since it's also a campground, so someone can use the food.

We now have about 3.5hrs to drive to get to the campsite, which is 60km from Montevideo airport. Good thing the campground has a shuttle to the airport. About 15 mins after crossing the border we get to our first tool booth - crap!! We haven't been able to get to an ATM first to get Uruguay pesos out! But this country is civilized, as Dwayne says, because they give options to pay in Uruguay peso, Argentina peso even Brazil reales! Nice, so we pay in AP and off we go with a smile.

Another 30kms we get to an ATM and take out money, and stop at a gas station with wifi. I first text the campground to let him know we got across the border and on our way. Then get a message from our daughter that we can't stay at their house because her husband still has to go to work, so we can't self quarantine there! WHAT?? So it looks like we have to rent a car at the airport, she is going to book us a Bnb once we have actually arrived in the US, for the 14 day quarantine period. That's not cheap! Another option was given to us by our granddaughter in Kelowna, saying she would move out to a friend's place and we could use her apartment for the 14 days, but that's a long drive from Van at probably 10PM before we get out of the airport.

So it's back onto the highway. Oh yes, Uruguay is a really pretty country 😀 Nice rolling hills with lots of trees and grazing land with cattle. Plus we see cornfields and I think soybean fields. It's a bean but the field is HUGE so must be cut with machinery, which they have lots of here. Lots of farm equipment dealerships.

Finally arrive at the campground at 6pm. What a day!! Now to start cleaning, getting rid of food and get packed. At least we have most of tomorrow to do all that. There are about 8 other units parked here - all from Germany since this place is run by a German family. Not sure if they are staying here or waiting to park and fly out. They all drive those big fancy expensive units!

So guess this will be the last blog from this trip until we continue at at a later date :)